Over a half century later, top Kurdistan leaders remember historic agreement

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Top Kurdish officials on Thursday continued to commemorate the signing of what is known as the March 11 Agreement between the former Iraqi regime and leadership of the Kurdish revolutionary movement in the country made during the first months of the 1970s.

After years of fighting the Iraqi government, the Kurdish liberation movement led by Mullah Mustafa Barzani reached the landmark deal with Baghdad that granted Kurds autonomy in some areas within Iraq.

Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leader Masoud Barzani – part of the original deal-making – issued a statement for the occasion on Thursday in which he reiterated its importance as an “official recognition” of the right of Kurdish self-determination in Iraq, according to a statement from his office.

Barzani also said that the document “proved that Iraqi authorities cannot break the will of Kurdish people through coercion and weapons.”

The 1970 accord is still widely considered as one of the more serious attempts at resolving longstanding conflicts between Iraqi regimes and the nation's Kurds, making it a significant national milestone. 

Although it stipulated that the Kurdish people had the right to political representation in the Iraqi government, Baghdad later refused to recognize the autonomy it outlined and signed a pact with Iran in an effort to quash Kurdish liberation movements in both nations.

“Resorting to force and withdrawing from the March 11 Agreement only led to further destruction and wars over the years,” Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani recalled in his own statement.

“All of us in Iraq should learn lessons from history and past mistakes and uphold the constitution and preserve partnership,” President Barzani wrote, adding, “This is the only path towards peace, stability and development for the country and all its components.”

Earlier in the day, Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani used the anniversary to stress the importance of solving ongoing Baghdad-Erbil negotiations aimed at solving longstanding key disagreements between the two on issues such as finances, disputed territories, and oil.

Read More: On “March 11” anniversary, PM Barzani stresses solution to disputes with Baghdad

“On this occasion,” he said, “we stress a fundamental solution of our problems with the federal government on the basis of preserving and ensuring the constitutional rights of the people of Kurdistan and laying the foundations and principles of the federal system in Iraq.”

Editing by John J. Catherine