Kurdish lawlessness on full display as Assyrian-owned business gets demolished
In a bizarre turn of events, an Assyrian businessman in Kurdish-ruled Northern Iraq watched his small restaurant being bulldozed on the orders of local authorities–only to be promised its return by a 25-year-old member of the ruling Barzani clan.
“Roben Kunafa,” a popular restaurant in the city of Nohadra (Dohuk), in Northern Iraq’s Kurd-dominated Assyrian region, was demolished under heavy security deployment during a late-night operation on 30 November. The restaurant’s owner, Assyrian businessman Roben Markos, released a video on social media shortly afterward, issuing a direct public appeal to KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani for justice. Visibly distressed, Markos said: “If you cannot find a solution for us, then the land and the homeland is yours, but we will leave it. I have been humiliated, and I saw my life being destroyed before my own eyes.”
Markos confirmed that his restaurant was not built on public land and that it was operating under a formal legal contract. “My money and my future were burned before my eyes,” he said. “And the humiliation I was subjected to, I will never forget for the rest of my life”, he said, surrounded by his employees and holding up the official registration papers to the camera.
A display of Kurdish corruption and lawlessness
Markos’ appeal, delivered in Kurdish, reached Areen Barzani, the 25-year-old son of Prime Minister Masrour Barzani. In a new video released on Monday, 1 November, Markos, now visibly relieved, said that Areen Barzani had promised him he would get back his restaurant and that the issue had been resolved.
The episode is emblematic of the dysfunctional and arbitrary tribal structure nurtured and protected for decades by the US and other Western powers. The demolition of a lawful business and its subsequent “restoration” by a young man who holds no public office – and whose sole qualification is being the son of the prime minister and a member of the ruling clan – speaks volumes about the kind of lawless and oppressive entity the West continues to support at the expense of the indigenous Assyrian population.
In this clan-based system, permeated by arbitrariness and corruption, Assyrians – being the weakest link – are persistently placed at a disadvantage. This reality is reflected in the steadily shrinking Assyrian population of Northern Iraq. Facing systematic harassment and dispossession in various forms, many Assyrians have been forced to abandon the region.
The Assyria Post
Systematic oppression and economic exploitation
While the demolition of this Assyrian-owned restaurant may appear to be an isolated incident, economic warfare against Assyrians by Kurds in Northern Iraq is part of a broader system designed to weaken the Assyrian demographic presence by limiting economic opportunities. As part of this ongoing pressure, Assyrians face systemic barriers to public employment; Assyrian business owners are subjected to discriminatory extortion; and permits to build or expand homes and businesses are routinely denied unless Barzani-loyalists or Kurdish partners are included. The list of discriminatory practices is long, as is the number of documented cases – seen in this report and many others.
Eager to conceal this systematic oppression and instead project an image of a successful, inclusive society, the Kurdish leadership engages in a constant PR campaign, facilitating the building of churches and performing other token gestures, all while Assyrians continue to suffer on their own ancestral lands.
Assyrian Policy Institute
