Who's Really Arabizing Kurdistan? It's Not Baghdad

The Arabization of Iraq’s Kurdistan Region?! – Part II

Salih Zhajlayi | Exclusive to iKurd.net
Translated by iKurd.net from Kurdish Awene

In the first part of this article, I wrote some introductory remarks and asked readers to read the author’s entire article. In this part, I want to discuss some details.

Mr. Niyaz Saeed Ali, out of a sense of responsibility and concern for his homeland, wrote a long and comprehensive article on June 14, 2016 in issue 69999 of Kurdistani Nwe and on most other websites, titled “(Regarding a Request by the Sulaimani Chamber of Commerce to the Governor of Sulaimani).” They requested permission to allow Arab citizens to purchase apartments and properties and have them officially registered in their names.

His article was published under the title: “A Suspicious Proposal by the Sulaimani Chamber of Commerce to the Honorable Governor of Sulaimani.” The Governor, without careful consideration or consulting experts, specialists, or senior government officials, quickly approved the Chamber of Commerce’s suspicious proposal.

Anyone with even a basic understanding can clearly see that the Chamber of Commerce’s request to the Governor, and the Governor’s approval of it, raise serious doubts and suggest that there were hidden motives behind it.

Even more surprising is that once the Governor received the Chamber’s request, he immediately met with representatives of the Chamber of Commerce and began drafting the decision on June 3, 2016, even though that day was a Friday, an official holiday.

However, because the Chamber of Commerce’s suspicious proposal had hidden intentions behind it, there is no doubt that the Governor was already fully aware of the proposal’s details and that it served the interests of certain parties. That is why they drafted the decision on a Friday, so that no one would become aware of its issuance and expose their plan.

For that reason, they acted quickly and officially announced the decision through document No. 6448 on Monday, June 6, 2016.

They justified this dangerous decision by claiming that it would develop the tourism sector and strengthen the economy of the Kurdistan Region.

Now consider this: whenever officials want to issue a decision that serves their own interests, they act quickly and then provide weak justifications for it. According to them, this decision was supposedly made for the benefit of the people of the Kurdistan Region, and everyone would benefit from it.

But the question is this:

Will the tourism sector really become stronger by allowing Arab citizens to buy apartments and property? Or would it be strengthened by investing in tourist sites and improving roads and infrastructure?

Will the economy of the Kurdistan Region and its economic foundation become stronger by allocating land through long-term leases to investors so they can establish commercial and industrial companies, create jobs, and reduce unemployment? Or should a decision be made to Arabize the Kurdistan Region simply for the benefit of a group of greedy, homeland-selling investors?

The approval of the Chamber of Commerce’s suspicious proposal serves only one purpose: to provide land almost free of charge to greedy investors so they can make enormous profits—and nothing more.

When Arab citizens come in large numbers and buy apartments, property prices will rise beyond the reach of local citizens. Therefore, those who truly benefit are the greedy investors and the Arab buyers. As a result, the Kurds themselves will have helped carry out the plan to Arabize the Kurdistan Region.

Even more surprising is that for such an important and strategic issue, extensive research and careful investigation should have been conducted.

The proposal should have been reviewed by several research centers, all of its positive and negative consequences should have been studied, all senior government officials should have been informed, and their approval should have been obtained before allowing Arab citizens to buy and register property in their names.

Even more astonishing is that the Provincial Council was not informed of this important issue. Everything took place only between the Governor at that time and the members of the Sulaimani Chamber of Commerce.

Can anyone really believe that the members of the Chamber of Commerce were so devoted to the homeland that they lost sleep worrying about the future of the Kurdistan Region?

These are simply a group of suspicious businessmen, nothing more.

Therefore, the doubts become even greater. There were clearly hidden motives behind the scenes, and such a dangerous decision, serving the interests of Arab citizens and working against the Kurdistan Region, would never have been issued so quickly without hidden reasons.

The Governor of Sulaimani’s approval of the Chamber of Commerce’s suspicious proposal to allow Arab citizens to purchase apartments and houses has already shown its negative effects. It has become a serious threat to the demographic balance of the Kurdistan Region.

Changing the demographic balance means increasing the number of Arab citizens while reducing the proportion of Kurdish citizens compared to Arab citizens. In the end, this becomes a major threat to the future of the Kurdistan Region.

It is time for senior government officials, those who truly care about the homeland, to form an investigative committee and thoroughly investigate everyone involved in this dangerous decision, to determine how such a serious decision was secretly and hastily issued without informing any other government institutions.

If other government bodies were also aware of it, they too should be investigated, because this is an offense that should not be forgiven.

