resident Barzani: Kurdish independence not ‘trump card’ against Iraq

Kurdish President Masoud Barzani encouraged the people to exercise their unity as they approach a vote on independence while speaking a ceremony on Monday to mark the 34th anniversary of the Barzanis' Anfal at the hands of the former Iraqi regime.

"Think about what's happened from Khanaqin to Zakho ... that requires us to think about unity, and being together and taking the step. That is the only and strongest weapon in our hand,” Barzani said pointedly addressing the “political parties and all the people in Kurdistan.”

Barzani delivered a speech from the Barzan area in the mountains of Erbil in the Kurdistan Region.

He said “there was a perception that this was a trump card we were hoping to exercise on Baghdad,” referring to a vote on Kurdish statehood.

“That was not a trump card, that was the conviction of the people of Kurdistan; And therefore that is why the decision was made that on the 25th of September of this year that the people of Kurdistan will go to the ballot boxes and exercise their right to self-determination,” Barzani said through a translator.