Persecution of Feyli Kurds in Ba'athist Iraq

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Feyli Kurds were often labelled as Iranian, with issues tracing as early as the Iraqi monarchy in the 1920s when they were first refused Iraqi nationality, as the government viewed them as mostly immigrants from Iran.^[3] The 1924 Iraqi Nationality Law only considered descendants of Ottoman subjects as "original" Iraqis with automatic nationality, and relegated the Feyli Kurds to the category of foreign descendants, specifically Iranian, and had to apply for citizenship and were treated as second-class citizens despite many having been in Iraq for hundreds of years. These distinctions later enabled harsher persecution after the Ba'athists came to power in 1963.^[4] Under the first republican regime after 1958, some Feyli Kurds were naturalized, but the rest were refused Iraqi nationality.^[3] Abdulkarim Qasim had given Iraqi citizenship to thousands of Feyli Kurds. By the time the Ba'athists were in power, most Feyli Kurds were Iraqi citizens or permanent residents.^[5]

The Ba'athist government targeted the Feyli Kurds due to their membership of a collective group. After 1963, when Abdulkarim Qasim was overthrown, the Ba'athist government immediately began targeting the Feyli Kurds, under the pretext that they had Iranian origin, with Iran being traditionally seen as an enemy in Iraq. The government created narratives of Feyli Kurds being aggressors from outside and immediately began creating laws which affected the Feyli Kurds. Moreover, the Feyli Kurds had actively resisted the Ba'athists during the 1963 coup, creating more animosity towards them.^[6][4]

In 1963, the Ba'athist government added Article 19 of the Citizenship law, stating "the Minister may withdraw the Iraqi citizenship from a foreigner who has acquired it or if he attempted to do anything is considered as a threat to state security or its safety." According to the article, the Feyli Kurds fell under the category of those who acquired Iraqi citizenship.^[7]

The Feyli Kurds were Kurds, Shias, and the principal traders of Iraq, and the Ba'athist government had feared the potential of the Feyli Kurds if the government was weakened.^[8] They were mainly targeted for being Kurds, with their alleged Iranian background only having been the excuse.^[9] After the second Baathist coup in 1968, the security campaigns against the Feyli Kurds intensified, and they were targeted everywhere. In 1970, they further intensified and began needing legal justifications. One of the justifications was the Iraqi Temporary Nationality Act No. (21) of 1968, in which Article 20 stated that "an Iraqi nationality is determined by the law and shall not be dropped from Iraq who belongs to the Iraqi families and was living in Iraq before 6 August 1924 and have been enjoying the Ottoman nationality and chose the Iraqi pastoral", and that "it is possible to withdraw the citizenship from naturalized citizens in cases specified by the nationality act." This justified the withdrawal of Iraqi nationality for those who had non-Ottoman nationality before 1924, considering the Feyli Kurds as foreigners or Iranian dependents.^[7][10]

The Ba'athist government, dominated by the Sunni Arab minority, promoted a Arab nationalism that had initially been inclusive of Shia Arabs as they were also Arab, although the growth of Islamism among Shia Arabs during the Ba'athist era gave rise to a discrimination against them, in which Feyli Kurds, as Shias, were also discriminated against. The Ba'athists especially considered the Feyli Kurds dangerous to their policy, as they were Kurdish and Shia.^[11]

The Iraqi-Kurdish Autonomy Agreement of 1970 did not change the government policy towards the Feyli Kurds.^[8] The KDP nominated Habib Karim for vice president of Iraq as part of the agreement, although the Ba'athist government refused, as he was a Feyli Kurd. Shortly after the agreement was signed, the Iraqi government expelled thousands of Feyli Kurds from Iraq and launched a new Arabization campaign.^[7][12]

The "central report of the 9th regional Conference of the Baath Party" criticized the Shah of Iran for terminating the Convention of 1937 in April 1969, calling him a "threat to the sovereignty of Iraq", and also criticizing his support for Barzani and portraying the Feyli Kurds as Iranian residents in Iraq conspiring against the government. They had been dehumanized and demonized to justify the process and gain public support for it. Around 70,000 Feyli Kurds were registered for deportation in 1969, 1970, and 1971.^[13] The deportations of Feyli Kurds continued until 1974. One deportation in autumn 1971 had particularly angered Mustafa Barzani and other Kurdish leaders because it involved nearly 40,000 Feyli Kurds.^[12]

