Baghdad’s Kurdish population sees dramatic decline

[Anthea]

Baghdad’s Kurdish population sees dramatic decline, official data shows

BAGHDAD, Iraq— The official data from the provincial council in the Iraqi capital shows that more than 40 percent of Baghdad’s half-a-million Kurdish population have left the city since 2003 following a deterioration of security in the province.

The data shows that in 2003 some 500,000 Kurds lived in Baghdad while in 2016 only 300,000 of them still lived in the predominately Shiite city, which is occasionally rocked by suicide bombings and terror attacks.

“We have been marginalized and isolated,” Said Rauf Muhammad, a Kurdish shopkeeper in Baghdad who feared that many more families would leave the Iraqi capital due to the uncertainty of conditions.

“Many Kurds in Baghdad have wealthy families and are easily targeted and blackmailed when political rifts between Kurds and Arabs emerge,” Muhammad said.

The government has increasingly been unable to protect the Kurdish families in Baghdad as it is struggling with the Sunni insurgency and terror bombings in the province.

“We have lived under continuous threats since Saddam Hussein was toppled,” said Aliya Hassan, who is also the head of a woman organization in Baghdad. “We are treated as foreigners and we are often told to leave,” she added.

The Kurdish lawmakers in Baghdad say they have received complaints from families who have been exposed to blackmails and forced to leave the capital.

“We have called on the interior ministry to quickly deal with the problems and protect Baghdad’s Kurdish citizens,” said Ashwaq Jaf, an Iraqi Kurdish MP and member of the parliament’s human rights committee.

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