Senior Kurdistan Region leaders praise role of Kurdish Writers' Union on 50th anniversary
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Senior Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) leaders released separate statements on Monday to congratulate the Kurdistan Writers’ Union for its Golden jubilee achievement.
“I extend my warmest congratulations and wish you success and perpetuity,” KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said on the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Writers’ Union. “Your organization, without a doubt, had an apparent and effective role in the Kurdistan Region’s literary and cultural movement.”
Prime Minister Barzani also praised the Writers’ Union for its part in “preserving and developing the Kurdish language,” as well as its role “in emphasizing the democratic and national rights of the people of Kurdistan, which through its valuable outputs served the enlightenment and the movement of the Kurdish nation.”
The Kurdistan Writers’ Union was established in 1970 by a handful of elite Kurdish writers. It was later approved by Iraq’s interior minister, paving the road for Kurdish literature and culture. The Union was dismantled by the previous Ba’ath regime in 1980. However, Kurdish writers and scholars continued their work until it was officially re-established after the 1991 Kurdish uprising.
Elsewhere, KRG President Nechirvan Barzani also extended his congratulations toward the Writers’ Union for its role in the intellectual and literary movement in the history of the Kurdish people.
“Writers and scholars are bridges of convergence between their people and the world, and the presence of any Kurdish author and writer in the libraries of the world is a presence of the identity and history of the Kurdish people,” President Barzani said in a statement.
The Kurdish president also urged Kurdish writers “to strive and go beyond the borders of Kurdistan and translate their products into living languages in the world and stamp their influence in the world of creativity and beauty.”
He added that this anniversary demonstrates respect for half-a-century of the struggle of an organization through pens, ideas, and productions.
President Barzani underlined that the 50-year march of the Kurdish book has always stood against barriers and has been an advocate for the liberation movement of the people of Kurdistan, stressing that it would continue to stand for the same values.
Editing by Karzan Sulaivany