In my opinion, the investigation should begin as follows:

First: When the Governor issued the decision allowing apartments, properties, and houses to be sold to Arab citizens, were the Prime Minister and the senior party leadership informed?

If they were not informed, then why was such a decision made independently?

If, however, they had been informed and the Governor acted under their direction, then criticism and demands for accountability should be directed toward those higher authorities.

But if the Governor acted independently, without consulting his superiors, based solely on the Chamber of Commerce’s suspicious proposal, then the Governor bears primary responsibility and should face a thorough investigation.

Second: A detailed investigation should be conducted into every member of the Sulaimani Chamber of Commerce, their positions, personal backgrounds, financial status, business activities, and the sectors in which they operate.

Do any of them work in apartment construction? Or do they have close ties with those involved in building apartments and selling real estate?

Such an investigation would uncover many important hidden facts and provide answers to these questions.

Third: The following question must be answered:

Sulaimani city, Iraqi Kurdistan, 2015. Photo: Creative Commons/wikimedia

Was the Chamber of Commerce’s proposal to the Governor truly intended to promote economic development as a patriotic duty and out of concern for the people of Kurdistan?

Or was its real purpose to allow a small group of people to make huge profits, become wealthy at the public’s expense, obtain government land almost free of charge, build apartments on it, sell them for enormous sums, and receive a share of those profits behind the scenes?

Why is it that all senior government officials, the Governor, and the Chamber of Commerce members believed that the only way to develop tourism and the economy of the Kurdistan Region was to build large numbers of apartments and then make it easier to sell them to Arab citizens?

Throughout all these years, why did they not encourage anyone to establish factories, investment projects, or major companies that would produce goods, strengthen the region’s economy, and provide jobs for unemployed people?

Show me just one project built by an investor that has created real production and provided employment opportunities for unemployed citizens.

Therefore, expanding apartment construction projects and giving government land free of charge to a group of greedy, homeland-selling investors serve only one purpose: enriching a select group of people who share these benefits with the highest government officials and party leaders.

Tribal leader and KDP party head Massoud Barzani, right, stands with his son Masrour, second from right, and Sedar Barzani, also known as Sabah Mirza of Barzani and his aide, third from right, in March 2026, Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan. Photo: Barzani’s Press Office via iKurd.net.

In another article, I discussed the importance of consultation and advisors, and how essential they are in every area of life today.

Seeking advice from knowledgeable and experienced advisors is the key to the success of every leader, regardless of the field.

Unfortunately, our leaders attach no importance to consultation.

It is unclear whether they simply do not understand its value or whether they believe they have no need for advisors.

For Kurdish leaders, personal loyalty is more important than professional advice. They prefer people who stay close to them, accept everything they say without question, whether right or wrong, and simply repeat their statements to the public.

They do not want knowledgeable and sincere advisors around them who would point out their mistakes and warn them of the dangers they face.

One of the main reasons for the current difficult situation in the Kurdistan Region, and the many threats it faces, is that consultation and professional advice have been ignored.

Now let us return to our main subject: the Arabization of the Kurdistan Region.

If senior government officials and party leaders truly believed in consultation and professional advisors, they should have assigned people to read newspapers, websites, and Facebook pages every day to understand what the public was writing, what people expected from the government, what proposals they had, and what criticisms they were making.

Those advisors would then present all of this information to the officials, who, according to their responsibilities, would address the problems, correct mistakes and shortcomings, and respond to the concerns of the public.

If consultation and advisors had truly existed or been valued, how could such a flawed and dangerous decision have been issued without senior government officials even being aware of it, allowing it to move directly into implementation?

If government officials truly cared about this homeland, especially the city of Sulaimani, how could no government official have read Mr. Niyaz Saeed Ali’s important analytical article regarding the Governor’s decision to allow Arab citizens to purchase apartments and property?

In truth, I myself only recently learned about this decision by the Governor and the Sulaimani Chamber of Commerce, and I was previously unaware of Mr. Niyaz Saeed Ali’s article.

However, I have no doubt that there were people who knew about what was happening behind the scenes.

I hope that from now on, all of us will remain more alert and aware of the dangers facing the Kurdistan Region, that we will not remain silent, and that we will make these matters public so the public can be informed about these threats.

Salih Zhajlayi, one of the political figures in Sulaimani city, Iraqi Kurdistan, and formerly the Deputy Head of the General Assembly of the Gorran (Change) Movement, is currently working independently in Sulaimani.

This article was originally published in the Kurdish language in Awene Newspaper on July 23, 2026.

The opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of iKurd.net or its editors.