“Today symbolizes the triumph of a nation’s will,” Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“Today is a historic day. It is the anniversary of the victory of the will of the Kurdish people against the oppression and injustice committed against our people,” he said, speaking during the inauguration ceremony of Project Bloom in Erbil. “There are still people and entities who believe that the Kurdish people should be punished simply for expressing their will to achieve their rights.”
Masoud Barzani, the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and former Kurdistan Region president, released a statement commemorating the occasion.
“Today marks the anniversary of the day on which the will of the people prevailed,” he said.
The Kurdistan Region held an independence referendum on September 25, 2017, despite a ruling from the Iraqi Federal Supreme Court a week prior to suspend the vote.
In November 2017, Iraq’s top court ruled that the Kurdish independence referendum was "unconstitutional," rendering its results null and void.
In 2014, the 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.
Since then, the city’s majority Kurdish component have reported being unable to freely celebrate cultural events.