After the 1979 Iranian revolution, the Iraqi tensions with Iran increased, and the Feyli Kurds were increasingly targeted again.^[12][14][4] In addition to Feyli Kurds, other communities which the Ba'athists associated with Iran were also increasingly persecuted after 1979.^[15] The Feyli Kurds and the Iraqi Persians were the most affected by the deportations.^[16] Around 90% of Iraqis deported in the 1980s were Feyli Kurds.^[17] Shia Turkmen were deported to Iran alongside Feyli Kurds throughout the 1970s and 1980s.^[18] There was formerly a small Lur population in eastern Iraq, near the Feyli Kurds, although around 1975 they underwent a large-scale migration to Iran due to political factors.^[19][20]

On April 2, 1980, a Feyli Kurd belonging to the Islamic Action Organization threw a grenade at Tariq Aziz when he visited Mustansiriya University in Baghdad and injured Tariq Aziz and several attendees. This was used by the Ba'athists as the official justification for the Ba'ath Revolutionary Council issuing the decree No. 666 on April 7, 1980, depriving Iraqis of foreign origin the right to citizenship.^[5][4] In 1980, decree 666 of the Revolutionary Command Council, stripped Fayli Kurds of Iraqi citizenship. Their properties were seized by the government. They were either expelled from their homes and forced to march across the Iranian border or became non-citizens in their own country. Many of the families that were deported to Iran were highly educated and successful or held positions in the government.^[15] In 1980, Iraqi citizens were offered 10,000 IQD (around 30,000 USD at the time) to divorce their Feyli Kurdish spouses, who were deported to Iran afterwards.^[21]

Feyli Kurds had been treated as Iranians by Iraqi authorities, and as Arabs by Iranian authorities. The Feyli Kurds deported to Iran faced many difficulties, mainly because they were not part of the Iraqi Shia opposition groups supported by Iran. While in Iran, many of these families lived in camps and were denied access to work, education and travel documents. They were even unable to register births, deaths and marriages.^[22][4][15]

An estimated 250,000 Feyli Kurds had been deported to Iran from the 1975 Shatt al-Arab conflict to August 1988.^[12][23] As many as 300,000 Feyli Kurds were denationalized after the 1980 decree.^[24] In total, during the Ba'athist period, estimates for the Feyli Kurds denationalized and deported ranged from 150,000 to 500,000, while estimates for disappeared men who were never recovered ranged from 10,000-20,000.^[4][25][26]

After the 2003 invasion of Iraq, official persecution of Feyli Kurds by the state ended, and the new Iraqi government took steps to restore their rights. The 2005 Iraqi constitution recognized the Feyli Kurds and their suffering, a 2006 nationality law was passed which repealed Decree 666 and allowed denaturalized Iraqis to regain citizenship, and the Iraqi parliament passed a vote in 2011 recognizing the persecution of Feyli Kurds during the Ba'ath era as genocide. However, the Feyli Kurds continued to face major problems.^[4][15][24] At one point, the Iraqi government claimed that 97% of Feyli Kurds denaturalized by the Ba'athists had their citizenship restored, although the UNHCR and other observers noted that it never released proper statistics. The Iraqi Minister of Immigration stated that between April 2003 and April 2013, 16,580 Feyli Kurds had their nationality reinstated and 6,853 had national identification documents, although at least 150,000 Feyli Kurds had been denaturalized during the Ba'ath era. The Property Claims Commission, which was established to resolve Ba'ath era disputes after the fall of Saddam Hussein, was often reported to be inefficient and incapable. The Iraqi government also made Law No. 16 of 2010 on Compensation for Persons Affected by the Ba’ath Regime, although there was little progress in implementing it. Furthermore, many of the Feyli Kurds who regained their identity documents were issued different documents from other Iraqis, labelling them as having foreign Iranian origin.^[4] According to UNHCR, at the beginning of 2003, there were more than 200,000 Iraqi refugees in Iran, 1,300 living in Azna, of whom 65% were Feyli Kurds.^[27]

After the Ba'athists were overthrown in 2003, many Feyli Kurds rose to significant positions in Iraq, including Fuad Hussein.^[28] Aras Habib Karim, a Feyli Kurd from a family long affiliated with the KDP, served as the intelligence chief of the INC under Ahmed Chalabi.^[29] Aras Habib became notorious after 2003 and it was known in Baghdad that he and his men used the seized Ba'athist documents to find and kill many senior Ba'athists. Aras Habib was later raided by the CIA along with Ahmed Chalabi in May 2004 on suspicion of spying for Iran.^[30][31]

In 2010, the Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal sentenced Mizban Khadr al-Hadi, Aziz Saleh Al-Numan, and Saadoun Shakir to death, and sentenced Tariq Aziz and Ahmad Husayn Khudayir as-Samarrai to 10 years each for their role in the persecution of Feyli Kurds during the Ba'athist period, which in October 2011, was recognized as a genocide by the Iraqi Council of Representatives.^[32]

• Anfal genocide
• Halabja chemical attack
• Dujail massacre