Nineveh council member warns 150 Shabaki homes in Mosul face demolition

MOSUL, Iraq — Ninveh Provincial Council member Mohammed Arif al-Shubki has warned that the Mosul municipality is preparing to demolish more than 150 homes belonging to Shabaki families in the villages of Jelyuhan and Kizfarha and the Kukjali area on the Mosul plain, where the Shabaki component has lived since 1994. The homes, he said, are being targeted under expropriation orders inherited from the former regime and carried out without compensation. Al-Shubki called on the prime minister and the speaker of Iraq's parliament to intervene urgently and to protect the historic settlement rights of the Shabaki community. "We are not against the law, but we want a fair solution on the land where our people were born," he said after a provincial council vote held on Monday. The council had previously sought to address the housing shortage by allowing construction in Kizfarha and Jelyuhan, a decision Shabaki representatives strongly opposed, arguing that it would lead to demographic change in the area. Al-Shubki said he has filed complaints with administrative and federal courts to exercise his legal right to challenge the council's latest decision on land distribution and zoning classification. He cited Article 23 of the Iraqi Constitution, which prohibits demographic change in areas protected for minorities, and said the council's ruling disregards the distinctive character of those zones. No further details on a timeline for the demolitions or a government response were immediately available.