Iraqi army raids Kurdish village in Kirkuk

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A Kurdistan 24 reporter in Kirkuk revealed that a force from the 11th Division of the Iraqi Army raided the majority Kurdish village of Topzawa in Kirkuk.

Residents of the village told Kurdistan 24 that the army has deployed Humvees.

According to the villagers, the Iraqi forces arrived to occupy their land based upon a recent decree from the Iraqi Ministry of Defense.

Since Oct. 16, the Iraqi army has repeatedly urged Kurdish residents to leave the village.

Several villages in the area, including Topzawa, were confiscated by the former Iraqi regime in 1975 and distributed to resettled Arabs by the Ministries of Finance, Municipalities and Defense.

Previously, the Iraqi Ministry of Municipalities and the Iraqi Defense Ministry attempted to rebuild an old Saddam-era military base in the area and construct housing units for Iraqi security forces personnel on 4,500 acres of farmland in Topzawa village. 

The Kurdish parties have voiced concerns over the “demographic changes” that had taken place in the province following the events of Oct 16, 2017, in which Kurdish forces were ousted by Iranian-backed Shiite militias and the Iraqi army.

Since then, a significant number of Arab families have moved into the province, threatening the Kurdish-majority demography of the area, a number of parties have previously warned.

As a multi-ethnic province, Kirkuk has long been a subject of dispute between the Iraqi government and the Kurdish leadership.

According to the Iraqi constitution's Article 140, the status of the province is to be decided by its residents by conducting a census, followed by a referendum, and de-Arabization of the area.