Shafaq News/ The President of the Kurdistan Region, Nechirvan Barzani, on Monday commemorated the Genocide the former regime of Saddam Hussein committed against the Fayli Kurdish minority in the 80s of the past century, calling on the federal government of Iraq to reparate the victims.

"On this occasion, we commemorate the sacrifices of the Fayli Kurds and all the martyrs of Kurdistan," President Barzani said on the 42nd anniversary of the Genocide.

The President said that the Fayli Kurds were supportive to the revolution and the rights of the Kurds and they were persecuted, forced to leave their hometowns, and stripped from their Iraqi citizenship by the former regime.

Barzani urged the Iraqi government to reparate the Fayli Kurds, reinstate them as Iraqi citizens, recover their lands, and address their problems.

Between 1970 and 2003, Saddam Hussein systemically persecuted the Fayli Kurdish minority. The persecution campaigns led to the expulsion, flight, and effective exile of the Fayli Kurds from their ancestral lands in Iraq.

The persecution began when a large number of Fayli Kurds were exposed to a big campaign by the regime that began by the dissolved RCCR issuance for 666 decision, which deprived Fayli Kurds of Iraqi nationality and considered them as Iranians. The systematic executions started in Baghdad and Khanaqin in 1979 and later spread to other Iraqi and Kurdish areas.

An estimated 300,000–500,000. Fayli Kurds had been deported to Iran as a result of the persecution campaigns and at least 15,000 Fayli Kurds have disappeared. Their remains have not been found.