On Sunday, top Kurdish leaders marked the 38th anniversary of the Anfal campaign, commemorating the painful memory of the genocide committed by the Ba’ath regime against the Kurds in the 1980s.

“Anfal remains a deep wound in the hearts of all the people of Kurdistan,” President Masoud Barzani said. “It is one of the most horrific crimes carried out in a systematic and deliberate manner by the former regime in Iraq against the people of Kurdistan. These inhumane acts resulted in the loss and martyrdom of 182,000 Kurdish citizens, who had committed no crime other than their Kurdish identity.

“[The Ba’ath regime’s] crimes also included chemical bombardment, Arabization policies, forced displacement, demographic change, the destruction of thousands of villages, and attempts to eliminate all means of life in Kurdistan.”

During the eight stages of the Anfal campaign in the 1980s, over 180,000 men, women, and children from Kurdistan were killed by the Ba’ath regime during the Iraq-Iran War. Moreover, over 4,500 villages were demolished in an attempt to destroy Kurdistan’s rural way of life and heritage.

“The Anfal genocide campaign was among the most brutal ethnic cleansing and genocide operations carried out by the former Iraqi regime against the people of Kurdistan,” Kurdistan Regional Government Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said in a post on X. “The Anfal genocide resulted in the disappearance and martyrdom of thousands of innocent people of Kurdistan and the destruction of thousands of Kurdish villages and rural communities.

“The genocide and the massacres committed against the people of Kurdistan must always remain in our memory, and our future generations must know that the achievements we have today were not gained easily, nor were they granted by anyone, but are the fruits of the struggle and the blood of thousands of Kurdistani martyrs.

“On this occasion, we reaffirm that the Iraqi government must fulfill its moral and constitutional responsibility and provide proper reparations to the families of Kurdistan’s martyrs and victims of the Anfal genocide.”

In a separate statement, Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani underlined that Anfal was not a brutal attempt to eradicate a peaceful people, leaving deep scars that continue to affect the nation today.

“On the international front, we will persist in our efforts to have Anfal recognized as an act of genocide,” President Nechirvan Barzani said. As part of our humanitarian and national obligation, we will tirelessly pursue the search for and return of the martyrs’ remains and ensure they are brought back to their homeland. It is imperative that we provide significantly more support to the surviving families of Anfal.

“On this commemoration, we stress that safeguarding the constitutional status of the Kurdistan Region and our achievements can only be realized through the unity and joint efforts of all political parties and communities. This represents the highest form of respect for the martyrs’ sacrifices and is essential for securing a brighter future for the next generations.”