The Kurdish-populated Kirkuk province, which was renamed to (Al-Ta'mim) immediately after the nationalization process of Iraqi oil on 1 June 1972, is considered one of the most important provinces upon which the country of Iraq was established after the end of the First World War (1914- 1918), it has special importance due to its geographical location and the presence of oil, and oil production dates back to the first oil well in the year 1927 and its export to the year 1934, the presence of several nationalities has given this Kurdistan province more importance (ethnographically), which consists of a Kurdish majority and other nationalities such as Arabs, Assyrians, and Turkmens. The high percentage of Kurds has been a source of concern and a nightmare for Iraqi authorities from its establishment until now, which is why they have constantly been in a plan to change the demography of this province in favor of the Arab nation.
The policy of Arabization, which the Iraqi authorities had been weaving the fabric for since the establishment of the Iraqi state in the year 1921, took on a wider, larger, and more dangerous scope after the Ba'ath Party came to power in the sixties of the last century. Because in Article Seven (7) of the party's internal constitution (internal regulations) of the year 1947, the geographical location of the Arab nation between the Taurus Mountains and the Iraq-Turkey border to the heights of Pusht-e Kuh on the Iran-Iraq border, reaching the Atlantic Ocean and South Kurdistan (Iraqi Kurdistan) was considered part of this equation, which means the denial (inkar) of the existence of the Kurdish people as a nation possessing land, culture, history, and civilization. The Third Congress of the Ba'ath Party in the year 1979 emphasizes that those nations that have their own language and characteristics and live in the Arab country, they too are part of the Arab nation.
Accordingly, and based on this insistence of the Iraqi rulers and based on the constitution of the Iraqi state in the year 1970, Iraq is part of the Arab country and the people of Iraq are part of the Arab nation. The Arabization of Kirkuk has had different methods and its implementation according to the stages and nature of the internal and external situation of Iraq has been as follows:
1- Settling Arab tribes.
2- Reducing the percentage of the Kurdish population (thinning the Kurdish presence) campaigns of deportation and displacement.
3- Changes in the administrative organization (institutions).
4- Arabization of official and semi-official institutions.
5- Changing identity and nationality (national correction of the population).
1- Settling Arab tribes:
Hawija Water Project:
The purpose was the implementation and completion of the Hawija irrigation project (1936- 1952) and the settlement of Arabs in the Hawija area. The excavation work for this project began in the year 1936 with a length of 55 kilometers and bringing irrigation water to 139000 dunams of agricultural land from the Lesser Zab for the settlement (housing) of twenty thousand (20,000) people, from nomadic Arab tribes [1] of the region, most of whom were from the Ubaid and Tayy tribes, and preparations were made for the Lahayb and Kruya tribes to settle in the Qara Tapa plains, the Jubur tribe and part of the Tayy tribe in the Qaraji plains north of Hawija. In this regard, the Iraqi government dug water wells for them in that area and encouraged the settlement of as many of those nomads as possible in the Hawija area, which ultimately became the motive for the government to decide to make Hawija a district in the year 1962.
The continuous fighting and clashes between the Ubaid and Azza tribes in the plains south of Hawija, after the completion of the Hawija irrigation project, became a tool in the hands of the government to settle both the Ubaid and Jubur tribes and several other tribes in this area. However, because the Arab tribes had not previously valued agricultural work and their only work was nomadism and following livestock (sheep, cows, buffaloes, camels), they were forced to settle, and to teach them the methods and how to do agricultural work and use agricultural land and planting methods, the government sent several people as experts in agricultural work to the area. In this way, land was distributed among Arabs in this area, and in this manner, those Arab tribes whose original work was not farming, and to whom the government distributed agricultural land and built new villages for them, settled in this area. This was the first step in starting the process of Arabization of Kirkuk province, which had been planned and carried out by successive governments of the monarchy era in Iraq.
