Kurdish farmers foil renewed effort to confiscate farmland in Kirkuk

Описание: Dozens of Kurdish farmers in southern Kirkuk blocked a group of resettled Arabs escorted by the Iraqi army from attempting to confiscate land belonging to Kurds in southern Kirkuk on Wednesday.

Mohammed Amin, a representative of the Sargaran farmers, told Rudaw that the group had a document from the Kirkuk agriculture directorate, authorising them to access a 100-dunam piece of land in the village of Gabara, but locals in the region prevented them from approaching. “In a very civil way, we are here to prevent this and any other similar efforts,” he said.

Ihsan Abdulqadir, a farmer from the village of Gabaraka, Sargaran told Rudaw that a team from the Kirkuk agriculture directorate were escorted by the Iraqi army “to occupy my ancestors' land.”

Along with a group of local farmers, Abdulqadir blocked their entry to the road, telling Rudaw that “they can only occupy it [his land] if they run over my body.”

Another farmer from the village of Palkana, Ahmed Palkana, explained how “they [the resettled Arabs] brought four humvees [of the Iraqi army] with them, claiming to be executing the law.”

“What they are doing is unlawful. If they were convinced that it was legal, they would not have retreated,” Palkana continued.

There are 38 villages in Sargaran town. Twelve of these villages are subject to land disputes, according to the local council.

Badradin Shamsuddin, a former local official in Sargaran, told Rudaw on Wednesday that “we have local police, but they brought an army with them that threatened to attack and run over us.”

Since Kurds lost control of the Kirkuk province and other disputed areas in October 2017, several similar attempts to occupy land have failed.

Land belonging to the 12 disputed villages was originally taken away from Kurdish farmers by the Iraqi government in 1975 on grounds that they were prohibited oil zones. Two years later, in 1977, under Decree No. 949 issued from the Baath Supreme Revolutionary Council, they were given to Arabs resettled in the region.

This video was filmed on November 3, 2021.

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