Erbil to host an international conference on Saddam Hussein's genocide against the Fayli Kurds

Shafaq News/ Leading scholars and lawyers will be joining politicians and human rights groups in Erbil for the first large-scale conference to discuss Saddam Hussein's regime genocide against the Fayli Kurdish minority in the 70s and 80s of the past century.

"The three-day conference will be held on April 4th, 2023. The guests will be addressed in Arabic, Kurdish, Persian, French, and English," the head of the committee organizing the event, Abdul-Rahman Darwich, told Shafaq News Agency, "it will be held under the auspices of the Kurdish leader, Masoud Barzani."

Darwich, a professor of Political Sciences at Soran University, said that the conference will shed light on different aspects of the genocide in an attempt to understand the challenges facing the Fayli Kurdish minority and obtain international recognition of this crime.

"The conference will seek to shed light on the various aspects of this crime and highlight the role of the Kurdistan Region as a global hub for research studies related to genocides," he added.

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 with the dissolved RCCR issuance for the 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 have been deported to Iran, and at least 15,000 have disappeared. Their remains are yet to be found.