PUK calls the new Iraqi government to end the "Arabization" in the disputed areas

Shafaq News/ A member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) demanded the next federal government stop "Arabization" in the disputed areas between Erbil and Baghdad.

"We called our representatives in Baghdad and the new federal government to end the Arabization in Kirkuk, Khanaqin, and all the other disputed areas," Qadir Hama Jan said, considering these acts "violate the human rights principles and the constitution."

In the 2005 Iraqi Constitution, Article 140 was specially written to address the issue of lands that are disputed between the KRG in Erbil and the federal government in Baghdad. The areas are in Diyala, Kirkuk, Nineveh, and Saladin governorates.

The Ba'athist (Saddam Hussein's regime) Arabization campaigns in northern Iraq involved ethnic cleansing of minorities -primarily Kurds, Turkmen, Yazidis, Assyrians, and Shabaks, in line with colonialist settler policies to shift the demographics of northern Iraq towards Arab domination.

In 1978 and 1979, 600 Kurdish villages were burned down, and around 200,000 Kurds were forced to move to other parts of Iraq.