President Barzani: 40 years after Al-Anfal, we still see chauvinism and the attempt to exterminate the Kurdish people

ARK News… President Masoud Barzani, today, July 31, issued a statement on the 40th anniversary of the crime of the Barzani people's annihilation by the defunct Iraqi regime.

The following is the text of the statement, which was published by Barzani's headquarters:

In the name of God, the most gracious, the most merciful
Forty years ago, the Baath regime arrested - in a relentless and unscrupulous campaign - eight thousand Barzani men, young and old, between the ages of nine and ninety years, and they were brutally exterminated in the desert of southern Iraq.

This crime is part of a series of tragedies and sacrifices that were organized to destroy and harass the people of Kurdistan, from the disappearance of twelve thousand young men from the Failis, the Anfal in Garmiyan, the chemical attacks on Halabja and other parts of Kurdistan, until the Arabization and demographic change in parts of Kurdistan.

Forty years have passed since this crime, but we still - unfortunately - see chauvinism, bad intentions, and the attempt to annihilate and harm the Kurdish people in the imagination and behavior of some people and some parties, and this problem in itself is the main problem for our people in facing the inhuman mentality that is the cause of misery and instability in Iraq and the region.

On the occasion of the arrival of the Barzanis, I express my gratitude to the sons of our people, especially the sons of the Erbil Plain, Harir and Soran, who were courageously and nationalistically sympathetic to the Barzanis and helped them in difficult times. I would like to thank the relatives of the Anfal victims, especially the mothers and the prominent women who have suffered the pain of losing their loved ones for many years and have become a supreme example of resistance, morality and cordiality.

Masoud Barzani
July 31, 2023

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