PM Barzani marks 46th anniversary of the Kurdish May Revolution 

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani marked the 46th anniversary of the 1976 May Revolution in the region on Thursday. 

Locally known as ‘Gulan’, the Kurdish month of May, the revolution was the extension of the September Revolution and foiled the “enemy’s aspiration” to annihilate the Kurdish people, the prime minister said in his statement. 

He remembered the Kurdish leaders that led the revolution, including the late Idris Barzani and his brother, the current President of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), Masoud Barzani. 

The Kurdish leadership marks the anniversary of the May Revolution every May 26 by issuing commemorative statements and holding photo exhibitions. 

President Masoud Barzani similarly issued a statement on Thursday in which he saluted all the Peshmerga forces and the families of martyrs as he reiterated that the Kurdish nation’s struggle for its rights is ongoing. 

The May Revolution erupted a year after the collapse of the well-known September Revolution spearheaded by the late Mustafa Barzani in 1975, which came about as the result of the Algiers Agreement signed between Iraq’s then-Vice President Saddam Hussein and the Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. 

Following a decade of armed struggle against Iraqi regimes, the Kurdish revolutionary leadership announced the revolution’s collapse due to the Algiers Agreement, which saw Iran sever covert aid and support to the Peshmerga.