KRG genocide ministry wants ban on ‘notorious’ business names after ‘Hitler Restaurant’ closed

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)’s ministry on genocides is calling for a legal ban on businesses using names of people who committed crimes against humanity following the closure of “Hitler Restaurant” by security forces in Duhok.

The spokesman for the KRG’s Ministry of Martyrs and Anfal Affairs said that certain names should be off limits, especially considering massacres committed by former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein against Kurds, which is the ministry’s domain.

"We are not just calling for the prohibition of the use of notorious names by businesses who have committed crimes against humanity, but also criminalizing those who deny that [dictators and] criminals have committed crimes across Iraq," Fuad Osman told Rudaw English on Wednesday. 

“There are still many people who praise Saddam Hussein on social media. The government must through law prevent such things.”

Last month, images of “Hitler Restaurant” in the city of Duhok began circulating on social media in the Kurdistan Region. Hitler led Nazi Germany in World War II, and was responsible for the Holocaust that led to more than 10 million Jews, gypsies, Poles, political dissidents, homosexuals and others being systematically murdered in concentration camps. 

Kurds have experienced systematic killings at the hands of the state as well. During the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, Hussein’s forces ordered close to 200,000 Iraqi Kurds killed in what is known as the Anfal genocide. 

Kurdish security officials closed down Hitler Restaurant on Tuesday night following a social media controversy over the name. A member of Kurdistan Region security forces known as Asayesh said they closed the restaurant due to the public outcry.

"People were not happy with it," the Duhok Asayesh official, who wished to remain anonymous, told Rudaw English on Wednesday."Therefore, we decided to remove the name of the restaurant."

The owner of “Hitler Restaurant,” Reber Mohammed, said he opened the establishment around six months ago.

After Rudaw did a video report on the restaurant’s controversial name, some people downplayed the issue on social media, while others criticized the government for permitting the issuance of a licence under the name of such an infamous figure.

In an interview with Rudaw English on Tuesday, Mohammed distanced himself from Hitler, and said he named the restaurant after the dictator to gain publicity.

"Hitler was the dictator of Germany and has nothing to do with me. I know I have named my restaurant 'Hitler', but that does not mean that I love him,” Reber Mohammed told Rudaw English. “I have done it just to make my restaurant famous among people.”

Mohammed said officials did not pay the name much attention when he was registering the restaurant.

“Even when I started the paperwork seven months ago to register my restaurant's name, I did not receive any negative reactions from the government or security forces,” he said. “It was quite normal.”

Related: Owner of ‘Hitler Restaurant’ in Duhok wanted his restaurant to be ‘famous’ 

The “Hitler” part of the restaurant’s sign had been removed when Rudaw visited the Duhok premise on Wednesday morning. 

The Asayesh official said the restaurant could reopen under a new name. 

‘We have shut down the restaurant until the owner changes the name,” the official said. 

However, officials from both the legal committee in the Kurdistan Parliament and the Duhok Chamber of Commerce and Industry told Rudaw on Tuesday that no law exists regulating the name of restaurants.