Gary Kent, who served as secretary of the UK Parliament’s All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on the Kurdistan Region in Iraq for two decades, this month decided to step down and received a letter of appreciation from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Department of Foreign Relations on April 10.

Kent has been an advocate of the Kurdish cause since the 1990s. “I was first involved in supporting the Iraqi Kurds in 1991 when Harry Barnes, the member of Parliament (MP) I worked for, was asked to help British Aid for the Kurds, which had collected blankets and provisions,” Kent told Kurdistan Chronicle.

“After the liberation of Iraq in 2003, we sought to find allies in Iraq that could help overcome sectarianism and advance democracy. We teamed up with the new and growing Iraqi trade unions and then formed Labour Friends of Iraq. In 2006, a major British union

sponsored a team of senior British Labour Party and Trade Union leaders to visit the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) to meet senior leaders from across Iraq,” he added.

“I was captivated by the beauty and hospitality of the region and then discussed how to help more with the KRG High Representative in London, Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman. MPs established an all-party parliamentary group in November 2007. I was its secretary until last year. I organized 16 parliamentary delegations and have visited the KRI 38 times, plus three visits to Baghdad.

The bipartisan UK APPG, now led by UK MP John Slinger, was established to foster friendship and mutual understanding between the people and representatives of the KRI and the UK. The group recently visited the Kurdistan Region, and met senior Kurdish officials, including KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani.

Read More: UK Parliament, U.S. Congress Delegations Aim Deepen Ties with Kurdistan

Prime Minister Barzani expressed his gratitude to the group, thanking the British government for the support provided to the KRI in defending the rights of its people. He also commended the group’s efforts to strengthen bilateral relations.

“I wish to express my sincere appreciation for your notable service and dedication over the past two decades in strengthening relations between the KRI and the UK through your role in the APPG,” Safeen Dizayee, Head of the KRG Department of Foreign Relations, said in the letter.

“Your commitment and persistent efforts have significantly developed ties of friendship and collaboration between our nations. We greatly value your role in engaging with MPs and the British government to advocate for stronger cooperation with a nation and government that are proud of their partnership with the UK,” he said.

Read More: Anglo-Kurdistani Relations: Much Done, More to Do

Kent said that the APPG’s work has made a difference in highlighting the desire of the KRI to link with friends. 

“We focused on specific changes such as persuading the British government to send an official trade mission. We also persuaded the British House of Commons to formally recognize the Anfal Genocide. We also persuaded the Top Gear program to visit Kurdistan, which they found to be safe and beautiful. That message reached millions of people.”

“Some kindly say I am an expert on Kurdistan in the UK, but it’s more like being a big fish in a small pond,” Kent added. “I have always been keen to increase the number of people with a good understanding of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and many MPs have acquired a good knowledge of Kurdish issues on our delegations.”

Kent says that he will continue to give advice to the UK APPG on the Kurdistan Region because its members are mostly new UK parliament members who need to learn more about the Kurdistan Region. 

“Political priorities on foreign policy are increasingly taking up my time, so I decided to stand down as the formal secretary of the APPG,” he stated. However, he said he will not forget the Kurds. “I will be returning every now and then to the KRI where I have many friends. Things have been bleak in the last decade but there are positive signs of greater confidence and resilience and a sense that a stronger KRI is an important player in the Middle East.”