Iraqi Kurdish security forces ‘seize Arab-owned empty houses’ in Irbil

Almost empty souvenirs shops next to the citadel in central Irbil, Iraq. Homes owned by Iraqi Arabs, Turkmen and Kurds have been seized by the local Kurdish security service in the city. (AP)

BAGHDAD: Hundreds of houses owned by Iraqi Arabs, Turkmen and Kurds have been seized by the local Kurdish security service in Irbil, the capital of the Kurdish region in northern Iraq, residents and local officials have told Arab News.
Hundreds of members of Assayish, which is in charge of the internal security of the Kurdish areas and was displaced from Kirkuk after Iraqi federal security forces recaptured the city last month, broke into the houses and seized them. Federal security sources confirmed the claims of the residents.
Photographs circulated by local Iraqi media showed the houses with Assayish, followed by a name and a mobile number, written on the walls.
“Five days ago, armed Assayish members came at night, broke the locks and took over our houses,” a Kurdish resident in Irbil, talking on condition of anonymity, told Arab News.
“They took my house, my brother and several of our friends’ houses, bought during the past years to spend the holidays in Irbil from time to time,” the resident said. “People are scared and they cannot talk as they would be arrested if they complain,” he said.
Many other Arab owners reached by Arab News said that their houses had been taken too.
“I put all I have earned into this house. This house represents all that I owned and now it’s gone,” an Arab owner whose home was taken by Assayish told Arab News. He also refused to reveal his name for fear of retaliation by Kurdish authorities in the region.
Tensions between Kurds and Arabs are at a peak since Iraqi Kurdish authorities held a controversial referendum on independence in September. Baghdad has responded by driving Kurdish troops from the oil hub city of Kirkuk, its lucrative oil fields and most of the disputed areas controlled by the Kurdish regional government for the past 14 years.
Most of the seized houses were empty and located in newly established investment complexes such as Ashti Du, Kalar City and Dashti Bhasht, which are mainly owned by Arabs, Turkmen and Kurds who have been spending the summer months and the holidays away from the explosions in Baghdad and the security-destabilized provinces.
Local Kurdish officials said that the houses were “temporarily” used to host Kurdish families displaced from Kirkuk in the past few weeks and that no Arab families were forced to leave Irbil.
“Some of the families were placed in the Eshte Du complex by an agreement between the owner of Ashti and Irbil to house these displaced families,” said a statement released by Assayish on Monday.
“The names are written on the (wall of these) houses (to show that they) are owned by the company and have not been sold to anyone,” the statement read. “No home owned by displaced Arabs has been subjected to any problem.”