In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
The crime of the Barzani Anfal on July 31, 1983, was part of the beginning of a series of organised crimes committed by the former Iraqi regime against the people of Kurdistan.
This chain of atrocities began with the disappearance of twelve thousand young Feyli Kurds, followed by the Anfal campaigns in Garmian and Badinan, the chemical bombardment of Halabja and other areas of Kurdistan, as well as Arabisation, forced displacement, and dozens of other inhumane crimes—all carried out by the former Iraqi regime with the aim of erasing the identity and breaking the freedom-loving will of our people.
During the Barzani Anfal, the former Iraqi regime detained eight thousand young and elderly Barzani men—solely for being Barzanis and Kurds, and under baseless pretexts—and after transporting them, committed a mass genocide against them in the deserts of southern Iraq in an inhumane manner.
It is a matter of great regret that, to this day, the wounds of none of these massacres and genocides have been healed.
Here, we emphasise that it is the duty of the Iraqi state to provide material and moral compensation for all the crimes and injustices committed against the people of Kurdistan during the past century.
On this forty-third anniversary of the Barzani Anfal, I extend my gratitude to the people of the Erbil Plain, Harir, and Soran, who stood in solidarity with the Barzanis and provided them with assistance during those painful moments.
I express my appreciation for the unparalleled resilience of the families of the Anfal victims, especially the strong and steadfast Barzani mothers and women who, for many years, endured the agony of separation and the loss of their loved ones, yet never bowed their heads and instead raised thousands of proud, patriotic children.
On this sorrowful anniversary, we send our salutations to the pure souls of the Barzani Anfal victims and all the martyrs of the Anfal and the martyrs of the Kurdish path to freedom.
Masoud Barzani
July 31, 2026