Kurdish Blocs unite to support law reversing Baathist land decisions
Shafaq News/ On Thursday, Soran Omar, a parliamentarian from Al-Sulaimaniyah, announced that the five Kurdish blocs in the Iraqi Parliament have united to support a proposed law aimed at overturning the Baath Party’s land decisions related to agricultural lands in areas covered by Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution.
Omar posted on his Facebook account that the Kurdish blocs have pledged to vote in favor of the bill and stressed the importance of preventing any obstruction by Shiite and Sunni groups.
“The Kurdish blocs recently held a meeting with Hadi al-Amiri, Chairman of the Government Committee for the Implementation of Article 140, to discuss the proposed legislation.”
The Kurdish parties in the Iraqi parliaments are the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) (32 seats), the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) party (17 seats), the Gorran Movement (4 seats), and the New Generation Movement (9 seats).
Omar noted that previous Baathist land decisions have consistently hindered the restoration of rights to their original owners.
“Six meetings have been conducted with Shiite and Sunni blocs, attended by key figures including Acting Speaker Mohsen al-Mandalawi, Deputy Speaker Shakhawan Abdullah, Justice Minister Khalid Shwani, and Hadi al-Amiri. The purpose of these meetings is to secure the bill’s passage without opposition from other blocs.”
Earlier this week, a source told Shafaq News Agency that al-Amiri discussed the potential passage of the law in parliament. The discussions focused on returning properties to their original owners, particularly in the disputed governorate of Kirkuk. Details of the meeting, including any agreement on advancing the law, were not disclosed to the media.
The Baath regime’s decrees in the 1970s led to the confiscation of properties from Kurdish and Turkmen farmers, which were then redistributed to Arab settlers. This policy aimed to change the ethnic makeup of Kirkuk and suppress opposition. The forced expropriations and resettlements caused displacement and increased ethnic tensions between Arabs, Kurds, and Turkmen.
