Today Marks 50th Anniversary of First Kurdish Autonomy

ARK News.. Today Marks the 50th anniversary of the “March 11 Agreement” of 1970 which forced the then Iraqi government to grant the Kurds autonomy and some other rights.

After the negotiations between Kurds and Baghdad reached a deadlock in 1961 and the Iraqi government begun military offensives against the people of Kurdistan, Kurdish leader Mustafa Barzani led an armed battle, known as 'Aylul Revolution,' against the Iraqi forces.

After approximately a decade of armed struggles between the Kurds and Iraqi army, the government agreed to grant the Kurds with autonomy.

The agreement was signed on March 11, 1970 between Iraqi government and Kurds. Despite the fact that it did not lasted long, the agreement is considered a significant achievement in the history of Kurdish freedom movement.

Five years later, the Iraqi government renounced the agreement in 1975, and refused the autonomy for the Kurdistan Region.

Later, Iraq signed an agreement with Iran, called the '1975 Algiers Agreement’, according to which Iraq abandoned part of the disputed land on Iran-Iraq border and Iran in return had to end supporting the Iraqi Kurds.

Kurdish leader and the president of ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party, Masoud Barzani, wrote on Twitter: “Today marks the 50th anniversary of the March 11 Agreement, an event that due to the resilience and sacrifices of the Peshmerga and people of Kurdistan, compelled the Iraqi regime to formally, and for the first time, recognize the rights of our people.”

Source: BasNews

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