The Ubaid tribe, ten years after their stay in the Hawija plains according to the statistics of the 1957 Iraqi census, at that time the Ubaid tribe, which was estimated at eleven thousand (11,000) people, were settled in the south of the western part of the Hawija irrigation project to Kirkuk in an area of 1000 square kilometers of land. The Jubur tribe, 12595 people, were settled in the area between the Lesser Zab and the Greater Zab on the western side of the irrigation project and on agricultural land with an area of 900 square kilometers. 2140 people of the Albu-Jamedan tribe were settled in the area between the Lesser Zab and the main road between Hawija and Kirkuk and on land of 100 kilometers and in 14 newly built villages. Some of the members of the Tikriti and Duri tribes were also given space in that same area with 100 kilometers of land and were settled. According to the data of the 1957 census, in general, the percentage of those settlers in Hawija was 27705 people, and the government opened an administrative institution called the Hawija sub-district affiliated with the Kirkuk district. Later, during the Ba'ath regime, it was expanded and made into the Hawija district and the Riyadh sub-district was added to it. Unfortunately, most of the settlers on Kurdish land in the Hawija plains in the forties of the last century cooperated with the Iraqi army for attacks on Kurdish villages, especially in the year 1963 and later under the shadow (umbrella) of the government, they became the Khalid ibn al-Walid cavalry militia and received a semi-official status from the government and participated in the fighting against the Kurdistan Peshmerga Forces [2].
Establishment of the Iraqi state (1921):The first phase of the Arabization of Kirkuk began in the year 1921 after the declaration of the new country named Iraq, to which the southern part of Kurdistan had been annexed, and it continued very intensively and harshly until the end of the last century (2000) and was implemented according to plan.
The second phase of the Arabization of Kirkuk occurred after the distribution of new agricultural land to imported Arabs, following the second irrigation project in Kirkuk in the year 1972, which is known as the Kirkuk Irrigation Project or Saddam Irrigation. It transports water from the Dukan Dam to the south and southwest of the city of Kirkuk from the Dibis dam barrier, eight kilometers long. This led to the attraction and settlement of a larger number of Arabs in that area and the creation of more villages, complexes, and residential areas for them, who are known as imported Arabs.
By expropriating villages and agricultural land:
Before the establishment of the Republic of Iraq in the Kirkuk governorate, the seizure (expropriation - istimlak) of villages and land did not exist. However, the Iraqi authorities, especially in the second half of the last century, under the pretext of protecting oil facilities and building military bases for security and strategic reasons, this phenomenon emerged. Specifically, the decisions of the Ba'ath Revolutionary Command Council, the orders of the Presidency of the Republic of Iraq, or the Northern Committee, and for the creation of a security belt for the city of Kirkuk and the districts of Dibis, Shwan, Qara Hasan, Taza Khurmatu, and Dibis. In this campaign, thirteen villages were evacuated: Sunagoli, Yarawki, Panja Ali, Wali Pasha, Qizlqaya, Great and Small Chimani, Jawal Bur, Hanjira, Qutan, Qutan Qushqaya, Shuraw, and Bajwan.
The security belt area was divided as follows:
- Lands related to oil facilities, according to the document of the Revolutionary Command Council on 19 of April 1979, and the seizure (al-istila') and cancellation of the user's right.
- Lands related to military facilities in the year 1988, and according to the document of the Presidency of the Republic No. 1999 on 27 of May 1988, it was decided to hand them over only to Arabs [3].
The area of land seized for military reasons was expanding; dozens of trenches and military bases were built on the heights and hills of the area, and most of them were seized with barbed wire and mines under the name of a military protected area. Kurds and Turkmens were also deprived of buying and registering houses and land, and they did not even have the right to repair and renovate their own properties so that they would be forced to sell them to imported Arabs. This was with the support and encouragement of the Ba'ath regime and the Iraqi government, through facilitating the transport of the imported people and employing them in government offices and the city's oil facilities, the same process that the Kurdish leadership (Aylul Revolution) called Arabization of Kirkuk and demanded to stop [4].
In the seventies of the last century, the Arabization campaign in the center of Kirkuk city expanded and several new neighborhoods were built, including Zubat, Ba'ath, Al-Wusta, Al-Ishtirakiya, Garnata, Hajjaj, Uruba, Shurta, Dur Al-Amin, Qatiba, Al-Wahda, and Al-Hurriya. Each of the imported Arabs was given 10, 000 dinars, and the privileges of employees and Ba'ath Party ranks. A special committee for bringing and settling people from the provinces of Iraq was created to settle Arabs in the Kirkuk governorate on the condition of transferring their civil identity records to Kirkuk [5].
