Arabization of Kirkuk
{{Short description|Part of the Iraqi–Kurdish conflict}}
{{Infobox civilian attack
| location = Kirkuk, Iraq
| date = 1960s–present
| title = Arabization of Kirkuk
| partof = the Iraqi–Kurdish conflict, the Ba'athist Arabization campaigns in northern Iraq, and the Persecution of Iraqi Turkmen in Ba'athist Iraq
| image = Kirkuk Demographics.jpg
| caption = Statistics of the Kirkuk Governorate in the years 1957, 1977, and 1997: Arabs have become the ethnic majority by a landslide, while Kurds and Turkmen have seen their population dwindle due to the Iraqi government's demographic engineering.
| native_name = بەعەرەبکردنی کەرکووک
| native_name_lang = ku
| target = Kurds, Turkmen, Assyrians, etc.
| perpetrator = {{flagicon|Kingdom of Iraq}} Kingdom of Iraq (1921–1950s)
{{flagicon image|Flag of Iraq (1963–1991).svg}} Ba'athist Iraq (1960s–2003)
{{flag|Iraq}} (2006–present){{cite news |title=پرۆسەی بەعەرەبکردنی جۆراوجۆر بۆ سەر کەرکوک بەردەوامە |url=https://www.kurdistan24.net/ckb/story/262837-%D8%AD%DB%95%D8%B3%DB%95%D9%86-%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%85:-%D9%BE%D8%B1%DB%86%D8%B3%DB%95%DB%8C-%D8%A8%DB%95%D8%B9%DB%95%D8%B1%DB%95%D8%A8%DA%A9%D8%B1%D8%AF%D9%86%DB%8C-%D8%AC%DB%86%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%88%D8%AC%DB%86%D8%B1-%D8%A8%DB%86-%D8%B3%DB%95%D8%B1-%DA%A9%DB%95%D8%B1%DA%A9%D9%88%DA%A9-%D8%A8%DB%95%D8%B1%D8%AF%DB%95%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%85%DB%95 |access-date=26 September 2024 |agency=K24 |date=30 July 2024 |language=ku |quote=Hundreds of thousands of Arab teachers from central Iraq are being transferred to Kirkuk with their property and families, another form of the Arabization process, but under a legal guise.}}{{cite news |title=رئيس هيئة المناطق الكوردستانية: إجراء التعداد في كركوك خطر حالياً |url=https://www.rudawarabia.net/arabic/kurdistan/24072024 |access-date=26 September 2024 |agency=Rudaw |date=24 July 2024 |language=ar |quote=Now the Arabs are openly and en masse moving towards Kirkuk and there are reports that the Arabs are building villages outside Kirkuk, thus completely distorting the demographics of the province}}
}}
{{Campaignbox Kurdish–Iraqi conflict}}
The Arabization of Kirkuk ({{Langx|ku|عەرەباندنی کەرکووک}} also بەعەرەبکردنی کەرکووک or تەعریبی کەرکووک, {{Langx|tr|Kerkük'ün Araplaşması}}) began in Ba'athist Iraq in the 1960s. In line with the wider Ba'athist Arabization campaigns in northern Iraq, the Iraqi government worked to alter the demographic composition of the Kirkuk Governorate by ethnically cleansing non-Arabs—mainly Kurds, but also Turkmen and Assyrians, among others—and replacing them with Arab settlers. This campaign peaked under the rule of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, who sought to ensure Arab control over northern Iraq (i.e., Iraqi Kurdistan), especially during the Iran–Iraq War.
Although the Ba'ath Party was toppled by the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the issue of Arabization in non-Arab regions has persisted and caused tensions between the Iraqi government in Baghdad and the Kurdistan Region, as attested by the cancelled Kirkuk status referendum and the 2017 Kurdistan Region independence referendum, which triggered the 2017 Iraqi–Kurdish conflict.
