ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Halabja University is planning to include genocide studies as part of the university's future programs, an attempt designed to attract greater world attention towards academic recognition of past genocides in Kurdistan.
“It is the first time the genocide studies will be offered and studied in an academic institution in the Kurdistan Region,” said Dr Nariman Abdullah, head of the School of Basic Education at the university.
“The role of academic institutions is important,” he said. “All aspects of genocide will be studied scientifically, and this in turn helps further international recognition of Kurdish genocide,” he added.
Last December, Kurdish minister of higher education Dr. Yousif Goran said on a visit to the university that a genocide research center would be established at the institution.
“We will turn the research center (at Halabja University) into a large academic center for the recognition of genocide so that all of Kurdistan Region will benefit from it,” he vowed.
In the meantime, genocide studies figure among the major subjects offered at the university’s law college, and there are plans to also offer it in the department of history.
Halabja University is a public university opened in 2011. The new campus is still under construction.
Ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein ordered the chemical bombing of Halabja on March 16, 1988 during the closing weeks of the eight-year war with Iraq. The attacked killed 5,000 people and wounded thousands more.
The Iraqi High Criminal Court recognized the Halabja massacre as an act of genocide in March 2010.
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