2- Reducing the percentage of the Kurdish population (tarqiq al-wujud al-kurdi) Displacement and deportation campaigns: (hamalat al-tarhil wa al-tahjir)This campaign was intended to expel the original Kurdish citizens of Kirkuk from their areas to other places without their consent and desire, and to settle imported Arabs in their places. In the seventies and eighties of the last century, especially after the failure of the March 11, 1970 agreement between the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Ba'ath government in the year 1974, hundreds of Kurdish villages and residential complexes were subjected to military attack campaigns by the Iraqi army. After destroying and burning the villages, their inhabitants who remained alive were displaced to areas outside the Kirkuk governorate. The campaign to erase the Kurdish presence in that city reached its peak during the eight-year Iran-Iraq war (22 of September 1980 - 8 of August 1988):
- Displacing all those (families) who had returned to the cities of central and southern Iraq after the Algiers Agreement (6 of March 1975) between Iran and Iraq, except for the Kirkuk governorate.
- Building residential complexes for those whose villages had been destroyed, in places other than the Kirkuk governorate.
- Canceling all contracts and title deeds for agricultural land, seizing them, and handing them over to imported Arabs without the consent or compensation of the Kurds.
In the year 1998, the government issued a decision to arrest one person from every Kurdish family that had been expelled to the north (Duhok-Erbil-Sulaymaniyah), and to seize the houses of the expelled, their food ration cards (UN resolution 586 - Oil-for-Food), and their official documents.
3- Changes in the administrative organization (institutions):In continuing the Arabization process, one of the stages was the change in the government administrative organization. Many decisions and recommendations were issued by Iraqi officials in this regard and put into implementation, including purging all institutions affiliated with the Ministry of Oil, Railways, electricity projects, and the Sulphur company (Sulfur- (Sulfur of Kurdish and Turkmen officials, employees, and workers in favor of Arabs. In continuing this path and method, and according to the instructions of the Presidency of the Republic and the document of the Secretary of the Ba'ath Party No. 8107 on 5 of July 1999, a circular document was issued by the Iraqi Ministry of Interior to the Governor of Kirkuk (Al-Ta'mim) with No. 9407 on 17 of July 1999, which states that no one other than Arabs of other nationalities should be hired as employees in state (government) institutions, and those who are currently Kurdish and Turkmen should be transferred to another place or their employee rank should be reduced, especially in the oil and gas sector. In the field of education, it is stated that no educational certificate should be issued under any circumstances until they bring a party (Ba'ath) clearance or change their nationality to Arab. Regarding trade, Kurds in Kirkuk must not engage in commercial work or participate in the state's project bidding and auction (muzaida) processes.
Arabization did not stop here; it also extended to education and schools by transferring most Kurdish and Turkmen teachers and educational administrators outside the city center and replacing them with Arab teachers. Speaking and studying in the mother tongue were restricted, and the Arabic language was established. The names of all places, commercial and retail locations, schools, mosques, parks, and every other place were changed to Arabic. Although within the framework of the March 11 agreement of 1970 and according to the documents 288 and 204 of the Revolutionary Command Council of the Ba'ath Party, the Kurdish language and education were officially permitted, but after the collapse of the March 11 agreement in the year 1974 by the central government and the resumption of war and the implementation of the scorched-earth policy over Kurdistan, by document 309 on March 26 of 1974, they revoked their previous decision to restrict the Kurdish language and placed some educational centers under Baghdad.[6].
4- Arabization of official and semi-official institutions:The city of Kirkuk, during the Ottoman era and until the year 1879, was the center of the Liwa (province) of Shahrizor. After the establishment of the Mosul Vilayet, it was attached to Mosul as the third district (Sanjak) (Kirkuk, Sulaymaniyah, Mosul) until the establishment of the state (country) of Iraq in the year 1921. In the year 1925, Kirkuk was made a Liwa (province) and consisted of the districts of Kirkuk (center, Perde, Qarahasan, Shwan, Al-Mulha, Daquq) and the district of Salahiya or Kifri (center, Qaratapa, Shirwana, Bibaz, Tuz), the district of Chamchamal (center, Aghjalar), and the district of Kifri (center, Sangaw).
During the monarchy in Kirkuk, only changes were made to the administrative structure. Instead of Kifri, Tuz Khurmatu was made a district with the composition of Daquq and Qadir Karam. The most significant changes occurred in the second half of the twentieth century, especially after the completion of the Hawija irrigation project and its designation as a district for the purpose of settling imported Arabs in the year 1962, and the merging of the sub-districts of Riyadh and Abbas and the addition of the Zab sub-district, which was affiliated with the Mosul province, to the new district in the year 1984.
This change occurred to the administrative structure of Kirkuk:
- Separating the districts of Kalar and Chamchamal and attaching them to the Sulaymaniyah province, and the Kifri district to the Diyala province by order number 608 on November 6 of 1975.
