In a statement issued on behalf of the village, the residents said they had been waiting for more than three years for authorities to enforce court decisions that ruled in their favor. Instead, they say the disputed agricultural lands have now been planted again by the Kurdish encroachers.
"At a time when we were awaiting the implementation of the numerous promises to enforce the court rulings issued more than three years ago, we were shocked to discover that the encroachers have once again cultivated those lands," the statement reads.
According to the appeal, villagers notified the relevant government authorities after the renewed activity but say no action has been taken and no official response has been received.
The residents are calling on Kurdish representatives and representatives of the Assyrian people in both Erbil and Baghdad, church leaders, and Assyrian political parties to intervene immediately to enforce the court decisions, halt the alleged violations, and uphold the rule of law.
"We therefore call upon you to intervene immediately to halt these violations and enforce the court decisions, in order to uphold justice.." the statement concludes.
A Long-Running Dispute
The latest appeal is the newest development in a land dispute that has persisted for years.
The Kashkawa case has been the subject of repeated legal proceedings and parliamentary attention. In 2020, a committee of Assyrian members of the Northern Iraq's parliament visited the village after disputes involving approximately 2,000 dunams of agricultural land. At the time, villagers presented historical land records and official documentation supporting their ownership claims while lawmakers pledged to follow the case with the relevant authorities.
In a separate interview with Australia based SBS Assyrian, Kashkawa resident Oger Toma said villagers first turned to the courts in 2016 to recover lands they said had been used illegally for decades. Although the Aqra Court ultimately ruled in favor of the villagers, concerns remained over whether the judgment would ever be implemented.
Kashkawa is one of the historic Assyrian villages of the Nahla Valley. The village was destroyed during the Anfal campaign in 1988 before being rebuilt after families returned in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Today, it remains among the handful of surviving Assyrian villages in the region.
As of publication, there has been no public response from local authorities regarding the villagers' latest appeal.
