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Ba'athist Arabization campaigns in northern Iraq

Between 1968 and 2003, the ruling Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party of the Iraqi Republic perpetrated multiple campaigns of demographic engineering against the country's non-Arabs. While Arabs constitute the majority of Iraq's population as a whole, they are not the majority in parts of northern Iraq, and a minority in Iraqi Kurdistan. In an attempt to Arabize the north, the Iraqi government pursued a policy of ethnic cleansing, killing and forcefully displacing a large number of Iraqi minorities—predominantly Kurds, but also Turkmen, Yazidis, Assyrians, Shabaks and Armenians, among others—and subsequently allotting the cleared land to Arab settlers.[3][4][5][6][7] In 1978 and 1979 alone, 600 Kurdish villages were burned down and around 200,000 Kurds were deported to other parts of Iraq.[2]

Ba'athist Arabization campaigns in northern Iraq
Part of Ba'athism and the Iraqi–Kurdish conflict
Map of the present-day autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq and other territory comprising Iraqi Kurdistan
LocationBa'athist Iraq
Date1968–2003
TargetMainly Kurds, but also Turkmen, Yazidis, Assyrians, Shabaks, Armenians.
Attack type
Demographic engineering via ethnic cleansing
Deaths2,500[1] to 12,500[1][2]
Victims2,000,000+ (incl. refugees)[2]
Perpetrator Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party
MotiveArab nationalism and pan-Arabism

As a part of the Iraqi–Kurdish conflict, the campaigns represent a major chapter of the historical ethno-cultural friction between Arabs and Kurds in the Middle East. Rooted in the doctrines of Ba'athism, the Iraqi government policy that served as the basis of these campaigns has been referred to as an example of internal colonialism—more specifically described by Ghanaian-Canadian scholar Francis Kofi Abiew as a "colonial 'Arabization' program" consisting of large-scale Kurdish deportations and forced Arab settlement within the country.[8][9]

Background

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Main articles: Ba'athist Iraq and History of Iraq

The Yazidis, the Shabaks and the Assyrians are minorities in Iraq and historically were concentrated in northern Iraq, and they are still sizeable populations there in the early 21st century, in line with more prominent ethnic groups of Kurds, Turkmen and Arabs.

Under the Iraqi Hashemite monarchy as well as the subsequent Republican regime, Yazidis were discriminated against: measures applied included the loss of land, military repression and efforts to force them into the central state's struggle against the Kurdish National Movement.[10]

Policies

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Depopulation of non-Arab territory for Arab settlement

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See also: Arabization of Kirkuk and Destruction of Kurdish villages during the Iraqi Arabization campaign

From early 1979, under Saddam Hussein, both Kurds and Yazidis were confronted with village destruction, depopulation and deportation.[11] Kurdish displacement in the North in the mid-1970s mostly took place in Sheikhan and Sinjar regions but also covered an area stretching from the town of Khanaqin.[12] The repressive measures carried out by the government against the Kurds after the 1975 Algiers Agreement led to renewed clashes between the Iraqi Army and Kurdish guerrillas in 1977. In 1978 and 1979, 600 Kurdish villages were burned down, and around 200,000 Kurds were deported to the other parts of the country.[2]

Arabization concentrated on moving Arabs to the vicinity of oil fields in northern Iraq, particularly the ones around Kirkuk.[13] The Ba'athist government was also responsible for driving out at least 70,000 Kurds from the Mosul’s western half, thus making western Mosul into all Sunni Arab. In Sinjar, in late 1974, the former Committee for Northern Affairs ordered the confiscation of property, the destruction of the mostly Yezidi villages and the forced settlement into 11 new towns with Arab placenames that were constructed 30–40 km north or south of Sinjar, or other parts of Iraq.[11] There were 37 Yezidi villages destroyed in the process[11] and five neighbourhoods in Sinjar Arabized in 1975.[11] The same year, 413 Muslim Kurd and Yezidi farmers were dispossessed of their lands by the government or had their agricultural contracts cancelled and replaced by Arab settlers.[11] In Sheikhan in 1975, 147 out of a total of 182 villages suffered forced displacement, and 64 villages were handed over to Arab settlers in the years following.[11] Seven new towns were built in Sheikhan to house the displaced Yezidi and Kurdish residents of Arabized villages.

As part of the Al-Anfal Campaign, during the Iran–Iraq War, Saddam's regime destroyed 3,000 to 4,000 villages and drove hundreds of thousands of Kurds to become refugees or be resettled across Iraq,[12] as well as Assyrians[14][15] and Turkmen. Some 100,000 people were killed or died during the al-Anfal campaign, which is often equated to ethnic cleansing and genocide. The forced campaign of Arabization also attempted to transform the multi-ethnic city of Kirkuk, with a Turkmen plurality,[16] into an Arab majority city.