- Attaching the Tuz Khurmatu district to the Salah ad-Din province by Republican Order 41 on January 29 of 1976. According to Republican Order 41 of January 29 of 1976, only the central district and Hawija remained as districts and administrative centers.
- Establishing the Dibis district, consisting of the center and the Perde district, by Republican Order number 72 on February 15 of 1976.
- Dissolving the Dibis district and attaching the Perde (Altun Kupri) sub-district in Kirkuk and attaching it to the Erbil province according to Republican Order 434 of the year 1989; some of its areas were attached to the Dibis sub-district, and several areas of Dibis were placed under the Hawija district for administrative purposes.
- Separating the Daquq sub-district from the Tuz Khurmatu district, which was affiliated with the Salah ad-Din province, and attaching it to the central Kirkuk district by Republican Order 256 on May 18 of 1976.
- Establishing the Daquq district by Republican Order 434 in the year 1989.
With this change and all the orders and decisions that only aimed at the Arabization of Kirkuk, the area of the Kirkuk province was reduced from 20335 square kilometers in the year 1957 to 9639 square kilometers, and from 22 administrative centers to 11 centers in the year 1993.
5- Law on Changing Identity and Nationality (Law of Nationality Correction):
Every remedy to reduce the percentage of Kurds in Kirkuk and increase the percentage of Arabs and the Arabic language and culture that came to the minds of officials was tested. One of these urgent remedies for the Arabization of Kirkuk was the Law on Changing Identity and Nationality. According to this law, Kurds and Turkmens were required to change their nationality to Arab; otherwise, they would face pressure and strict economic, administrative, and security measures. In document number 199 of September 6 of 2001 of the Revolutionary Command Council, contrary to the law of the Ottoman era, it was decided that every Iraqi citizen has the right to change their nationality to Arab. In its content, Arab is clearly defined: any individual in the Arab country who speaks Arabic and considers themselves of Arab nationality is an Arab. An Arab individual is not allowed to change their nationality to another nationality, and in this case, they would face one year of imprisonment. Most of those who were not prepared to change their nationality to Arab were subjected to various types of pressure by the central government, including the arrest and expulsion of themselves and their families from Kirkuk, simply because they were not prepared to make their nationality Arab. Allegations of affiliation with Kurdish political parties were leveled against them, and they were expelled from Kirkuk. This campaign continued intensely and severely until the end of the Ba'ath regime in the second Gulf War and its fall on April 9 of 2003.[7].
Arabization in the new Iraq (2003- 2025):
Support for global (international) terrorism and the concealment of weapons of mass destruction became the cause of the US and its allies' military attack on Iraq, the fall of Baghdad on April 9 of 2003, the end of the Ba'ath regime, the establishment of a democratic federal system of government in the new Iraq, the adoption of a new temporary constitution, and the voting of the peoples of Iraq in the referendum of December 15 of 2005 and its approval as the permanent constitution of the country. Article 58 of the temporary constitution and 140 of the permanent one, specific to the Arabized Kurdish areas (Arabization), were supposed to be implemented through the cooperation of the United Nations Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura (Staffan de Mistura) and the committees tasked with this mission between the central government and the Kurdistan Regional Government, this issue was to be resolved by the end of the year 2007, but it was not only left unresolved, but in the successive cabinets of the Iraq government in the Governing Council (19 of March 2003 - 28 of June 2004), the interim government from 28 of June 2004 - 3 of May 2005 led by Ayad Allawi, Nouri Kamil al-Maliki (20 of May 2006 - 22 of December 2010) and (22 of December 2010 - 8 of September 2014), Ibrahim al-Jaafari, Haider al-Abadi (10 of October 2016 - 11 of August 2018), not only Article 140 of the Iraq Constitution, which itself consists of three levels of reversing the Arabization decisions of previous Iraq regimes from their establishment until their fall in the year 2003, returning all disputed areas of Kirkuk to the province, a population census, and finally holding a referendum in which the residents could freely say whether they want to be affiliated with the center or the Kurdistan Region, the pillars of Iraq, in order to evade and not implement it, found various and strange excuses, and continued to further Arabize Kirkuk and other areas of Kurdistan, especially after the Kurdistan independence referendum on 25 of September 2017 and the betrayal of 16 of October 2017 by a part of the leaders and officers of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. By surrendering and withdrawing without confronting the attacking forces