Iraq’s Federal Court Nullifies 11 Seats of Ethnic and Religious Minorities

Iraq’s Federal Court nullified 11 seats allocated to ethnic and religious minorities and issued an order to divide the Kurdistan Region into four electoral districts.

“Mona Qahwachi,” Deputy Chairman of the Turkmen Reform Party, responded on February 25 during a press conference to the Federal Court’s ruling: “The Federal Court issued a decree removing 11 community seats from the Kurdistan Parliament, and starting tomorrow, Monday, February 26, we will hold a series of meetings with political factions and announce our official position.”

Iraq’s Federal Court, in a hearing addressing a complaint filed by the Kurdistan National Union, issued a ruling reducing the number of Kurdistan Parliament seats from 111 to 100 seats. As a result of this ruling, ethnic and religious communities were deprived of parliamentary representation. The ethnic and religious communities have declared their opposition to the court’s decision, considering it a political and rejected ruling, and demanded the restoration of their rights. Mona Qahwachi also protested the ruling by calling on the United Nations and consulates of countries in the Kurdistan Region to defend the rights of these communities.

“Jasim Al-Omari,” President of Iraq’s Federal Court, after reading the verdict, stated: “Iraq’s Federal Court, in its session, declared Article 11 of the amended first section of the 1992 law relating to the Kurdistan Parliament unconstitutional. The members of the Kurdistan Parliament will be composed of 100 members, which means that 11 seats allocated to ethnic and religious minorities, including 5 seats for Chaldean and Assyrian Christians, one seat for Armenian Christians, and 5 seats reserved for Turkmen, have been eliminated.”

According to the Federal Court President’s statement, based on the issued ruling, the Kurdistan Region will be divided into four electoral districts comprising the provinces of Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, Dohuk, and Halabja. The Federal Court’s decision to eliminate 11 seats has drawn considerable criticism from ethnic and religious minority leaders in the Kurdistan Region.

According to reports from the “Kurdistan 24” news network, Hisham Petros, a representative of Chaldean Christians in Dohuk, while criticizing the Supreme Court’s decision, stated: “Between 50,000 to 60,000 Christian citizens live in Dohuk, but 150 Christian families reside in Sulaymaniyah and we don’t even have a school in Sulaymaniyah where Syriac is taught. In Dohuk, there are 100 to 120 churches, but in Sulaymaniyah we have only one or two churches. These court orders come from Tehran and Iraqi officials are implementing these orders.”

According to Hisham Petros’s statements, Baghdad’s decisions since 2003 have been against Christians. He added on this matter: “The Federal Court creates problems for us every day. Now that Christians have left Baghdad, the Federal Court keeps creating problems for us in one way or another. We have launched an internal movement a few days ago and will take a stance on the court’s decision and will submit a detailed report to the American, European consulates and the United Nations.”

Hisham Petros clearly stated: “As Christians of Kurdistan, we hope that the Kurdistan Region government, just as it has supported Christians and other minorities before, will now refrain from implementing this Federal Court decision while supporting the rights of religious minorities.”

“Aydin Maruf,” Minister of the Region for Minority Affairs, also responded to the Federal Court’s decision: “The Federal Court’s decisions are unconstitutional, political, unjust and against minorities, because minority seats were legally allocated to them and they will now participate in elections without minority seats.”

“Ashwaq Jaff,” former Kurdish representative in the Iraqi Parliament, also responding to the Federal Court’s decision to eliminate 11 seats, stated: “With the Federal Court’s decision, minorities will no longer have representation in the Kurdistan Parliament, which is a great injustice to them and will certainly lead to deeper problems.”