President Masoud Barzani marks 60th anniversary of becoming a Peshmerga 

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Friday the 20th of May marked President Masoud Barzani’s 60th anniversary as a Peshmerga, his office announced. 

On May 20, 1962, the President of Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) Masoud Barzani was sworn into the Peshmerga forces, fighting in the well-known Kurdish revolt – the September Revolution – against the former Iraqi regime. 

“The President’s 60-year consistent of his service to Peshmerga is a torch of struggle and resistance,” Barzani Headquarters wrote in a statement. 

President Barzani saluted all the martyrs and members of Peshmerga forces in a tweet marking the occasion on Friday. 

In 2005, he became Iraq’s Kurdistan Region's president and held the position until 2017. In the difficult years after 2003, when Iraq was undergoing severe civil strife, he spearheaded the region’s development.

Barzani has said on numerous occasions that he is “still a Peshmerga,” even after years of holding the Kurdistan Region Presidency. 

The Kurdish independence referendum, which more than 90 percent of inhabitants voted in favor of, was led and orchestrated by Barzani. 

Born on August 16, 1946, in Mahabad in Iranian Kurdistan, Barzani has been a remarkable figure in the Kurdish struggle for autonomy. 

He is the son of the late Mustafa Barzani. Mustafa Barzani spearheaded the September Revolution, forcing the Iraqi government to recognize the Kurdish nation’s cultural and political rights for the first time in the history of the country.