Kurdistan rejects Baghdad payout rumors over Algiers Agreement

Shafaq News – Erbil

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) on Wednesday denied reports claiming that federal authorities plan to compensate families displaced after the Algiers Agreement.

Signed between Iraq and Iran in March 1975, the agreement settled border disputes along the Shatt al-Arab waterway. In return, Iran’s last monarch, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, withdrew support for the Kurdish armed movement, leading to its collapse and forcing thousands of Kurdish families to flee to neighboring countries to escape Baathist reprisals. These displaced families remain at the center of Kurdish demands for federal recognition and compensation nearly five decades later.

In a statement, the Kurdish Interior Ministry dismissed as “entirely baseless” the circulating claims that Iraq’s Ministry of Migration and Displacement plans to compensate people who fled to Iran, Turkiye, or Syria under the Baath regime’s policies—particularly after the deal—and later returned to the Kurdistan Region following the 1991 uprising.

Although the KRG has urged the federal government to fulfill its constitutional obligations toward these families, the ministry noted that “no formal response has been received so far.” It warned citizens against “electoral propaganda promoted for personal or partisan gain,” emphasizing that any official decisions will be announced through government channels.