SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Kurdish lawmakers said on Sunday that the process of Arabization has resumed in Kirkuk province, amid ongoing conflict over land in the disputed areas.
Seven lawmakers from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in the Iraqi parliament said Arabs were taken to settle in Kurdish areas in the disputed territories, claimed by both the federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
The lawmakers met with representatives from the villages of Sargaran and Palkana in Kirkuk province.
“Arabs have been taken to some areas which are not belonged to them. The real owner of those places are Kurds,” the lawmakers said in a press conference in Kirkuk.
The lawmakers rejected military intervention in Kirkuk, saying the issue should be resolved by the Iraqi ministry of agriculture and the ministry of justice.
They further said the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the federal government should also play a “main role” in resolving the issues in Kirkuk province.
“The federal government should resolve the issue of the components, especially Kurds and Arabs on lands, through a committee that includes representatives of all the related ministries,” they added.
Since the federal government retook control of Kirkuk and other disputed areas from Kurdish forces in October 2017, Arabs have been brought to settle in Kurdish areas in Kirkuk.
The former Baath regime implemented Arabization campaigns in Kirkuk province and other disputed areas in Nineveh, Saladin and Diyala.
After the fall of Baath regime in 2003 and within the framework of Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution, the lands were given back to their Kurdish and Turkmen owners when the Arabs left the areas voluntarily.
Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution was supposed to have resolved the issue of the disputed areas by 2007, but successive governments have failed to implement the steps outlined in the provision.
The Palkana village west of Kirkuk and the district of Daquq have been the flashpoint of ongoing Arabization efforts since October 2007.
