ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The city of Paris plans to name one of its streets after the Peshmerga in tribute to the “bravery” of Kurdish fighters, Erbil’s governor announced on Friday.
“As a tribute to the bravery of Peshmerga forces, Paris municipality plans to name one of its streets after the Peshmerga in the very near future,” Omed Khoshnaw said in a statement following his meeting with Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo in Lausanne.
Erbil and Paris signed a “friendship and coordination” deal in 2019, becoming sister cities.
The bravery of the Peshmerga forces in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS) between 2014 and 2017 made international headlines. The Kurdish force, a key ally of the US-led global coalition against ISIS, was able to prevent the terror group’s advances in areas disputed between Erbil and Baghdad. France was one of the main backers of the Peshmerga in the fight.
The Peshmerga, which translates as “those who face death,” began as guerilla fighters combating the Iraqi regime. After 2003, they became the official military forces of the Kurdistan Region and global allies are working with the Peshmerga to mold them into a modern army and remove political influence over the forces.
Kurds have a close relationship with France, dating back to the 1980s. Danielle Mitterrand, first lady of France from 1981 to 1995, advocated for Kurds who were suffering under the regime of Saddam Hussein and was instrumental in campaigning for the no-fly zone that allowed the Kurdistan Region to develop its current autonomy. She was affectionately known as the “Mother of Kurds” and inaugurated the first Kurdish parliament in 1992.
France was one of the first countries to open a consulate in the Kurdish capital of Erbil after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003 and played a critical role in helping Kurds both in Iraq and in Syria in the war against ISIS.
When Kurds in the Kurdistan Region held an independence referendum in 2017, Baghdad imposed a flight ban on the Region for months. A historic visit by President Nechirvan Barzani, then prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government, to France helped reconnect the Kurdistan Region to the world.
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