of Iraq, this caused the armed and security forces, with the support of direct participation and cooperation of the countries of the region, to attack Kurdistan, including Kirkuk province and the occupied areas of Kurdistan (disputed) which previously, on 9 of June 2014 for fear of the attack of ISIS militants, had emptied themselves and withdrawn their armed forces to the depth of Iraq's territory, due to the existence of a security vacuum, danger, and to protect the people of these areas and repel any enemy attack, the decision was made for the Peshmerga Forces to be stationed in those areas. This action was also after the end of the ISIS myth at the hands of the Kurdistan Peshmerga Forces, the agreement of the Union with the Popular Mobilization Forces (Hashd al-Shaabi) and the advisors of the Revolutionary Guard and their participation in the war against the Kurdistan Region with all their armed forces, weapons, and ammunition, they were able to occupy Kirkuk, and for the reorganization and re-establishment of the Peshmerga Forces' defense front, they were forced to retreat from all war fronts and a defensive line longer than 1000 kilometers remained only for the Peshmerga Forces of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, the enemy's attacks and assaults began on the morning of 20 of October with the cooperation of the Union's Counter-Terrorism forces and their guidance under the slogan 'Coming to Erbil' and the participation of nearly sixty thousand Iraqi armed men. It did not take long, and at 11 in the morning they were defeated and broken, and were forced to retreat after losing and the killing of hundreds of militants and under the fire of Peshmerga weapons. These strong attacks continued until the end of the month and on other war fronts as well, the peak of this bloody clash was on 26 of October 2017 and with the attack of the Hashd al-Shaabi forces, the army, Rapid Response, Golden Division, and Federal Police on the positions of the Kurdistan Peshmerga Forces in the Sahila area of Mosul province, where more than 1000 militants, officers, and commanders were on the list of killed and wounded, including the killing of Abu Turab in Zummar and the wounding of Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and the flight of Qasem Soleimani, the commander-in-chief of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, from the battle fronts. After their failure in the war, as always, they returned to the old path of their ancestors by cleansing and Arabizing the areas they had obtained through betrayal. In the center of Mosul, the Kurd presence ceased to exist, in the plains of Sinjar, Zummar, and Rabia, more Arabs were settled, they resorted to creating old forms of collaboration and 'Jash' (mercenary) status among the Christian, Yazidi, and Shabak residents and funding some Kurdish forces affiliated with the PKK.
Regarding Kirkuk, they encouraged the displaced people of the ISIS war to transfer their food rations and identity to the city of Kirkuk and they were settled in Kirkuk, according to the latest statistics 11 new neighborhoods have been built for imported Arabs after the re-occupation of Kirkuk on 16 of October 2017 until the end of the year 2024, those who were compensated within the framework of Article 140 of the Iraq Constitution and had vacated Kirkuk, have been returned, with the cooperation, support, and direct intervention of the Iraq army, security and military centers have seized the agricultural lands of the Kurds again, contrary to the constitution, the Kurdistan flag must not be raised and the Kurdish language is no longer in higher education centers.[8].
Sources:
1- Khalil Ismail Muhammad, Indicators of the Policy of Arabization and Displacement in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Salahaddin Press, Erbil - 2001.
2- Masoud Barzani, Barzani and the Kurdish Liberation Movement (1958 - 1961).
3- Nouri Talabani, The Kirkuk Region and Attempts to Change its National Reality, London, 1995.
4- Khalil Ismail Muhammad, The National Dimension of Administrative Changes in Kirkuk Province, Erbil, 1997.
5- Archive of the Kurdistan Democratic Party Encyclopedia Board.
1- Khalil Ismail Muhammad, Indicators of the Policy of Arabization and Displacement in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Salahaddin Press, Erbil - 2001, p. 112
2- Nouri Talabani, The Kirkuk Region and Attempts to Change its National Reality, London, 1995, pp. 40 - 42.
[3] - Khalil Ismail Muhammad, Indicators of the Policy of Arabization and Displacement in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Salahaddin Press, Erbil - 2001, p. 113.
4 - Masoud Barzani, Barzani and the Kurdish Liberation Movement (1958 - 1961), p. 121.
5- Nouri Talabani, The Kirkuk Region and Attempts to Change its National Reality, London, 1995, p. 65.
6- Khalil Ismail Muhammad, Indicators of the Policy of Arabization and Displacement in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Salahaddin Press, Erbil - 2001, pp. 112 - 126.
7 - Khalil Ismail Muhammad, The National Dimension of Administrative Changes in Kirkuk Province, Erbil, 1997, p. 11.
8- Archive of the Kurdistan Democratic Party Encyclopedia Board.