PM Barzani asks Iraq’s federal judiciary to play ‘positive’ role in preventing violations on Kurdish properties in disputed areas

Kirkuk and other disputed areas were subject to large-scale demographic change under the regime of Saddam Hussein.

Halgurd Sherwani 2021/02/01 15:26

Prime Minister Masrour Barzani (right) during a meeting with Iraq's Justice Minister Salar Adbulstar, Feb. 1, 2021. (Photo: KRG)

Kurdistan Baghdad-Erbil Demographic change Disputed Territories Kirkuk Krg

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani on Monday asked Iraq’s federal judicial authorities to play a “positive and important” role in preventing violations on the properties of Kurdish residents in the disputed areas as well as the policy of demographic changes in these areas.

Prime Minister Barzani convened with an Iraqi delegation headed by Iraq’s Justice Minister Salar Abdulstar to discuss the cooperation and coordination between judicial authorities in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and Iraq’s federal government, particularly the importance of attending the international conferences, according to a statement from Barzani’s office.

The Kurdish leader asked “Iraq’s justice ministry and other judicial authorities to play their positive and important role in preventing and limiting those violations that are carried out on the Kurdish resident’s properties in the disputed areas as well as the policy of demographic change,” according to the statement.

Since the Iraqi forces, including militias from the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), forcefully took control of Kirkuk and other disputed territories, Kurdish residents of these areas have repeatedly complained about pressure from Arab Iraqis to abandon their homes and other properties.

Kirkuk and other disputed areas were subject to large-scale demographic change under the regime of Saddam Hussein. The former regime expelled Kurdish and Turkmen citizens from their homes and agricultural lands and gave them to Arabs, who were brought in from other provinces.

Another aspect of the meeting involved discussions about the “importance of respecting human rights, compensating the relatives and families of genocidal campaigns of Anfal, chemical bombs, and the destruction of thousands of villages and areas of the Kurdistan Region by the former Iraqi regime,” the statement noted.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany