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Nimrud Baito:
Our people are concentrated in the Nineveh Plains,
and geographically speaking it fits the definition
of an administrative or autonomous region: the
majority of the inhabitants in the area are our
people. There are others, Yezidis, Shabaks, Kurds,
and Arabs, but the majority are our people. And
historically, that area belongs to our people, even
in the sense of land ownership and real estate. We
can only get this area through political means. We
need to work together and pass a law in the National
parliament in Baghdad, not only in the Kurdistani
Parliament. To achieve the passage in Baghdad, a
majority is required. The people whom we are working
with to support us is the Kurdistani slate, which is
one of the three biggest groups in the Iraqi
Parliament.
The Kurds would like to annex this area as a part of
federal Kurdistan. It will be easier for us to work
together to accomplish what we are trying to get,
the Nineveh Plains. The Kurds will support this
notion, because they will need our support to pass
this annexure in the Iraqi parliament. We will gain
by their gains, and they will gain by ours. It is a
mutual benefit. The decision has already been made
by the Kurdish leaders to annex the area, among
others, to Kurdistan. Now, they need to support that
position and they need the support of the people
living in that area, administratively speaking. They
will have to work harder to get the political
support of the inhabitants of that area. They also
need to show and prove to the world that the KRG is
the protector of the small nations living in that
area.
They [the Kurds] are trying to show to the world
that they are democratic people and understanding of
the rights of people and adhering to international
human rights. They want to show and prove this to
the world, and in order to do that they will have to
give certain rights and gains to the inhabitants of
that area. So we are trying to invest in that. In
order to realize this, they will need the support of
the inhabitants of that area, and we have already
started a campaign to the people in that area, with
the help of Minister of Finance of the Regional
Government Mr. Sarkis Aghajan, that we will gain an
administrative or autonomous region by this
happening.
Zinda: What guarantee can you provide to the
people, if this area is annexed to the KRG, that
this administrative region will be created?
Baito: You are
right, there are no guarantees until we actually get
something. But now from many directions and even on
Ishtar TV, people are saying we want an autonomous
region. So we are telling our people and we are also
telling the Iraqis that we want a self administered
region.
Zinda: How do the people living in the
Nineveh Plains feel about the options of staying in
the Mosul governorate versus being annexed to the
KRG? What is your sense of the opinions there?
Baito: I
estimate that 80% of the inhabitants of the Nineveh
Plains are willing for it to be annexed to
Kurdistan. Of course this is an estimate and a
guess. But the people’s views depend on what area
they will gain more. It is more important to them to
live under a political system where they can express
their ideas and exercise their rights freely than
living oppressed under a system where there is no
security to say the least. They will be willing to
live under any political government if they gain
more. Our people need a resolution to make it easy
for them to live in one region under one law and
they will also gain by having continuity with their
brethren in the further north region. Since Iraq is
constitutionally a federal state, we don’t want our
people to live under two or more federal states.
Zinda: But does that mean that people from
Ankawa, from Baghdad, from other areas, should move
to this region?
Baito: Not
everyone has to move. When we establish an
administrative or autonomous region in the Nineveh
Plains, at least we will have a place to call home.
You can live in Ramadi, you can live in Baghdad, but
you have an area where you can invest in your
heritage, in your history, in your geography. This
does not mean we must move everyone to this area. We
believe in a unified Iraq, but it will be people’s
personal decision and preference where to live.
Another point is, with the terrorism around the
Nineveh Plains now, shown by the killing and
beheading of the priest [Fr. Paulos Eskander], it is
giving the people the sense that their security will
be improved in the KRG. People are seeing their
future better there, now more than before.
Zinda: What powers and responsibilities do
you believe the Nineveh Plains should have?
Baito: By
definition, an administrative or autonomous region
will have a say in all decisions made that are
relevant to the people who live there. Be that the
police, the budgeting, the schools, and everything
else has to come from that area. A municipal council
or regional assembly or some other body will be
formed and they will administer their own laws.
But to achieve this will take some time. Even if the
administrative or autonomous region is ratified in
the Kurdistani parliament, we will still need to get
it passed through Baghdad, because the jurisdiction
will need to be amended. So this will not be
overnight. Having said that will not prevent us from
investing in that area.
Zinda: How hopeful or confident is the APP
that the Nineveh Plains or some form of an
administrative region will be established?
Baito: To answer
this question, we have to know who will support this
notion and who is against it. We know for a fact
that Sunnis will be against it because you are
snatching a part of the Mosul governorate and
attaching it somewhere else. As for support, we have
worked in the past with the Kurds on this issue. We
had seen good indications that they will support
this notion. We now know for a fact that they are
supporting it and that gives us high hopes and
confidence that it will happen. We now see a major
political faction supporting our notion of an
administrative or autonomous region. We are pressing
in this direction at this moment because we see a
major political faction, a major player, supporting
us.
We also had another meeting today (October 21, 2006)
as well as one two weeks ago, with all the major
Assyrian political parties, excluding Zowaa and
others, who chose not to attend, to summarize our
demands and ideas on this issue and submit it to the
Kurdistani parliament. This is giving us more hope.
We must also realize that this will probably lead to
more attacks on our people in the area, but this is
not something new. We have been seeing attacks
against our people in the Mosul area anyway, and I
think we have to live through this and work through
this.
Zinda: On the issue of the migration of our
people: at this moment, are more people fleeing to
Jordan and Syria, or do you see more fleeing to
Northern Iraq? What is the general migration
situation at this point?
Baito: Yes they
are, but it is very difficult to say where people
are going more. These decisions are made
individually. If people have high hopes that they
can move somewhere beyond Syria and Jordan, to the
United States or Australia or somewhere else, then
they will most likely go there. If they do not have
these kinds of hopes, then the other alternative is
to go to Northern Iraq. Going to Kurdistan region or
Nineveh Plains also has its own problems because of
the high cost of living, which is staggering there
and is becoming a problem for people. Some people
who work, even their salary is not enough to pay for
the rent.
But we hear and see now massive projects in the
Nineveh Plains. One of them is in the village of
EnBaqre, for the people moving from the south to the
north. Mr. Sarkis Aghajan is supporting the notion
of an autonomous region, and since he has the funds
available, he is trying to make it easy for people
to settle there. The projects are coming from funds
that he is managing, and he is trying to organize
the building of houses, villages, churches and
everything else.
Zinda: Are there any plans or ideas of how to
bring back our people who are currently refugees in
Syria and Jordan, if not to their original homes
then to Northern Iraq?
Baito: No, there
are really no such plans yet. However, some of the
people themselves are coming back. Once they exhaust
their efforts to move beyond Syria and Jordan, some
are returning to the North. But this is very small.
Zinda: Is there anything people in the United
States or outside Iraq could do to encourage people
to stay in Northern Iraq?
Baito: Probably
not everyone can help, but for those who have money
I encourage them to invest in our villages in
Northern Iraq and the Nineveh Plains. This will
create jobs for our people so that the inhabitants
will be economically secure and will want to stay.
Especially with the passage of the investment law in
the Kurdistani parliament, that will benefit the
investors. The law has many incentives in terms of
taxes, land, transfers of funds, and other areas.
Projects such as canning, dairy, and other
industries will benefit both the investors and the
people here.
Zinda: Could you please comment on the living
conditions of our people in Iraq, and specifically
Northern Iraq? And could you respond to allegations
that we hear that Kurds are seizing or stealing land
and pressuring people to join the Kurdistan
Democratic Party (KDP)?
Baito: Ishtar TV
is doing a good job of showing the way our people
are living in Northern Iraq. There is a massive
rebuilding effort going on now. In my own village,
Bakhtme (near Dohuk), right now there are 125 homes
being built, and there are plans to build another
125. This will now be a small town, no longer a
village. So this is just one indication that people
are living well in this area.
In the other parts of Iraq, the situation is really
very bad. Our people who left villages in Dohuk in
1961 because of the insurgency between the Kurds and
the central government, are now coming back. Our
people living in the areas under the central
government are not in a good situation at all,
specifically Mosul and Baghdad. These are the worst.
Regarding your question about the stealing of land,
not even one meter has been taken by force by the
KRG. Not one meter. We are trying to make this clear
to everybody. I am a resident of the area, and we
have real estate at stake, not even one meter has
been taken by force or by any other means. This is a
propaganda used by others to destroy our people.
Sometimes we see cases of people who sell their land
to Kurds, and then later we hear claims that it was
seized. Of course there are encroachments and
crimes, just like anywhere else. For instance, this
happens not only with our lands, but with Kurds to
Kurds’ lands. This is happening by individuals. They
[political authorities] are trying to rectify that
situation. In Dohuk, there is a special committee to
investigate these instances and provide compensation
for people who must be moved in cases where they
have lived there for a long time and invested in the
property.
The best example of this is the village of
Fishkhabor, which is near Zakho. Fishkhabor was
taken and destroyed by the Iraqi regime in 1975 and
its people displaced. In 1991, the village was
inhabited by Kurds, as our people who once lived
there were probably residing in Baghdad at the time.
We and other Assyrian parties asked the Kurdish
authorities about this encroachment. The result was
all the Kurdish families were forced to move out of
this village. This happened two years ago. Today the
village is fully inhabited by its original Assyrian
inhabitants. 250 to 300 homes have been built there.
This is a good example of an honest attempt to deal
with the situation.
As far as pressuring people to join the KDP, this is
not true. It is a personal preference. The same way
we ask people to join the APP, or Zowaa asks people
to join Zowaa, also the KDP asks people to join the
KDP. As a minister in this cabinet, there are very
clear instructions from KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan
Barzani that parties are not to be connected with
government employment and appointments. I and every
cabinet minister have to certify that political
affiliation is not part of the employment process.
krg org
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