Kurdistan
Kurds flying the Kurdish flag during an event to urge people to vote in the independence referendum in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region, on September 15, 2017. Photo: Safin Hamed/AFP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdistan Region’s top officials on Sunday commemorated the fifth anniversary of the Kurdistan Region’s independence referendum held in 2017.
Prime Minster of the Kurdistan Region Masrour Barzani tweeted saying, “on this day the will of the people triumphed” along with footage showing thousands of Kurds participating in the 2017 independence referendum.
“The history of our people is full of pride and prosperity, but at the same time, it is a history full of pain and suffering,” Masoud Barzani, Leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), said in a speech delivered at the fifth festival of the Kurdistan Writers’ Union in Duhok on Sunday.
“We must not allow our enemies to please themselves by saying that we have broken their will, because if our will is broken, know that we will have no value and all the achievements we have will be lost,” he added commemorating the 2017 referendum.
The Region held an independence referendum on September 25, 2017, despite a ruling from the Iraqi Supreme Court a week prior to suspend the vote.
In November 2017, the Iraqi Federal Court ruled that the Kurdish independence referendum was "unconstitutional" and therefore its results are null and void.
In 2014, a joint administration of Kirkuk between Erbil and Baghdad came to an end when Islamic State (ISIS) militants seized control of a third of the country. When ISIS entered Kirkuk province, Iraqi forces dissipated and Peshmerga forces filled in the vacuum.
Kirkuk remained under full Kurdish control until October 16, 2017, when Iraqi forces retook the city, expelling Kurdish security forces, following the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) independence referendum.
Kirkuk used to be controlled by Kurdish Peshmerga forces; it fell to the hands of the Iraqi forces in October 2017 following an independence referendum by Kurdish authorities in the province and the Kurdistan Region. Since then, Kurds have been unable to freely celebrate ethnic events.
By Klawdia Martani
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