Sixty-four years ago today, a sixteen-year-old from the Barzani family left school and walked into the mountains to join the Peshmerga.
On May 20, 1962, in a remote area cut off from the outside world, President Masoud Barzani made contact with the Barzani headquarters and enlisted in the ranks of Kurdish fighters — a decision that would define every chapter of a life spanning revolution, war, and diplomacy.
On this anniversary, he made clear that nothing has changed.
“From the heart, I tell you: Wherever I am, the greatest and most sacred name and duty for me is that of Peshmerga — and I am a Peshmerga,” President Barzani said.
President Barzani joined the Peshmerga at the outset of the September Revolution, the first national Kurdish uprising, which was led by his father, the Kurdish national leader Mulla Mustafa Barzani.
The revolution transformed the Kurdish struggle, and for the first time in history, it compelled the Iraqi government to formally recognize Kurdish rights, culminating in the 1970 autonomy agreement that acknowledged the Kurdish people as a principal partner in the Iraqi state.
Reflecting on the significance of that era, President Barzani described it as a movement that announced the Kurdish cause to the world. “It was an armed, political, and social revolution — one that opened wide doors for the people of Kurdistan,” he said.
President Barzani did not lay down his Peshmerga identity when the Gulan Revolution gave way to a new era. Through the Gulan Revolution and the subsequent risings of the Kurdish people, he remained shoulder to shoulder with the Peshmerga, fulfilling what he has always called his most sacred duty.
As that revolutionary phase concluded and freedom was won, it was President Barzani — as a Peshmerga — who was the first to call for democratic rights and elections for the people of Kurdistan.
Within that democratic climate, he continued, as a Peshmerga, to steadfastly defend and consolidate Kurdistan’s achievements.
After 2003, he carried that same identity into Baghdad, defending the gains of the Kurdish people as a Peshmerga and pressing consistently for the federal system.
Among his most enduring efforts was his insistence that the Peshmerga be preserved as a formal, recognized force and guardian of Kurdistan, a status that was ultimately enshrined in the Iraqi constitution.
When ISIS swept across Iraq in 2014, seizing vast territories and threatening the very existence of Kurdistan, President Barzani — then serving as President of the Kurdistan Region — stood alongside his fighters on the front lines, rallying international military and political support for the Peshmerga and leading the defense of the Region in one of the most consequential battles in its modern history.
During the war against ISIS, President Barzani — then serving as President of the Kurdistan Region — stood as a Peshmerga alongside his fighters on the battlefronts, participating directly in the defense of Kurdistan and commanding the war effort against the terrorist group.
He secured major international political and military support for the Peshmerga and for Kurdistan during that existential fight.
President Barzani is a fierce and uncompromising devotee of the Peshmerga ethos. He has always appeared and carried himself as a Peshmerga, defending Kurdistan and Kurds wherever they are.
Sixty-four years on, his love for the Peshmerga and his devotion to this sacred duty have only grown stronger. For President Barzani, the Peshmerga is the greatest honor — one that no rank or position could ever replace.