Iraqi Kurdistan: Kurdish Genocide Conference Begins In Erbil

MESOP 15.3.2013 – The Kurdish Genocide International Conference is taking place in Erbil this week. It aims at informing the international community about the massacre against Iraqi Kurds and marks the 25th anniversary of the bombing of the city of Halabja.

The Kurdish Genocide International Conference kick-started here on Thursday to inform the world about massacres against Iraqi Kurds. The three-day conference marks the 25th anniversary of bombing Halabja city by chemical weapons in the 1908s by the former Iraqi regime led by Saddam Hussein. In a keynote speech, Minister for Martyrs and Anfal Affairs in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Aram Ahmad shed light on the crime committed against Kurdish people in Anfal. President of Kurdistan Region Masoud Barzani said the Anfal genocide had left 182,000 victims, saying the crime actually began in 1975, and reached its acme in 1988.

He called for more local and international efforts to find the corpses of Kurdish victims and to step the promotion of this genocide worldwide. However, he said the incumbent Iraqi government is not responsible for such crimes.

Kurdish efforts to gain international recognition of the massacres against them at the hands of Saddam Hussein’s regime date back to early 2008. At the time, Iraq’s parliament recognized the Anfal Campaign carried out by Iraqi forces in 1988 as an act of genocide against the Kurds.