Kurdification

Map of Iraqi Kurdistan

  Official territory of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region

  Territory controlled by Iraqi Kurdistan

  Territory claimed by Iraqi Kurdistan

  Rest of Iraq

Kurdification is a cultural change in which something ethnically non-Kurdish becomes Kurdish, usually in the context of post-invasion Iraq, in particular in relation to Assyrian Christians, Iraqi Turkmen and Shabak people.^[1][2][3][4] The Kurdish government defends the alleged Kurdification accusations with the implementation of article 140 of the Iraqi constitution which ensured the restoration of the situation before Saddam Hussein's genocide and Arabisation policies against the Kurdish population during the Al-Anfal Campaign and the Kurdish Feyli genocide.

History

Until 2011 (end of main U.S. military presence)

Intensified tensions between Kurds and Sunni Arabs led to violent clashes between both of them since Saddam's Arabization and genocide campaigns against the Kurdish population in Iraqi Kurdistan. On 21 August 2006, Shabak Democratic Party leader Hunain Qaddo proposed the creation of a separate province within the borders of the Nineveh Plains, in order to combat the "Arabization" and "Kurdification" of Iraqi minorities. The Iraqi government voted against the proposition.^{[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]}

After 2011

The Assyrian activist from the Assyrian Patriotic Movement claimed that the entire Assyrian Triangle (between Great Zab and the River Tigris) has been occupied by Kurdish intruders.^[13][14] Some Assyrians in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq also complained that construction plans are "aimed at affecting a demographic change that divides Assyrian blocs". Also some Yazidis, Shabaks and Turkmen have reported that a policy of cultural and security control is being implemented against them, especially in areas which belonged to the Kurds before Saddam's Al-Anfal Campaign.^[15]

In 2016, David Romano, Professor of Middle East Politics, said that without the YPG and Peshmerga, the Assyrians of northern Syria and Iraq would likely all be dead, lying in some jihadist-dug mass grave.^[16]

The Assyrian International News Agency claimed that the KDP Peshmerga have annexed Assyrian, Yazidi, and Shabak villages in Northern Iraq and they are now under Kurdish control. AINA also added that in Iraqi Kurdistan, Assyrian politicians of some towns have been replaced with Kurdish ones.^[17]

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum published news in which was claimed that the Yazidis have frequently been pressured to assimilate to both Arab and Kurdish ethnicities.^[18] Sources have mentioned that Yazidis already speak Northern Kurdish which is one of the two major dialects of Kurdish language. ^[19]

Gareth Stansfield claims Kurdification or re-Kurdification (post-Saddam) has been an open policy of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq since 2003.^[20]

During the Iraqi civil war, Iraqi army troops fled their posts around the Nineveh Plains while ISIL attacked. Later, the KRG forces with the support of coalition airstrikes captured these areas from ISIL. Since then, there have been disputes between pro-government Assyrians and Kurds, as the former have asked the Kurds to either leave or promise them autonomy. Some Assyrian sources claimed that the KRG has clear plans for the annexation of the Nineveh Plains and they have "always sent their followers to international forums to interrupt international protection for Assyrians".^[13] However, later the president of KRG announced that these areas will be returned to the Iraqi government. The Iraqi president and US ambassador also confirmed this.^[21][22] On December 24, 2014, Hareetz reported that the KRG objected to the establishment of a protected Christian enclave because it wanted to annex the Nineveh Valley, most of whose residents are Christians.^[23][14]

In 2011, some Yazidi activists voiced their "concern over forced assimilation into Kurdish identity". Some have accused the Kurdish and Iraqi parties of diverting US $12 million reconstruction funds allocated for Yazidi areas in Jebel Sinjar to a Kurdish village and marginalizing them politically.^[4] According to Sweden-based economist David Ghanim, the goal of some tactics of the KRG had been to push Shabak and Yazidi communities to identify as Kurds, which has been strictly denied by KRG authorities. David Ghanim also claimed that the Kurdish authorities are working hard to impose Kurdish identity on two of the most vulnerable minorities in Iraq, the Yazidis and the Shabaks.^[24]

See also

• Cultural assimilation
• Iraqi minorities
• Kurdistan Regional Government
• Iraqi Turkmens
• Yazidis in Armenia
• Shabak people
• Social exclusion
• Assyria
• Ezidkhan
• Turkmeneli

References

• A. Bazzaz, turkmen.nl "The Kurdification procedure was soon implemented by the Kurdish leadership after toppling Saddam down in April 2003"
• Park, Bill, The Kurds and post-Saddam political arrangements in Iraq The Adelphi Papers (2005), Taylor & Francis: "The Kurds, who are intent on the further ‘Kurdification’ of Kirkuk before any census is held"
• Park, Bill, Iraqi scenarios, The Adelphi Papers, Volume 45, Number 374, May 2005, pp. 49–66
• PKK Iran - Strategic Comments, 2004 - informaworld.com "recent months Turkish intelligence has begun to report Turcoman frustration with Ankara’s failure to prevent the increasing ‘Kurdification’ of northern Iraq"