Iraqi Deputy Speaker calls for resolving displaced Feyli Kurds’ cases

Shafaq News/ Iraqi Deputy Speaker of Parliament Shakhwan Abdullah Ahmad called on Thursday for state institutions and ministries to resolve the outstanding cases of displaced Feyli Kurds and ensure their legal rights.

In a statement issued by the parliamentary media office, Abdullah commemorated the 45th anniversary of the Feyli Kurdish Martyrs’ Day, recalling the suffering under the former Baathist regime.

“We urge the federal government and its ministries to address the grievances of the Feyli Kurds, restore their confiscated lands and properties, and implement legal measures to ensure their full rights.” The statement said.

The Baath regime launched a large-scale campaign against the Feyli Kurds in the late 1970s and early 1980s, stripping them of Iraqi citizenship and seizing their movable and immovable assets. The community had previously suffered deportations, detentions, and killings under President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr in the early 1970s, followed by intensified persecution under Saddam Hussein in 1980. Historians attribute the deportations to both sectarian and ethnic factors.

In 2010, Iraq’s Supreme Criminal Court classified the mass displacement and forced disappearances of the Feyli Kurds as acts of genocide. That same year, the Iraqi government pledged to reverse the injustices inflicted on the community, and on August 1, Parliament officially recognized their persecution as a crime of genocide.