President Barzani: What is worse than war is surrender, and we will not surrender

ARK News... President Masoud Barzani, on Saturday, described the political crisis in Iraq as "deep" for Baghdad and the Kurdistan Region, and while he welcomed the Iraqi constitution to be a "rule", he expressed his rejection of "taking over the powers of the region."

This came during a speech delivered by President Barzani in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region, during a ceremony introducing a documentary series entitled “Barzan Revolutions”, which is in 6 volumes and contains 2,300 historical documents, from the Ottoman and Iranian archives, collected from the archives of the Istanbul Center and the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Iranian National Center for Documentation, and the Center for Press Documents in the Iranian Parliament.

Barzani began the speech by asking, why do the Barzanis use (the red Shammakh)?, adding, "In the past, there were three colors for the handkerchief, and then “Shammakh” and Sheikh Barzan came to wear it, so all the residents of the region imitated him."

During his speech, President Barzani reviewed several facts about the struggle of the Kurdish people and the leaders of their revolutions for the rights of the Kurds, adding, "The British orientalist who met Sheikh Abdul Salam conveyed his request to visit London to talk with King George about the independence of Kurdistan."

President Barzani described the announcement of the "Barzan Revolutions" group as "a historic step that will be announced on a historic day, the day the immortal Barzani and his companions cross the Aras River," noting that "the enemies of our people have always tried to distort the struggle of the Kurdish people as the struggle of a group of clans that they described as “roads sector”, but these documents prove otherwise.

He pointed out that "the struggle of Barzan is a holy struggle, founded by Sheikh Abdul Salam and his brother Sheikh Ahmed, religion is morals, and religion and morals cannot be separated, and we are all brothers in humanity.”

He pointed out that "terrorism is still a great challenge, and it will not end easily."

He added, "In Iraq, elections were held, but unfortunately the results did not result in the formation of the government."

He continued, "I do not hide from you that the crisis is deep for the region and for Baghdad," explaining, "We believed that after the ratification of the Iraqi constitution, the rights of everyone would be determined, and at that time we said that this constitution is not without shortcomings, but compared to neighboring countries, it is a good thing...but unfortunately, it has not been implemented.

He also added, "Currently, if the constitution will be a rule, we welcome it, but if they want to seize once again the powers of the region, this is unacceptable."

The Kurdish leader also said: "If someone believes that through force and weapons they can impose their control over us, then this is impossible," noting that "others have already tried and did not succeed."

And he added, "So far, the Barzan region has been burned and destroyed 16 times, and the Kurds have been subjected to wars and have not stopped their ambition, and have never been aggressors."

He added that "the history of the Kurds was documented by international sources, and the struggle was its title in every era," adding, "The post-2003 governments did not implement the constitution, and they used to deceive the Kurds with their sweet talk."

He stressed, "War is destruction and a bad choice, and worse than war is surrender, and we will not surrender."

"This region was built with the blood of the martyrs, and we will protect it with blood," he stressed.

At the conclusion of his speech, President Barzani suggested establishing an archive for the region, calling on the Kurdistan Regional Government to take care of it.

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