The policy of Arabization, ethnic cleansing, and the deportation of Kurdish and Turkmen families was implemented by the previous regime since its assumption of power. This policy was practiced to sow discord and division among the various sects and components of the Iraqi people for multiple reasons, with race or nationality being at the forefront, in addition to political, sectarian, or religious reasons. The forced relocation and deportation of families from various provinces to the southern, central, and Anbar provinces occurred by notifying these families of their deportation. Squads consisting of members of the dissolved Ba’ath Party in their areas, along with officials from police centers and security departments, transferred the furniture and belongings of the families subject to deportation to the provinces to which the deportation order was issued.
Their governorates were the entities authorized for this after confiscating their official documents. Their names and records were transferred from the civil status records in the provinces of Kirkuk and Diyala to the provinces where they were expelled. These actions were carried out based on the directives of the high-ranking leaders of the defunct Saddam Hussein regime. This was done to carry out a demographic change in the cities of Kirkuk and Diyala and other places inhabited by Kurdish and Turkmen families subjected to this policy. Numerous decisions were issued to tighten the noose around them and make their living impossible in their areas of residence, including:
1. Prohibiting the property registration departments from registering any property in Kirkuk province in the name of Kurds or Turkmens without the approval of the Kirkuk governorate.
2. Banning them from renting state properties or participating in public auctions.
3. Preventing them from membership in chambers of commerce and from constructing buildings.
4. Not hiring them for important or unimportant jobs and referring those already in retirement jobs or transferred out of the province. This was in line with decision 1390 issued on 20/10/1984, which mandates transferring employees and workers residing in Kirkuk from Kurds and Turkmens to the southern regions.
5. They were not allowed to lease agricultural lands through contracts, and previously signed contracts were annulled.
6. Decisions were made to ethnic cleansing, and pressure was exerted by all means for its implementation.
7. The financial aid sent to the poor and needy was cut off and subject to the same racist standards and restrictions.
These actions committed by the regime constitute international crimes, as the global community condemned them in several treaties and international agreements. They are inconsistent with fundamental citizenship rights, especially since all laws guarantee the freedom to reside and live anywhere or in any region without ethnic or national discrimination. A document on the state in which successive Iraqi governments insisted on this policy was based on Iraqi government censuses over various years.
These actions committed by the regime constitute international crimes, as the global community condemned them in several treaties and international agreements. They are inconsistent with fundamental citizenship rights, especially since all laws guarantee the freedom to reside and live anywhere or in any region without ethnic or national discrimination. A document on the state in which successive Iraqi governments insisted on this policy was based on Iraqi government censuses over various years.