An Iraqi soldier pulls Kurdish farmers’ representative Mohammed Amin by his scarf as he sits on a tractor in Sargaran subdistrict, Kirkuk, on Feb. 17, 2025. The image is taken from footage of the incident that circulated on social media.
Kurdish farmers’ representative fined after soldier pulled him from his tractor
KIRKUK — A Kirkuk court has fined Mohammed Amin, who represents Kurdish farmers in Sargaran, two million dinars in two cases brought against him after an incident in which an Iraqi soldier pulled him off his tractor by a scarf around his neck, Amin told 964media.
The court fined him one million dinars, about $750 at the official rate, on a complaint by an Iraqi soldier — the man Amin says assaulted him — and a further million on a complaint by the Kirkuk Operations Command. “A short while ago, the Kirkuk court fined me one million dinars following a complaint by the Operations Command,” he said.
The incident took place on Feb. 17, 2025, when a force under Kirkuk Operations Command blocked Kurdish farmers from ploughing their fields in Shanagha village, in Sargaran subdistrict. Footage of the soldier pulling Amin from his tractor circulated widely and drew reactions across the Kurdistan Region and disputed territories. Amin filed a complaint, was subsequently arrested, and was released on two million dinars bail in March 2025. He has not said what became of his own complaint.
Around 8,648 acres of farmland in five Sargaran villages — Sarbashakh, Palkana, Kharaba, Gabarka and Shanagha — are in dispute, part of more than 296,526 acres contested across Kirkuk between Kurdish and Turkmen farmers and Arab settlers. Land was seized from Kurdish and Turkmen communities and redistributed under Baath-era decrees including Decision No. 949 of 1975 and rulings in 1982 and 1987, as part of Arabization policies begun in the 1960s. Parliament passed a Property Restitution Law in January 2025 intended to return property in disputed areas to families uprooted under the Baath.