PM Barzani Approves Land Allocation to Kirkuk’s Kurdish Teachers

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – In a landmark decision that has been hailed as a profound affirmation of Kirkuk's Kurdistani identity and a significant gesture of support for Kirkuk’s Kurdish residents, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Masrour Barzani has officially approved the provision of land to over 5,800 Kurdish teachers and educational staff in Kirkuk and other Kurdistani areas outside the KRG's administration.

The move, which will grant land within the Kurdistan Region to these educators, has been celebrated as a historic recognition of their status as employees of Kurdistan and a fulfillment of a promise to a community that has often been left behind.

Kamaran Ali, the Director of Kurdish Education in Kirkuk, announced the Prime Minister's decision, framing it as a pivotal moment for the educators he represents.

"Since 2003, Kurdish teachers and educational staff in Kirkuk and the Kurdistani areas outside the administration of the Kurdistan Region have been deprived of every good decision," Ali told Kurdistan24, highlighting years of marginalization.

"This decision by the Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government proved that Kirkuk's identity is Kurdistani, and the Kurdish teachers and staff of those areas are employees of Kurdistan itself. Therefore, he decided that we, too, should benefit from the provision of land by the Kurdistan Regional Government," Kamaran Ali said.

The process to make this a reality has been months in the making.

Ali revealed that specialized committees have been working diligently on this issue for the past four months, meticulously compiling the necessary data. The culmination of this work is the identification of approximately 5,841 individuals who are now set to benefit from the Prime Minister's directive.

The process is now in its final stages, with the Presidency of the Council of Ministers officially notifying the directorate that the Prime Minister's order will be implemented.

In a further positive development, Ali confirmed that the beneficiaries have been informed that "the location for their land has been designated in a good area of Kurdistan."

This specific initiative for Kirkuk's educators is a significant extension of a much broader land distribution program launched by Prime Minister Barzani's ninth cabinet, a major initiative aimed at addressing the economic challenges and housing needs of KRG employees and pensioners across the region.

The program, which marks the first major land distribution effort since 2006, has been a cornerstone of the current government's policy.

In March 2024, Sasan Awni, the KRG Minister of Municipalities and Tourism, described the Prime Minister's decision as a "vital opportunity for individuals to alleviate their economic burdens," particularly for employees who had not benefited from such programs in over 18 years.

The implementation of this large-scale program has been a meticulous and multi-phased process.

In May 2024, Minister Awni directed all municipalities to furnish comprehensive reports detailing workforce composition and demarcating available land on maps to expedite the allocation process.

By July, municipalities in Erbil province had commenced land surveys, with officials estimating that 45,000 employees in that province alone were eligible to receive a 200-square-meter plot of land.

A crucial and politically significant expansion of this program came in late July 2024, when Prime Minister Barzani specifically mandated the distribution of land to KRG employees and pensioners who are from the territories covered by Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution.

This directive was a clear and deliberate move to ensure that the government's support extended to those living and working in the Kurdistani territories, a policy that aims to promote stability and reinforce the KRG's connection to these historically Kurdistani areas.

The latest decision to include Kirkuk's teachers and educational staff is the most recent and one of the most powerful applications of this policy.

For the 5,841 Kurdish educators in Kirkuk and the surrounding areas, this decision is more than just an economic benefit; it is a powerful symbol of recognition and belonging.

It serves as a tangible acknowledgment from the highest levels of the KRG that their work, their service, and their identity are an integral part of the Kurdistan Region, regardless of the complex and often challenging administrative and political realities on the ground.

The allocation of land within the secure and established borders of the Kurdistan Region provides them with a stake in the region's future and a measure of security that has long been denied to them.

As the final arrangements are made and the land is formally distributed, this decision is set to stand as a landmark achievement in the KRG's commitment to all its citizens, particularly those who have long stood on the front lines of preserving Kurdistani identity in the nation's most contested city.

Additionally, the land allocation to Kirkuk's Kurdish educators comes against the backdrop of a tumultuous and fictitious reality for the Kurds in Kirkuk. This reality is marked by a systematic and renewed Arabization campaign that targets their presence on ancestral lands and undermines their cultural and linguistic rights.

In the nearby Khurmatu district, Kurdish farmers are actively resisting attempts by Arab settlers, who are backed by state security forces, to seize their agricultural lands. These settlers have been using defunct contracts from the Ba'ath era to justify their claims.

A tense standoff recently occurred in Tapa Sawz village, where settlers supported by the Iraqi army tried to take over 1,800 donums of farmland. The farmers' collective refusal thwarted this attempt, but the conflict has now moved to the courts, with arrest warrants issued for Kurdish landowners.

This is not an isolated event but part of a broader, troubling pattern of pressure against Kurdish landowners in Kirkuk and other territories outside the Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) administration.

This struggle is rooted in the Ba'athist regime's historic Arabization policies, which forcibly displaced hundreds of thousands of Kurds and resettled Arab tribes in their place.

Although Article 140 of the 2005 Iraqi Constitution was designed to reverse these demographic changes, its implementation has been consistently stalled. This has left land ownership in a continuous state of dispute.

Parallel to the land disputes, Kurdish cultural and linguistic identity is also under pressure.

In a move widely condemned as unconstitutional, Iraq’s Ministry of Higher Education in Baghdad initially decided to revoke a decade-old policy permitting Kurdish students at universities in Kirkuk, Mosul, and Diyala to answer examination questions in their native language.

Following intense public outcry and criticism, the ministry reversed its decision and reinstated the policy. Nevertheless, the episode has cast a lasting shadow over the Iraqi government’s intentions toward the Kurdistan Region and its linguistic and cultural rights.

The constitution recognizes Kurdish as an official language of Iraq, and the now-reversed 2010 policy was a practical measure for students who completed their primary and secondary education in Kurdish-language schools.

The ministry's directive, which threatens legal action against non-compliant universities, is viewed as an attempt to create significant barriers for Kurdish students and marginalize their cultural identity in these contested territories.