People across the autonomous Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq and in Kurdish communities around the world commemorated Kurdistan Flag Day on Wednesday. The day is meant to celebrate the Kurdish flag and focus on the Kurdish struggle for freedom and unity.
The day marked a “renewal of our vow to the symbol that embodies our identity of existence, our history, our struggle, and our aspiration for freedom and a dignified life,” Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani said.
The Kurdistan Region has been struggling to make sure it continues to retain its rights in the Constitution of the Republic of Iraq and prevent Baghdad from trying to weaken its autonomy.
The Kurdistan Region is very successful economically and tends to be very secure and stable. An expression of this stability is the opening of a new, large US Consulate General in Erbil.
The US has shifted many forces from other parts of Iraq to the Kurdistan Region, demonstrating confidence in the region.
“The Kurdistan flag was first raised over official government buildings in 1946, when Kurdish leader Qazi Muhammad declared the Republic of Mahabad in the city of Mahabad, in the Kurdish-majority western Iran (Rojhelat),” Kurdistan Region-based news channel Rudaw Media Network reported. “Although the republic existed only briefly, the flag has come to symbolize Kurdish resistance and nationalism in the face of oppression.”
The official day for the flag was created in 2004 by the Kurdistan Region.
“The Kurdish flag features a red band, representing the blood of those who sacrificed their lives for Kurdish freedom; a white band, symbolizing peace and equality; and a green band, reflecting the Kurdish homeland, its mountains, and serene waters,” Rudaw Media Network reported.
Significance of Kurdistan Flag Day
The importance of the day goes beyond celebrating the flag, the region, or the Kurds in general. It is a symbol of a people who have suffered greatly over the years in their struggle for rights.
Kurds have been oppressed historically in Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Iran. In each place, they have faced different types of oppressions. There are many millions of Kurds in each of those countries.
The Kurds were divided among these four countries due partly to colonial powers and those of other regions. For instance, after the end of World War I, the Ottoman Empire collapsed and was divided into pieces.
The British and French divided Iraq and Syria between their respective empires. This was also the era when the British took over the Mandate in Palestine.
Many peoples in the region, including Kurds and Jews, were seeking independence. The colonial era generally ended up sidelining minority groups in favor of creating Arab states that would be centralized. The seeds of many conflicts in the region can be found in that era.
The results for the Kurds were devastating. In Turkey, the new Turkish nationalist republic denied the existence of Kurds for many years, seeking to assimilate them as “mountain Turks” and oppressing their language and culture.
Over time, there has been a thaw in this oppression, but the overriding Turkish nationalism has never given way to complete coexistence.
In Syria, the Kurds were oppressed by the Arab-nationalist Assad regime. Many lacked citizenship, and they were also subjected to attempts to Arabize their areas.
The same thing happened in Iraq, with even more brutal results, under the genocidal Saddam Hussein regime.
Western countries generally coddled this oppression, seeking accommodation with Saddam’s Iraq or the Assad regime. Turkey, as a member of NATO, received a blank check to treat minorities however it wanted.
In recent years, things have changed. The Kurdistan Region came into existence as an autonomous region within Iraq after the US invasion of 2003. The area had already been receiving US support and protection to some extent.
Since 2003, the Kurdistan Regional Government has thrived and helped defeat ISIS. Nevertheless, it has also had setbacks. After a push for independence and a referendum in 2017, the federal government attacked Kurdish forces in Kirkuk.
The Iraqi federal government continues to harass Kurds in Kirkuk. Security forces also prevented Kurdish youth from hoisting the flag on a large Peshmerga statue in Kirkuk.
Kurdish officials stressed the importance of Kurdistan Flag Day in messaging on December 17. As the Middle East moves into a new era, the flag continues to represent one of the important groups in the region.