Peshmerga veteran of 1991 exodus remembers Azmar battle

SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region – The Azmar Legend, which marked an intense armed conflict between Kurdish Peshmerga forces and the ex-Baathist regime during the mass exodus of the spring of 1991, is still honored in the memory of Peshmerga fighters who took part in the fight.

Rudaw visited Azmar Mount in the city of Sulaimani, where 27 years ago a group of Peshmerga confronted a huge army.

Fadhil Rauf, a Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) official in Sulaimani, took part in the famous battle, helping to repeatedly repel the advance of Saddam Hussein’s forces.

“He had brought a massive force that came toward Kalakan, Hanaran, Sulaimani and Goyzha. The government then heavily bombed these areas ... Forces were coming up these valleys and the bombardment was constant. That day, we defeated the force three or four times by noon,” Rauf remembered. 

Ten days after the Kurds liberated the whole Kurdistan Region, including the city of Kirkuk, in March 1991, Saddam’s regime brutally returned, forcing more than one million Kurds to abandon their homes and flee to the mountainous areas bordering Turkey and Iran.

A vast majority fled to Iran while others travelled to western countries.

Every year on March 31, the people of the Kurdistan Region commemorate the 1991 exodus. 

“Nechirvan Barzani’s headquarters was based in Abu Sana in Sarchinar Park when I visited and told him the situation was bad,” Rauf explained.

“He said he held a meeting with Mam Jalal [Talibani] who had asked for the gates to be opened. Flocks of people from Garmian and Sulaimani went.”

The humanitarian calamity and the heartbreaking television images of children, the elderly, women and men making the difficult journey urged the UN Security Council to impose a no-fly zone over northern Iraq’s Kurdish territories. 

“The government made the 12th [of March] the last day of war to see how far they can go,” Rauf said. 

“The fight in Kore led by Mr President [Masoud Barzani] — the Kore and Azmar legends were together. The government couldn’t succeed. The fighting ceased at 5:30 p.m."

“Kurdistan Front parties, led by Mam Jalal, and we as the KDP were represented by Mr Fazil [Mirani], went to Baghdad for the first dialogue. A coordination committee was formed and the people gradually moved back to Sulaimani.”