Kurds in Iraq are seizing lands that belong to Christians, says USCIRF report

Iraqi Christians, who have fled from persecution at the hands of the Islamic State terror group, have complained that ethnic Kurds are seizing their properties and lands in Kurdistan.

A new report, released by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), has revealed that many religious groups in the Kurdish Region of Iraq (KRI) have felt as if they are still "second-class citizens" even though the region is intended to serve as a "haven" for displaced minorities fleeing from ISIS.

"While the KRI remains far more welcoming and tolerant to minorities than its regional neighbors, minorities complain of systemic biases leveled against them that prevent them from realizing rights or fully participating in society," the report stated, as reported by The Christian Post.

The report, titled "Wilting in the Kurdish Sun: The Hopes and Fears of Religious Minorities in Northern Iraq," was authored by Crispin M.I. Smith and Vartan Shadarevian and published by USCIRF last month.

It stated that some minorities have been prevented from receiving aid if they do not support local Kurdish parties.

The document further noted that displaced Yazidis have been forced to identify as Kurds, while Christians have "faced land appropriations by Kurdish landowners."

"Christian citizens of the KRI have issued complaints and held protests against Kurdish residents for attacking and seizing their land and villages in the provinces of Dohuk and Erbil," the report stated.

"Some Assyrian Christians accuse Kurdish government and party officials of taking lands for personal use or financial gain. These Christians believe they are specifically targeted as part of a policy to Kurdify historically Christian areas," it continued.

According to the document, Christian leaders do not believe that such a policy exists, but they do not dispute the fact that some individual Kurds and Kurdish businesses have built on lands belonging to Christians.

In one case involving Erbil International Airport, Christian leaders claimed that the land was owned by the Chaldean Catholic Church, but it was built on by developers without permission.

There were also instances when KRG security officials barred Christians from traveling through checkpoints to prevent them from protesting the land appropriations.

In one instance, Kurdish forces barred Assyrian Christians from traveling to Erbil to protest land appropriations in April.

USCIRF has designated Iraq as a Tier 2 country, a classification in which the religious freedom situations in the country are not as serious, but still concerning. Other neighboring countries, such as Iran and Syria, have been designated as Tier 1 Countries of Particular Concern (CPC), a classification in which the abuses of freedom of religion are "systematic, ongoing, and egregious."

The report stated that Kurdistan on its own might be considered as a Tier 2 country that would require close monitoring due to the violations of religious freedom in the region. USCIRF contended that the religious freedom violations in the country are concerning since there is already a push for Kurdistan to become an independent country, and the pressure for such a state of affairs may only increase in the future.