On 100th anniversary of Iraq, Kurds seek compensation for past atrocities

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A group of politicians, academics, and civil society figures on Monday launched a campaign in Erbil to seek compensation, both material and non-material, for crimes committed in the name of the Iraqi state against ethnic Kurds over the past 100 hundred years.

The program, called the Kurdistani Campaign Against One Hundred Years of Oppression by the State of Iraq, comes as the Middle Eastern nation marks the 100 year anniversary of its establishment as a state, starting with a monarchical system that endured until it was toppled in a 1958 coup.

The campaign organizers, including former politicians and civil society figures, intend to introduce the drive as a “national” effort seeking political, economic, and social compensation for the past 100 years that Kurdish people endured as the hands of consecutive Iraqi regimes.

“Regardless of difficulties and obstacles, the complaints will be addressed to all the three branches of the state of Iraq,” namely, the judiciary, the legislative, and the executive, a statement from the campaign read. The organizers say they will submit a copy to the United Nations and other international humanitarian organizations.

Those leading the movement also added that the campaign belongs to all ethnicities, religions, and sects of the country as they had been the victims of repressive regimes alongside ethnic Kurds.

When French and British powers redrew the map of the former Ottoman Empire following World War I, areas with historical Kurdish majorities were divided among Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria.

Editing by John J. Catherine