Overview
{{See also|Ba'athist Arabization campaigns in northern Iraq}}
The Arabization of Kirkuk began in earnest during the late 1960s under Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist regime.{{Cite web |title=The Kurdistan Memory Programme |url=https://kurdistanmemoryprogramme.com/ |access-date=2024-09-26 |website=kurdistanmemoryprogramme.com}} The policy was motivated by Kirkuk's rich oil reserves and its strategic location, which made control over the region crucial to the central government. The Ba'ath Party sought to ensure Arab domination of Kirkuk by forcibly displacing Kurds and other ethnic minorities and replacing them with Arabs from southern Iraq.{{cite web |title=Historical Background and Ongoing Issues in Kirkuk |url=https://dckurd.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Kirkuk-and-Its-Arabization-Historical-Background-and-Ongoing-Issues-in-the-Disputed-Territories.pdf |publisher=DC Kurd}}
Alongside Arabization, and before the Arabization began, Kirkuk went through the process of Turkification,{{Cite journal |last=Salih |first=Kaziwa |date=2022 |title=Demographic Engineering, the Forcible Deportation of the Kurds in Iraq, and the Question of Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide |journal=State Crime Journal |volume=11 |issue=2 |pages=188–208 |doi=10.13169/statecrime.11.2.0188 |jstor=48706339 |issn=2046-6056|doi-access=free }} and after the declaration of monarchy in Iraq in 1921, the essence of Arabization and Turkification policies were pursued in the new country by the British authorities to balance the country's ethnic groups.{{Cite journal |last=Oğuzlu |first=Tarik H. |date=2004 |title=Endangered community: the Turkoman identity in Iraq |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1360200042000296681 |journal=Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs |language=en |volume=24 |issue=2 |pages=309–325 |doi=10.1080/1360200042000296681 |issn=1360-2004|hdl=11693/49129 |hdl-access=free }} During the late Ottoman era, Turkification policies were implemented as part of efforts to centralize and unify the empire. These measures aimed to promote Turkish as the dominant language and culture, influencing multi-ethnic cities like Kirkuk. The administrative policies prioritized Turkish identity, which reinforced the presence of the Turkmens in the region. These efforts marginalized the Kurdish and Arab populations, creating linguistic and cultural tensions that shaped Kirkuk's demographic and political landscape into the modern era.{{Cite journal |last=Liebisch-Gümüş |first=Carolin |date=2020 |title=Embedded Turkification: Nation Building and Violence within the Framework of the League of Nations 1919–1937 |journal=International Journal of Middle East Studies |language=en |volume=52 |issue=2 |pages=229–244 |doi=10.1017/S0020743819000904 |issn=0020-7438|doi-access=free }}{{Cite book |last1=Anderson |first1=Liam |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zSy2Njz0jWYC&q=info:72BbslIbj6EJ:scholar.google.com/ |title=Crisis in Kirkuk: The Ethnopolitics of Conflict and Compromise |last2=Stansfield |first2=Gareth |date=2009 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=978-0-8122-4176-1 |language=en}} Kirkuk has also witnessed Kurdification, particularly after the invasion of Iraq.{{cite web|url=https://minorityrights.org/app/uploads/2024/01/download-710-download-full-report.pdf|title=Uncertain Refuge, Dangerous Return: Iraq's Uprooted Minorities|publisher=Minority Rights Group International}}
Implementation
The Arabization policy involved forced evictions, land confiscation, and changing the administrative boundaries of the Kirkuk region to reduce the proportion of Kurds and other non-Arab populations. During this period, Kurdish and Turkmen residents were forced to sign "nationality correction" forms, requiring them to identify as Arabs or face expulsion.{{cite web |title=The New Arabization of Kirkuk |date=11 December 2018 |url=https://dckurd.org/2018/12/11/the-new-arabization-of-kirkuk/ |publisher=DC Kurd}}
Many Kurdish families were displaced to remote areas or neighboring provinces, while Arab families from central and southern Iraq were encouraged to settle in Kirkuk, often receiving government incentives such as housing and employment.{{cite web |title=Kurds Fear Arabization in Iraq's Kirkuk |url=https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/1074221/kurds-fear-%E2%80%98arabization%E2%80%99-iraq%E2%80%99s-kirkuk |publisher=Asharq Al-Awsat}} Additionally, the government changed the names of neighborhoods and towns to reflect Arab heritage, erasing many elements of Kurdish and Turkmen identity.{{cite web |title=Challenge in Iraq's Other Cities: Kirkuk |url=https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/challenge-iraqs-other-cities-kirkuk |publisher=CFR}}
