Article 140 Committee settles the controversy and annuls Saddam’s “Arabization” decisions
Article 140 Committee settles the controversy and annuls Saddam’s “Arabization” decisions
2023-06-19 03:28
Shafaq News/ The Committee for the Implementation of Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution issued an official decision to cancel the demographic change decisions taken by the former regime in Kirkuk Governorate and the disputed areas.
The public relations official of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in Kirkuk, Zangi Izz al-Din Mahmoud, told Shafaq News agency, “An official document signed by the head of the Article 140 Implementation Committee, Hadi al-Amiri, confirmed the implementation of Resolution 29 of 2012, which calls for the cancellation of all contracts and procedures carried out by the so-called (North Affairs Committee) in the dissolved Revolutionary Command Council, which owned the lands of the Kurds and Turkmen to the Arabs within the policies of Arabization and demographic change.
Mahmoud stressed that “the decision of the Council of Ministers for the year 2012 is valid in Kirkuk and the disputed areas,” noting that “Article 140 will witness a great development in the implementation of its paragraphs based on the recommendations of the Prime Minister and its formation again to guarantee the rights of the components and promote peaceful coexistence.”
He pointed out that “more than 100 billion dinars have been allocated to compensate those covered by Article 140 and the implementation of its provisions during the coming periods.”
The former Iraqi regime practiced policies of demographic Arabization and stripping the Kurdish component of its lands and appropriating them for racist reasons that began in the seventies of the last century until the fall of the previous regime.
The Kurds in Diyala complain of demographic Arabization campaigns and security and administrative marginalization, which intensified and expanded after the events of October 16, 2017, during the Kurdistan independence referendum, which prompted Kurdish political parties and forces to leave their headquarters for fear of being targeted and liquidated.
Article 140 provides for the abolition of the policies of demographic change pursued by Saddam Hussein’s regime in the disputed areas in favor of the Arabs at the expense of the Kurds, and then a census of the population before the final step, which is to hold a referendum to determine the population according to it, whether they wish to join the Kurdistan Region or remain under Baghdad administration.
It was scheduled to complete the stages of implementing the article until the end of 2007, but security and political problems prevented that.
In 2019, the Federal Supreme Court ruled that Article 140 of the Constitution of the Republic of Iraq remains in force, stressing that this will continue until its requirements are implemented and the goal of its legislation is achieved.
shafaq.com
