Kurdish President calls for global recognition of Anfal as Genocide

Shafaq News/ Kurdish President Nechirvan Barzani on Sunday commemorated the 36th anniversary of the Anfal campaign in the Bahdinan region, calling for the global recognition of the atrocities as an act of genocide.

In a statement, Barzani honored the memory of the Kurds who were killed during the Anfal campaign, which took place from August 25 to September 6, 1988, during the final phase of the campaign. "We pay tribute to the pure souls of 182,000 Kurdish victims, from Germian to the last villages of Bahdinan, who fell prey to the crimes of the then-Iraqi regime," he said.

The Anfal campaign, orchestrated by Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime, involved systematic attacks on Kurdish villages, including the use of chemical weapons, mass executions, and forced displacements. The Iraqi High Criminal Court later ruled that these operations constituted genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

Barzani reiterated the need for justice, urging the Iraqi government to fulfill its responsibilities. "We once again call on the Iraqi government to compensate the families of the Anfal victims in every possible way," he said. He also emphasized the importance of providing better services to the victims' families in the Kurdistan Region and vowed to continue efforts to gain global recognition of the Anfal as an act of genocide.

"The Kurdistan Region and its constitutional rights are the fruit of the pure souls, the blood of thousands of martyrs, the tears of thousands of grieving mothers, the suffering from the Anfal operations and chemical attacks, and the struggle and sacrifices of the Kurdish people," he said.

"It is our duty to protect and defend these rights by all means."

The President concluded by urging unity and learning from Iraq's past to ensure a better future for all. "Despite all the problems and differences, the homeland must be our common goal and unifier," Barzani said, adding, "Lessons must be learned from Iraq's past, and the rights of all components must be safeguarded so that together, we can ensure a better future for our current and future generations."

The Anfal campaign, named after the eighth chapter of the Quran, which was used as a code name by the Iraqi government, is one of the darkest chapters in Kurdish history. The campaign targeted Kurdish civilians, resulting in mass killings, destruction of villages, and widespread suffering.