Within three months, the municipality of Kirkuk received about 90,000 applications related to the ownership of residential violations, most of which came from the areas inhabited by the Kurds.
The process of receiving the applications of the citizens of Kirkuk began in January 2023 and lasted for three months, based on a decision issued by the Iraqi Council of Ministers in November 2022 stipulating the registration of housing units built on public property without license for its residents in all governorates of Iraq except for the Iraqi Kurdistan Region IKR.
The director of the Kirkuk municipality, Fereydoun Adel, told KirkukNow, "The period for receiving ownership of housing violations has ended. Within 90 days, about 90,000 citizens submitted ownership requests."
The municipality of Kirkuk received citizens' applications through six sectors, according to an application form in which the applicant for ownership records his personal information, the number of the plot of land and the sector, if any, in addition to the area of the house, the address, and several other documents such as the civil status card, the Iraqi nationality certificate (or the national card), the housing card and the food ration card.
"Most of the property applications we received came from the Kurdish regions. There are about 10 major neighborhoods (transgressions), seven of which are inhabited by Kurds. I can say that 70% of the property applications were from the residents of the Kurdish areas," according to the director of the municipality.
Fereydoun Adel explained that the municipality is awaiting new instructions regarding any amendment or new information about the official registration procedures and other details in order to complete the process and sort out the citizens’ transaction.
“For example, does the ownership decision include some areas such as the Shorao neighborhood or the Baroutkhana or not, we do not know that yet. Therefore, new decisions and instructions must reach us.”
Some of the ministries and government departments claim ownership for some areas where housing units were built randomly.
After ousting the Baath regime headed by Saddam Hussein back in 2003, thousands of houses were built on state-owned lands yet without official permission in all of Iraq's provinces, including Kirkuk.
There are more than 70,000 houses and commercial buildings were built illegally in Kirkuk province, which ranks third after Baghdad where more than 130,000 units were built illegally built and 90,000 in Basra southern province, according to an official statistic obtained by KirukNow from the mayor of Kirkuk.
Following fall of Saddam regime in 2003, thousands of people expelled from Kirkuk and disputed territories have received plots of lands from the Kurdish parties ruling the region without being officially registered or permitted by local authorities.
Kirkuk administration provided basic services to some of the blocs but later it was stopped by Iraqi government. The local authorities gave notice of evacuation to the residents whom declined to leave unless compensated.
Demolition of residential encroachments in the celebration square neighborhood, Kirkuk. KirkukNow
The decision to register illegal residential units does not include lands, and each person will own one house in his name, according to the instructions. The applicant must be the actual beneficiary of the land, based on the data and documents that he submits to the municipalities, and it is not permissible to own more than one piece of land for the applicant.
A special committee assesses the value of the plot of land in accordance with the procedures of Law No. 21 of 2013 on the sale and lease of state property.
The director of the Kirkuk municipality says that resolving 90,000 transactions will not be an easy process in light of the lack of a sufficient number of employees in the municipality.
Currently, there are no new instructions and decisions to resume the process of receiving property applications from citizens.
“I have called on all everywhere to submit property applications but still some did not pay any attention and did not submit property applications during those three months."
Kirkuk is one of the main disputed areas in addition to Diyalah and Nineveh that a three-stage process outlined in Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution in 2005, stipulating normalization, a population census and a referendum on the status of the territories, was drawn to put an end to Kurdistan Regional Government KRG and the Iraqi Federal government dispute over these areas.
Kurdish parties were ruling Kirkuk and most of the disputed territories till 2017 when Iraqi army ousted Kurdish Peshmerga, following a referendum by the KRG voted for independence of the Kurdish region in Iraq including Kirkuk.
The northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk, 238 kilometers north of Baghdad, is an ethnically mixed province for 1.7 million Kurds, Sunni and Shiite Arabs, and Turkmens. It has long been at the center of disputed territories between Baghdad and Erbil.
