Kurdish leaders call for compensation on 38th anniversary of Anfal genocide

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Marking the 38th anniversary of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s Anfal genocide against the Kurds, Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani and Prime Minister Masrour Barzani called on the federal government in Baghdad to compensate for the victims and their families.

The Anfal campaign - named after the eighth surah of the Quran - was the codename for Hussein’s genocidal operation, which resulted in the deaths of an estimated 182,000 Kurds.

“Today, we solemnly commemorate the 38th anniversary of the notorious Anfal campaign of 1988,” President Barzani said in a statement. “This horrific crime, carried out by the former Iraqi regime, claimed the lives of more than 182,000 innocent children, women, and men of Kurdistan.”

He emphasized that “Anfal was not only a crime, but also a futile attempt to annihilate a peaceful people - an atrocity whose wounds remain deeply embedded in the fabric of the nation.”

President Barzani further underlined that it is the responsibility of the Iraqi federal government to provide both material and moral compensation to the victims’ families.

The Iraqi parliament officially recognized Anfal as genocide on April 14, 2008. Several senior military officials responsible for the campaign were sentenced to death, including Ali Hassan al-Majid, widely known as “Chemical Ali,” who was executed in 2010.

“On the international level, we will continue our efforts to secure formal recognition of Anfal as genocide, as part of our humanitarian and national duty,” Barzani added.

He also pledged ongoing efforts to locate mass graves and return the remains of victims to their families.

Prime Minister Barzani also called for reparations.

“On this occasion, we reaffirm that the Iraqi government must fulfill its moral and constitutional responsibility and provide proper reparations to the families of Kurdistan’s martyrs and victims of the Anfal genocide,” he said in a statement.

Despite the passage of nearly four decades, many survivors of the Anfal campaign say they have yet to receive any compensation from Baghdad.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani commemorated the genocide in a statement.

"As we recall those criminal campaigns against our Kurdish people, we take pride today in the unity of our country and the brotherhood among its components and nationalities, under a democratic, constitutional, and pluralistic system in which all Iraqis live with dignity, free from discrimination, targeting, or division," he said.

The Garmiyan phase of the campaign began on April 14, 1988, in the southernmost areas of the Kurdistan Region. This date is commemorated annually as the official anniversary of the Anfal genocide.