The Ba'athist government allegedly settled Palestinians in homes of Kurds and Turkmen, and it attracted more attention when Jalal Talabani spoke on it, and called for Kurds and Turkmen to put their differences aside to reclaim their homes.Middle East Contemporary Survey: Vol. XXIV 2000, 2003, pp. 266, Bruce Maddy-Weitzman, Syracuse University Press
= Post-2003 =
Following the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003, there were efforts by displaced Kurds and Turkmen to reclaim their homes and lands. In 2014, following the successful ISIS offensive against Iraqi governmental forces and the withdrawal of the latter from parts of northern Iraq, including Kirkuk, the city was seized by Kurdish Peshmerga. In 2016, Amnesty International published a report documenting the Kurdification of Kirkuk carried out by the Peshmerga. The report highlighted incidents of bulldozing Arab homes and banishing the residents throughout the period of Kurdish control of the city.{{cite web|url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/01/video-banished-and-dispossessed-in-northern-iraq/|title=Banished and dispossessed in northern Iraq|date=20 January 2016 |publisher=Amnesty International}}{{cite web|url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/11/iraq-kurdish-authorities-bulldoze-homes-and-banish-hundreds-of-arabs-from-kirkuk/|title=Iraq: Kurdish authorities bulldoze homes and banish hundreds of Arabs from Kirkuk|date=7 November 2016 |publisher=Ammesty International}} Senior Crisis Response Advisor Donatella Rovera stated, “KRG forces appear to be spearheading a concerted campaign to forcibly displace Arab communities by destroying entire villages in areas they have recaptured from IS in northern Iraq”.{{cite web|url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/01/northern-iraq-satellite-images-back-up-evidence-of-deliberate-mass-destruction-in-peshmerga-controlled-arab-villages/|title=Northern Iraq: Satellite images back up evidence of deliberate mass destruction in Peshmerga-controlled Arab villages|date=20 January 2016 |publisher=Amnesty International}} In 2017, Kurdistan Region sought to secede from Iraq by holding a referendum of independence which was rejected by the government of Iraq. This triggered the 2017 Iraqi-Kurdish conflict wherein Iraqi forces attacked the Peshmerga, defeating them, retaking control of Kirkuk and causing large numbers of Kurds to flee,{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-41641563.amp|title= Iraqi forces enter Kirkuk as Kurds flee|date= 16 October 2017|publisher=BBC}} leading to yet another saga of demographic change. Immediately after the conflict, Iraqi Kurds were markedly concerned about the resumption of Arabization in Kirkuk.{{cite web |title=Renewed Arabization of Kirkuk Post-2017 |date=16 October 2017 |url=https://www.cnn.com/2017/10/15/middleeast/kirkuk-iraq-kurds-military/index.html |publisher=CNN}}{{cite web |title=Kurds Criticize New Arabization Efforts in Kirkuk |date=13 December 2020 |url=https://esta.krd/en/22785/ |publisher=Esta Media Network}}
By 2024, local leaders continued to report ongoing efforts by the Iraqi central government to implement policies resembling the earlier Arabization strategies, causing heightened tensions between the different ethnic groups in the region.{{cite web |title=Arabization Policies Reignite Tensions in Kirkuk |url=https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/12042024 |publisher=Rudaw}} Describing the Arabization as reaching a “critical level”, Kurdistan24 reported that since Iraqi forces retook control, more than 100,000 Arab families have been resettled from other cities to the center and surrounding areas of Kirkuk.{{Cite web |last= |date= 13 June 2024|title=Arabization in Kirkuk reaches critical level amid demographic shifts |url=https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/story/395377/Arabization-in-Kirkuk-reaches-critical-level-amid-demographic-shifts |access-date=2025-03-09 |website=Kurdistan24 |language=en}}
Human rights violations
Human Rights Watch has documented numerous abuses associated with the Arabization campaign, including forced displacement, destruction of homes, and the denial of basic rights to displaced Kurds, Turkmen, and Assyrians. These policies have contributed to long-standing grievances among these communities, who continue to demand restitution and compensation for their lost lands.{{cite web |title=Iraq: Claims in Conflict |url=https://www.hrw.org/reports/2004/iraq0804/4.htm |publisher=Human Rights Watch}}