Shafaq News/ Iraqi authorities have renamed a major Baghdad thoroughfare “Martyrs of the Feyli Kurds Street,” in the country’s first official move to commemorate victims of the Baath regime’s campaign against the Shiite Kurdish minority.

The street runs from Karada through Nahdha to the outskirts of Sadr City and Palestine Street in eastern Baghdad. It houses hundreds of commercial establishments and holds symbolic weight for the Feyli community.

“This is the first time a street in Iraq has been named after the Feyli Kurdish martyrs,” Fuad Ali Akbar, parliamentary advisor on Feyli affairs, told Shafaq News, adding that the road was formerly known as “Revolution Street” and that the Baghdad Provincial Council approved the renaming in 2017, although final endorsement came recently from the President.

The Feyli Kurds, primarily based in eastern and central Iraq, were subjected to mass deportations, executions, and denaturalization during the late 1970s and 1980s under Saddam Hussein’s government.

Tariq al-Mandalawi, an advisor to the Prime Minister on Feyli affairs, confirmed that 16,350 Feyli Kurds are registered as martyrs with the government’s Martyrs Foundation, part of an estimated 60,000 executed during the former regime’s campaign.

Despite multiple court rulings recognizing the genocide, implementation of compensation laws and institutional reforms has been slow. Officials and community representatives view the renaming as a symbolic but long-overdue step toward acknowledgment and historical justice.