Kurdish farmers in Kirkuk risk losing another season as restitution law stalls

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdish farmers southeast of the disputed Kirkuk province say they are once again being prevented from cultivating their lands during the grain-planting season, claiming that Baath-era settlers are plowing their fields in what they describe as an act of occupation.

“An Arab settler’s tractor is plowing my ancestors’ deeded land right in front of me,” said Mohammed Amin, a Kurdish farmer from Tirkashkan village in Kirkuk’s Laylan sub-district. He added that settlers "have been warned multiple times by the sub-district administration and local officials in Laylan not to encroach on Kurdish and Turkmen lands, as a parliamentary decision prohibits it," but the warnings have been ignored.

In January, Iraq’s parliament passed a land restitution law to return property confiscated from Kurds and Turkmen during the Baath era. The legislation covers approximately 300,000 dunams - around 750 square kilometers, based on Iraq’s definition of a dunam as 2,500 square meters - in Kirkuk and other disputed areas. This followed a July 2023 federal government decision to revoke Baath-era decrees.

The bill has reportedly been sent to the Iraqi Council of State for endorsement; after approval, it will be directed to the Council of Ministers for final ratification.

Abdullah Mirwais, head of the Kirkuk Provincial Council’s agriculture committee, told Rudaw that implementing the bill “requires full coordination among Baghdad authorities, including the [Iraqi] president.” He added that “efforts must be intensified” so that “the bill can be signed by the Council of Ministers and implemented on the ground,” warning that further delays could cause significant damage.

As the implementation of the restitution law stalls, Kurdish farmers in disputed areas are also raising concerns over violations by the Kirkuk agriculture directorate.

“The Kirkuk agriculture directorate is still renewing contracts for Arab settlers,” said Sheikh Najat Talabani, a representative of farmers in Daquq district, warning that disputes between Kurdish farmers and Arab settlers “might lead to clashes.” The directorate told farmers that legal instructions for implementing the bill have not yet been issued, and therefore it cannot be enforced, Talabani added.

Meanwhile, Sami Ghafur, a representative of farmers in Topzawa, a village in the central administrative district of Kirkuk province, said that legal action is, in fact, being taken against rightful landowners.

“The Supreme Judicial Council needs to be told [informed] to halt court procedures against Kurdish and Turkmen farmers until the parliamentary bill's instructions are released,” he urged.

In late September, Rudaw learned that the Daquq court had reviewed two cases against Kurdish farmers. One involved a settler accusing a Kurdish farmer of preventing him from working the land, while the other was filed by the Kirkuk Operations Command against a Kurdish farmer who in February had an altercation with an Iraqi army officer who forcibly blocked him from cultivating his land.

Land disputes between Arab settlers and Kurdish farmers in Kirkuk date back to Saddam Hussein’s Baath regime. In 1975, several Kurdish villages were declared prohibited oil zones, and residents were stripped of their land rights.

By 1977, Baath Supreme Revolutionary Court Decree No. 949 redistributed those lands to Arab settlers. After the regime’s fall in 2003, Iraq adopted Article 140 of the constitution to reverse such demographic manipulations.

However, as the full implementation of the Iraqi constitution and laws aimed at reversing Baath-era policies stalls, farmers remain caught between a rock and a hard place, losing one cultivation season after another.

Hardi Mohammed contributed to this article from Kirkuk.