In the 1990s, the distribution of land to Arab settlers was resumed and continued until the fall of the Ba'ath regime, in 2003.[11][17]

Cultural and political Arabization

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In the Iraqi censuses in 1977 and 1987, Yezidis were forced to register as Arabs.[11][better source needed] Some Muslim Kurds were also forced to register as Arabs in 1977.[11]

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The legal basis for Arabization was the Revolutionary Command Council's Decree (RCCD) No. 795 from 1975 and the RCCD No. 358 from 1978.[11] The former authorized the confiscation of property from members of the Kurdish National Movement, and the latter allowed invalidation of property deeds belonging to displaced Muslim Kurds and Yezidis, the nationalization of their land under the control of the Iraqi Ministry of Finance and the resettlement of the region by Arab families.[11]

After the 2003 invasion of Iraq

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Further information: Kurdish refugees

Kurdish resettlement and Kurdification

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After Saddam's fall, many Kurdish families settled in Kirkuk. These policies of Kurdification by the KDP and PUK after 2003 aimed to reverse the previous trends of Arabization. This has prompted inter-ethnic problems with non-Kurds, especially Assyrians and Turkmen.[18]

Kirkuk status referendum (2007)

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The Kirkuk status referendum is the Kirkuk Governorate part of a plebiscite that will decide whether the multi-ethnic regions within Iraqi governorates of Diyala, Kirkuk, Saladin and Nineveh will become part of the Iraqi Kurdistan region. The referendum was initially planned for 15 November 2007,[19] but was delayed first to 31 December,[20] and then by a further six months.[21][22] The Kurdish Alliance emphasized that the delay was for technical and not for political reasons. As the election was not called by early December 2008, it was postponed again as part of the deal to facilitate the regional elections on 31 January 2009. No fresh date has yet been set.

Article 140 of the Constitution of Iraq states that before the referendum is carried out, measures should be taken to reverse the Arabization policy employed by the Saddam Hussein administration during the Al-Anfal Campaign. Thousands of Kurds returned to Kirkuk following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The referendum will decide whether enough have returned for the area to be considered Kurdish.[23]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Routine calculations do not count as original research, provided there is consensus among editors that the result of the calculation is obvious, correct, and a meaningful reflection of the sources. Basic arithmetic, such as adding numbers, converting units, or calculating a person's age are some examples of routine calculations. See also Category:Conversion templates.
    https://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.TAB14.1C.GIF row 1313 and 1314
    1,000,000 and 10,000 to 2,000,000 and 100,000 Kurds were displaced and killed respectively between 1963 and 1987; 250,000 of them in 1977 and 1978. If deaths are proportional to the displacement then 2,500 to 12,500 Kurds would have died during this period depending on the scale of overall displacement and deaths used.
  2. ^ a b c d Farouk-Sluglett, M.; Sluglett, P.; Stork, J. (July–September 1984). "Not Quite Armageddon: Impact of the War on Iraq". MERIP Reports: 24.
  3. ^ Kelly, Michael J. (30 October 2008). "1. Kurdistan". Ghosts of Halabja: Saddam Hussein and the Kurdish Genocide: Saddam Hussein and the Kurdish Genocide. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-0-313-08378-5.
  4. ^ "Introduction : GENOCIDE IN IRAQ: The Anfal Campaign Against the Kurds (Human Rights Watch Report, 1993)". www.hrw.org. Retrieved 11 February 2024.
  5. ^ "Claims in Conflict: Reversing Ethnic Cleansing in Northern Iraq: III. Background". www.hrw.org. Retrieved 11 February 2024.
  6. ^ Malazada, Ibrahim Sadiq. "Genocide as a state-building model in Iraq". cfri-irak.com. Retrieved 11 February 2024.
  7. ^ "Iraq: In Kurdistan, Land Disputes Fuel Unrest | Human Rights Watch". 2 August 2004. Retrieved 11 February 2024.
  8. ^ Francis Kofi Abiew (1991). The Evolution of the Doctrine and Practice of Humanitarian Intervention. p. 146.
  9. ^ Rimki Basu (2012). International Politics: Concepts, Theories and Issues. p. 103.
  10. ^ ICG, "Iraq’s New Battlefront: The Struggle over Ninewa". Middle East Report No. 90, 28 September 2009, p. 31.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Eva Savelsberg, Siamend Hajo, Irene Dulz. "Effectively Urbanized - Yezidis in the Collective Towns of Sheikhan and Sinjar". Etudes rurales 2010/2 (n°186). ISBN 9782713222955
  12. ^ a b UNAMI, "Disputed Internal Boundaries: Sheikhan district", Volume 1, 2009, pp. 2–3.
  13. ^ Harris (1977), p. 121.
  14. ^ "Assyrian Oppression - 14/09/1993 - ADJ - NSW Parliament". Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  15. ^ "House of Commons - International Development - Appendices to the Minutes of Evidence".
  16. ^ "Kirkuk".
  17. ^ Recknagel, Charles (9 April 2008). "Iraq: 'Arabization' Of Kurdish Areas Poses Challenge For Any Post-Saddam Order". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Retrieved 11 February 2024.
  18. ^ Stansfield, Gareth (2007). Iraq: People, History, Politics. p. 71
  19. ^ Iraqi Council of Ministers Presented to the Parliament by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki Archived 2013-10-01 at the Wayback Machine www.export.gov/Iraq
  20. ^ Iran pleases Ankara, irks Kurds with call for Kirkuk poll delay, The New Anatolian, 2007-11-08, accessed on 2008-03-01
  21. ^ Members-Only Content | Stratfor
  22. ^ "Kirkuk, Other Iraq Issues to Be Delayed". Archived from the original on 16 September 2017. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  23. ^ Iraq: Kurds warn against delaying Kirkuk Referendum RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty
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