Masoud Barzani demands justice for Fayli Kurds
Shafaq News/ Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani on Tuesday said the former regime's atrocities against the Fayli Kurds were an episode of a series of crimes perpetrated by successive Iraqi governments, calling for justice and reparation.
"The disappearance of thousands of Fayli Kurdish youth, and the denial of identity to hundreds of thousands of Fayli Kurdish brothers and sisters by the former Iraqi regime, is part of a series of systematic crimes perpetrated by successive Iraqi governments to oppress and annihilate the Kurdish people in Iraq."
He further stated that the Fayli Kurdish people had suffered greatly under the Iraqi state, and their only crime was being Kurdish. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the Iraqi government to address these issues and provide compensation to the affected families, while also taking appropriate measures to eliminate the consequences of the genocide of the Fayli Kurds.
On the 43rd anniversary of the Fayli Kurdish genocide, Barzani paid tribute to the thousands of Fayli Kurdish martyrs, stating that "the Fayli Kurdish brothers and sisters have played a significant role in their national cause and the Kurdish liberation movement, and their loyalty deserves constant admiration and respect."
Under Saddam Hussein's three-decade regime, thousands of Fayli Kurdish youth were forcibly relocated to unknown locations, with many of them still unaccounted for and feared dead due to imprisonment or mass executions.
The Ba'athist regime launched a massive campaign in the late 1970s and early 1980s aimed at displacing Fayli Kurds, revoking their Iraqi citizenship, and confiscating their properties and funds.
The Fayli Kurds were subjected to deportation, displacement, arrest, and killing during the rule of former President Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr in 1970 and 1975, followed by Saddam Hussein's regime in 1980s. Historians believe that the displacement was due to their sectarian and nationalist affiliations.
In 2010, the Supreme Criminal Court issued its ruling on the crimes of displacement, abduction, and seizure of Fayli Kurdish rights, considering them as genocide.
The Iraqi government subsequently issued a decree on December 8, 2010, promising to remove the negative effects of targeting Fayli Kurds. On August 1, 2010, the Iraqi parliament recognizer the forced displacement and abduction of Fayli Kurds as a genocide.
