Fahmi Burhan, the head of the Kurdistan Region’s board for disputed territories, told Rudaw’s Nwenar Fatih that according to unofficial data they have collected, over 92,000 Ara Iraqis have been relocated to Kirkuk since October 16, 2017, adding that their relocation poses a serious threat to the disputed city’s demography.
“The Arabs that are relocated to Kirkuk are transferring their national identification card and information card to Kirkuk and permanently settling there, and this is dangerous for Kurds,” he said.
Burhan underscored the danger of the ongoing process in Kirkuk and called on the Kurdish leadership to develop measures to prevent what he described as a “new Arabization” process.
Kirkuk is part of the disputed areas that come under Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution, The article should have been implemented by 2007 alongside a referendum where Kirkuk residents could express their will to either join the Kurdistan Region or remain under the rule of the Iraqi federal government.
The Arabization movement was part of Hussein’s Baathist regime campaign against the Kurds, and consisted of Arab families being resettled to disputed areas in hopes of establishing an Arab demographic majority, pushing Kurdish families out in the process. Kurdish language and culture were effectively banned as part of the Arabization policy.
Burhan noted that the ongoing Arabization movement in Kirkuk and other disputed areas is a continuation of the Baathist campaign, noting that “However, this new campaign is much more dangerous than all the previous stages of Arabization, since previously Arabization was openly discussed in the media of the Baath regime, but now it is decided and implemented in secret and in closed rooms.”
The Kurdish official also stated that alongside Kurds, Turkmen are also victims of the new Arabization process of the city, especially when it comes to the appointments of new civil servants.
“In the past two weeks, 60 people were appointed to the Kirkuk education directorate, but only one of them was a Kurd and another a Turkmen, the other 58 were Arabs,” Burhan said, adding that the same trend has been recorded in the appointment of police officers.
The territories disputed between Iraq’s central government in Baghdad and the KRG in Erbil include areas in Nineveh province, as well as the provinces of Kirkuk, Salahaddin, and Diyala.
The disputed territories were once home to ethnically diverse populations, but under Baathist rule Iraq’s ethnic minority groups, including Kurds, were expelled, their land confiscated and given to Arab settlers.
Following the fall of dictator Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime in 2003, Kirkuk had a Kurdish governor, but when federal government forces returned to the province in October 2017 following Kirkuk’s participation in Kurdistan Region’s independence referendum, Baghdad appointed Rakan al-Jabouri, a Sunni politician and head of the Arab Coalition, as acting governor. He has occupied the post for six years.
Jabouri’s tenure has been a topic of debate. He is accused by some of attempting to revive the Baathist policy of Arabization to marginalize the Kurdish population, but others praise him for breathing life back into previously neglected Arab neighborhoods.
Dizhwar Fayaq, an advisor to Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani told Rudaw’s Zhyar Hakim on Thursday that after seven years of Jabouri’s rule, Kurds want to reclaim the governorship of the province, an attempt to prevent the city’s demographic transformation.
“Kurds insist on getting the governorship of Kirkuk so that the demography of the area does not change in the future and the Kurds do not become a minority,” Fayaq said, stressing that a Kurdish governor would prevent a demographic change.
Provincial council elections were held on December 18 in Iraq’s 15 provinces, excluding the Kurdistan Region. Kurdish political parties in Kirkuk won seven seats in the 16-seat council, Arabs won six seats and Turkmens secured two seats. A party close to Shiite militia groups won the Christian quota seat.
Nearly four months after the vote, the political parties in the city have yet to agree on appointing a governor, as each component desires the top provincial position.