The Iraqi Ba’th Regime’s Atrocities Against the Faylee Kurds: Nation-State Formation Distorted

The history of the relationship between the Iraqi Baath party and the Faylee Kurds, an integral part of the Kurdish nation, provides ample evidence of insecurity and large-scale violations of fundamental human rights. The Baathists employed different strategical methods against the Faylee Kurds ranging from discrimination and social exclusion on the one extreme to mass expulsion and genocide on the other. They justified their systematic prosecution and repression of one of the main components of the Iraqi society on the basis of national security. The animosity towards the Faylee Kurds intensified during the rule of Saddam Hussein as they were accused of being of Iranian origin and constituting a fifth column in Iraq, and hence a threat to be removed. As a result, the Baath regime expelled hundreds of thousands of Faylee Kurds to Iran and exterminated about 22,000 of them. The Faylee Kurds have lived in Iraq for centuries and played a significant role in the history of modern Iraq, and most notably for being expelled and killed on a vast scale, yet they are still an unknown community to the outside world. This book attempts to address this shortcoming. From the introduction. Cover photo: Monument in Baghdad honouring the killed and disappeared Faylee Kurds.