Poland to provide more aid, maintain good ties with Kurdistan

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Poland aims to extend its humanitarian assistance to the Kurdistan Region, and provide educational support to the people of the semi-autonomous region, a Polish envoy on Sunday affirmed.

“A very important fact regarding relations between the KRG and Poland is that we do have our representation here because, of course, previously Poland has not been represented in the region,” Polish Consul-General in Erbil, Dominik Musial, told Kurdistan 24 on the 100 anniversary of Poland’s Independence Day.

Poland is a member of the US-led coalition in the fight against the Islamic State (IS). The country has been involved in providing humanitarian support to refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).

Poland opened its consulate in the Kurdistan Region in 2012. In addition to the Iraqi Embassy, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) also has its representation office in Warsaw, led by Ziyad Raouf.

“Mr. Ziyad Raouf also mentioned, it is quite important that Poland can extend a kind of assistance and help, in terms of education and care, a kind of knowledge-sharing because of our experience of what happened throughout the past decades, and say, even centuries,” Musial said.

The envoy noted that at the beginning of December, Polish Minister for Refugees, Beata Kempa, would visit the Kurdistan Region to meet with officials and discuss the humanitarian situation in the region.

Musial stated that stability is very important for the Kurdistan Region and Iraq. He hoped the new government and parties in the Kurdistan Region would reach consensus and cast aside their personal interests for the betterment of the country.

“I think balance and consensus, understanding between the parties is one thing that we could call the [ultimate] goal, so that everyone is actually thinking about pretty much the same [aim], not just thinking about what his party or her party could do, but what is good for the country in general,” he added.

Editing by Nadia Riva

(Blesa Shaweys conducted the interview)