'No surrender in Kurdish struggle for freedom': Barzani marks Zewa Massacre anniversary

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Marking the 33rd anniversary of the Zewa Camp Massacre, the Kurdistan Region’s Democratic Party President, Masoud Barzani, vowed to continue working toward Kurdish emancipation.

On June 9, 1985, Iraq’s former Baath regime bombarded the Zewa Camp in Iranian Kurdistan, where refugees from the Kurdistan Region had settled. The attack killed at least 140 people, including women and children, and wounded nearly 400 others.

Barzani, in a statement released on his personal website on Saturday, stated that from the tragic loss of life, that day became an important moment in Kurdish history and a “lesson in our people’s struggle and sacrifices.”

Barzani affirmed the Zewa massacre was a lesson for all those looking to erase the Kurdish identity that “the enemy,” no matter how brutal and oppressive, “cannot break the will of our people.”

“On the anniversary of this massacre, we remember the precious children we lost, but make them the light that guides us in our struggle and resistance,” Barzani said.

“The massacre was a lesson for us all. Take a brave mother, like Amina who had to collect the body parts [of her four dead sons], teaching us that even if the enemy tears our bodies apart, we will never bow to them,” Barzani stated, asserting that the people of Kurdistan’s struggle for freedom never ceases.

For Barzani, the path to freedom for an oppressed nation is wrought with sacrifice, a continuous struggle that requires people to maintain hope and never surrender.

Editing by Nadia Riva