Statement by Martyrs Affairs Committee on 38th anniversary of killing of 8,000 Barzanis

Thirty-eight years ago, on a day like today, the Ba’athist regime carried out their plan to round up members of the Barzani tribe who lived in forced resettlement camps. They separated 8,000 Barzani civilian men and boys from their families, took them to a distant location, and soon after killed them and buried them in mass graves.

This was not the first crime by the Ba’athist regime and other Iraqi regimes against the Kurdish people in general and the Barzanis in particular. It was another grim episode in the series of crimes against the struggle of the Kurds and of the Barzanis.

It also marked the start of a series of extreme crimes that the Ba’ath committed in the face of the Kurdish people's resistance, including chemical weapons attacks and the Anfal campaign.

The Barzanis became the target of our nation’s enemies because they were Kurds and took part in the revolutionary struggle for the rights of the Kurdistani people, rights that are granted by all human and divine laws.

This crime is considered a genocide by all international legal standards. Iraq is a party to the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and to other human rights agreements.

As well as putting on trial and bringing to justice the perpetrators of this crime, the Iraqi government must apologize to the people of Kurdistan, compensate the survivors of this and all other similar crimes committed against the people of Kurdistan, and rebuild their areas.

On this sad occasion, we bow our heads to the victims of this crime and to all the martyrs of Kurdistan, and we ask the Iraqi government to carry out its duty to protect and implement the constitutional rights of the people of Kurdistan, and to take every necessary step to prevent such crimes from happening again in the future.

Committee on Martyrs Affairs, Genocide, and Political Prisoners

Kurdistan Parliament

31 July 2021