ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s parliament on Monday officially recognized Halabja as the country’s 19th province and the Kurdistan Region’s 4th, passing a long-awaited bill in a session attended by 178 out of the legislature’s 329 members.
The Iraqi Council of Ministers had in December 2013 approved a proposal to make Halabja the country’s 19th province, separating it from Sulaimani province. However, political disputes between Erbil and Baghdad, as well as division among Sunni and Shiite lawmakers, stalled the bill for more than a decade.
Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani on Monday hailed the move as a “a source of great joy for us and for all the people of Kurdistan,” expressing hope that the move would be “a stepping stone for a better life, development, reconstruction, and progress for Halabja in all areas.”
The Kurdistan Region’s Council of Ministers had declared Halabja a province in 2014, making it the Region’s fourth. Four years later, the Iraqi Ministry of Interior formally recognized Halabja’s provincial status, but the Iraqi parliament’s ratification remained pending.
President Barzani on Monday stated that while “we had already begun the process of recognizing it [Halabja] as a province within the Kurdistan Region, today’s official recognition and completion of the necessary measures in Iraq.”
“This is the least that could be done in return for the sacrifices, suffering, and resilience of Halabja and its proud people,” he stressed.
Speaking to Rudaw on Monday, Halabja mayor and acting governor Nuxsha Nasih extended her “warm congratulations to the entirety of the Kurdish nation” and “to the families of the martyrs of Halabja.”
Halabja stands out as a potent symbol of Kurdish resilience.
On March 16, 1988, near the end of the eight-year Iran-Iraq War, the forces of toppled Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein bombed Halabja with chemical weapons. The gruesome attack claimed the lives of at least 5,000 people - mostly women and children - and injured thousands more.
Nasih, on Monday said “the souls of the 5,000 people who suffocated [to death by chemical weapons] are at peace today.”
Of note, the Halabja chemical attack was part of the Baath regime’s broader Anfal campaign in which more than 182,000 Kurds were killed.
Halabja mayor and acting governor, Nasih, also expressed gratitude to the Kurdistan Region President Barzani who phoned her despite being on an official visit to Paris to hold talks with French President Emmanuel Macron.
Addressing President Barzani, Nasih stated, “We know that your heart is with Halabja” and “we await to celebrate with you in Halabja.”
For his part, Iraq’s Second Deputy Parliament Speaker Shakhawan Abdullah also extended his congratulations to “all the people of Halabja and Kurdistan on the occasion of the vote.”
It is worth noting that Abdullah was one of the key figures spearheading the effort to elevate Halabja’s provincial status. In late March, he announced that he had been engaging with parliamentary bloc leaders in Baghdad to wheel the bill forward.
