ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leader Masoud Barzani has been invited to attend the opening of a Peshmerga park in Paris, the Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) representative in Paris said on Thursday.
“He [Masoud Barzani] will be officially invited to open a park in Paris named Peshmerga, because Sarok [Barzani] is a Peshmerga himself and the mayor of Paris has officially invited him to open the park, which, God willing, will open soon,” Ali Dolamari told Rudaw.
No date has been announced.
Dolamari said that at a Newroz reception in Paris, many diplomats and officials expressed their support for the park and for the Kurdistan Region, noting Barzani’s role in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS) and as a Peshmerga.
Barzani’s invitation came from the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, according to Dolamari.
The Kurdistan Region and France enjoy close relations dating back to the 1980s. Danielle Mitterrand, first lady of France from 1981 to 1995, advocated for Kurds suffering under the regime of Saddam Hussein and was instrumental in campaigning for the no-fly zone that allowed the Kurdistan Region to develop its current autonomy. She was affectionately known as the “Mother of Kurds” and inaugurated the first Kurdish parliament in 1992.
Barzani compared Hidalgo to Mitterrand during a trip to Paris in 2016.
A core member of the global coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS), France has trained about 10,000 Iraqi soldiers, including Kurdish Peshmerga, and its armed forces continue to play a key role in the fight against ISIS.
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