Christians in Kurdistan Complain about Land Seizure

What prompted residents of the villages of the Nahla area to protest is a set of new encroachments made by Kurdish citizens on their land. Earlier this year, several houses were built on these lands in the Nahla area.

The director of the Ninevah Studies Center, Michael Benjamin, told Al-Monitor that the KRG is seemingly aware of the problem, as it has put forward several initiatives between 2001 and 2010 to resolve the crisis, “but nothing has changed.”

Benjamin is an activist interested in the issues of minorities and indigenous peoples, and he relentlessly examines and follows up on the issue of Christian lands in the Kurdistan Region. Benjamin said the seized Christian lands in the various regions, towns and villages of the provinces of Dahuk and Erbil are estimated to measure “thousands of acres.”

He said, “In the Dahuk governorate alone, there is a list of 56 villages where the area of seized land is estimated at 47,000 acres. This list only includes villages whose residents have filed complaints with the relevant courts.”

He added, “There are villages whose residents were forced to abandon them from the early 1930s onward due to instability, persecution and infringement upon their rights.” These lands include “agricultural fields, pastures, springs and real estate properties.”

Yonadam Kanna, the chairman of the Rafidain Christian parliamentary bloc in the federal parliament, told Al-Monitor, “The seizure of Christian lands is part of the process of demographic change.”