Saddam’s Tribe: Revenge behind Preventing Our Return Home

 US forces in the city center of Tikrit, April 2003 (Getty Images)
US forces in the city center of Tikrit, April 2003 (Getty Images)
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Saddam’s Tribe: Revenge behind Preventing Our Return Home

 US forces in the city center of Tikrit, April 2003 (Getty Images)
US forces in the city center of Tikrit, April 2003 (Getty Images)

More than a thousand families from the Iraqi village of Al-Awja, the hometown of the late Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, have been living away from their homes for nearly a decade.

In 2014, the rise of ISIS and its grip on large swathes of provinces west and north of Iraq, including Saladin Governorate, where Al-Awja is situated, forced families to leave their homes.

Military authorities in Al-Awja, which is located on the banks of the Tigris River and is about 10 km south of the city of Tikrit, the center of Saladin, offer various reasons and excuses for not allowing the return of these uprooted families.

The authorities are claiming that some of the families had sympathized with the terrorist group, accusing some of even participating in some of the crimes carried out by ISIS.

Some, however, believe that the matter has to do with taking revenge on the region and its residents as most of them are relatives and kinsmen of Saddam. Before the fall of his rule in 2003, the region enjoyed significant influence and power.

Today, many of Al-Awja’s locals took refuge in the Kurdistan region. Some of them went to live in Tikrit, and some preferred to move to Turkiye or other Western countries.

“We are not alone as there are other families who were not allowed to return to their homes, such as the people of Jurf al-Sakhr, but our misfortune seems exceptional given our closeness to the late President Saddam Hussein,” Falah al-Nada, the son of the head of Al-Bu Nasir tribe, told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Saddam was a member of the Al-Bu Nasir tribe.

“The new regime placed us in the category of permanent enemies who are not allowed to return,” added al-Nada.

“In 2003, Law No. 88 was issued. It considered all the people of Al-Awja to be pawns of Saddam’s regime, and decided to seize their movable and immovable money,” reminded al-Nada, adding that the law was revoked in 2018.

Al-Nada voiced his surprise regarding the decision to prevent the return of the people to their homes and said there is no justification other than “the will for revenge.”

When asked about the conditions of the city of Al-Awja 20 years after the overthrow of Saddam’s regime, al-Nada said: “We do not know, but the city has turned into a military barrack controlled by a faction affiliated with the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF).”



Kurdish PKK Militants to Hand over First Weapons in Ceremony in Iraq

PKK militants in northern Iraq (Reuters)
PKK militants in northern Iraq (Reuters)
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Kurdish PKK Militants to Hand over First Weapons in Ceremony in Iraq

PKK militants in northern Iraq (Reuters)
PKK militants in northern Iraq (Reuters)

Dozens of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants will hand over their weapons in a ceremony in northern Iraq on Friday, marking a symbolic but significant first step toward ending a decades-long insurgency with Türkiye.

The PKK, locked in conflict with the Turkish state and outlawed since 1984, decided in May to disband, disarm and end its armed struggle after a public call to do so from its long-imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan, Reuters said.

After a series of failed peace efforts, the new initiative could pave the way for Ankara to end an insurgency that has killed over 40,000 people, burdened the economy and wrought deep social and political divisions in Türkiye and the wider region.

Around 40 PKK militants and one commander were expected to hand over their weapons at the ceremony in the northern Iraqi city of Sulaymaniyah, people familiar with the plan said. The PKK is based in northern Iraq after being pushed well beyond Türkiye’s frontier in recent years.

The arms are to be destroyed later in another ceremony attended by Turkish and Iraqi intelligence figures, officials of Iraq's Kurdistan regional government, and senior members of Türkiye's pro-Kurdish DEM party - which also played a key role in facilitating the PKK's disarmament decision.

The PKK, DEM and Ocalan have all called on Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's government to address Kurdish political demands. In a rare online video published on Wednesday, Ocalan also urged Türkiye's parliament to set up a commission to oversee disarmament and manage the broader peace process.

Ankara has taken steps toward forming the commission, while the DEM and Ocalan have said that legal assurances and certain mechanisms were needed to smooth the PKK's transition into democratic politics.

Erdogan has said his government would not allow any attempts to sabotage the disarmament process, adding he would give people "historic good news".

Omer Celik, a spokesman for Erdogan's AK Party, said the disarmament process should not be allowed to drag on longer than a few months to avoid it becoming subject to provocations.