Kurdish farmers say Iraqi military blocked them from plowing disputed land in Kirkuk

KIRKUK — Kurdish farmers in the Sargaran subdistrict of Kirkuk Governorate were prevented by Iraqi military forces from cultivating their land on Monday, local farmers told 964media. A large force under the command of Kirkuk Operations reportedly arrived at the farmland and blocked the farmers’ attempt to plow their fields.

“We wanted to start plowing our land and break the blockade imposed on us, but as always, the Iraqi army extended its restrictions,” said Mohammed Amin, a farmers’ representative in Sargaran. He added that the Iraqi army continues to bar access to Kurdish farmers, citing an absence of new directives to permit cultivation.

The confrontation comes just weeks after Iraqi lawmakers, in a single vote on Jan. 21, approved several pieces of legislation—including the Personal Status Law, the Property Restitution Law, and the General Amnesty Law—following months of political deadlock among Shia, Sunni, and Kurdish factions. Backed by Kurdish lawmakers, the Property Restitution Law aims to return homes in disputed areas—particularly in Kirkuk—to Kurdish and Turkmen families uprooted under the Baath regime, whose properties were reassigned to Arab settlers.

In Sargaran alone, roughly 8,648 acres of farmland belonging to Kurdish farmers in five villages—Sarbashakh, Palkana, Kharaba, Gabarka, and Shanagha—are in dispute. Across Kirkuk, more than 296,526 acres of farmland are contested between Kurdish and Turkmen farmers on one side and Arab settlers on the other. Under multiple Baath-era decrees, including Decision No. 949 of 1975 and subsequent rulings in 1982 and 1987, large swaths of land were seized from Kurdish and Turkmen communities and redistributed to Arab settlers.

Arabization policies, initiated by the Iraqi government in the 1960s, aimed to displace Kurds in Kirkuk and its surrounding areas, replacing them with Arab settlers from central and southern Iraq.