Teachers from Sulaymaniyah Northern Province marched to Erbil on Tuesday February 9, despite the tight security checkpoints and violations, in order to convey their voices to Erbil, the capital of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region IKR, after two months of boycotting classes, which deprived 600,000 students of education, yet the government did not respond.
Teachers in tens of buses arrived in Koy Sanjaq district early in the morning, planning to head to Erbil to protest in front of the United Nations headquarters against the non-payment of their monthly salaries by the Kurdistan Regional Government KRG and the Iraqi Government.
Degala border is a prominent name for the border between the key tow Kurdish prolitical parties forming the KRG, decades partner and rivals: The Kurdistan Democratic Party led by Masoud Barzani, controlling the KRG, dominant in Erbil and Duhok, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan PUK, (Dominant in Sulaymaniyah and Garmiyan).
The teachers were allowed to cross into Erbil through the first checkpoint supervised by the PUK forces for nearly three decades, but Erbil security forces operating under the authority of the prime minister set up temporary barriers.
“Erbil is our city, the capital of Kurdistan” or “Peacefully, peacefully” were the slogans the teachers were chanting.
“We want to go to Erbil and take our voice to the UN office,” Faridun Hussein, one of the teachers, told KirkukNow over the phone.
This comes after 13 days of hunger strike by 13 teachers and staff, some of whom are in poor health due to the strike, according to health teams.
The teachers have set up tents in front of the UN office in Sulaymaniyah and their colleagues want to go to the UN office in Erbil “to make their voices heard” after their demands were not met.
“We are only demanding our rights, which is our salary,” Far Hussein added.
To prove their good wills, the teachers raised their pens in front of the security forces in Erbil to be allowed to enter Erbil.
Erbil Governor Omed Khoshnaw said, "Erbil is always hospitable and welcomes guests, but today it will not receive those unwanted guests."
The KDP lately has been launching a campaign to underestimate the hunger strike by protesting teachers.
The teachers managed to cross the temporary barrier of Erbil security forces and reached the Degala checkpoint run by the KDP, accompanied by a number of opposition members of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region Parliament.
Azad Karim, a member of parliament for the New Generation opposition party, said, "Tear gas was used against the teachers by the security forces to prevent them from crossing the barrier."
According to the scenes, a number of teachers fell to the ground as a result of the effects of tear gas, and other violations were witnessed, including assaulting teachers.
The new development comes at a time when 600,000 pupils of 3,000 schools in the IKR have been deprived of education for two months due to the closure of schools in Sulaymaniyah province.
According to the Kurdistan Teachers Union, at least 60,000 teachers boycotted classes.
Some teachers in Erbil decided last night to demonstrate in solidarity with the Sulaymaniyah protests, but in the first reaction, security forces were deployed in Erbil and in front of the citadel, home for protests and gatherings.
Security forces in Erbil arrested Nawzad Omar, a senior member of the Erbil Teachers Secretariat Council, an organization that defends teachers’ rights, after he confirmed that he was demonstrating for teachers’ rights.
Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, of the KDP who is currently a new cabinet, has not taken a position on the teachers’ protests over the past two months, but his spokesman attacked the strikers and accused them of being manipulated by others. The KRG Ministry of Interior expressed the same position.
Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani, from the PUK, visited the striking teachers in Sulaymaniyah on Sunday Feb. 9, at 8:30 am, his first visit since the protests began.
The visit, which was away from the media and without prior notice to the striking teachers, came after a spokesman for the striking teachers said on Friday that “the prime minister and his deputy are the same accused and negligent and both are responsible for this situation.”
“We will not trust anyone especially Qubad Talabani because he promised the people of this area many times and did not fulfill his promise,” said Hadi Hama Rashid, one of the striking teachers.
“We do not have an agreement with him and he came at a very bad time when we were asleep and unconscious, so he came (at that time) because he knew he is not welcomed in this gathering,” he added.
Teachers in Sulaymaniyah province have been protesting since 2015, when schools opened for only two months last year. Dozens of demonstrations have been held against the KRG over the past decade for not paying salaries on time.
During this period, the has failed to pay 16 full monthly salaries, and 44 salaries were distributed according to the 21 up to 25% savings and deduction system.
The total dues of teachers and employees to the government, in general, amount to between 20 to 35 million Iraqi dinars IQD (USD24,000), depending on their services and ranks.
The KRG has repeatedly called on teachers and employees to go to the federal government, and even Prime Minister Masrour Barzani himself accuses Baghdad of not paying the salaries of the KRG civil servants and teachers.
On February 21, 2024, the Iraqi Federal Court issued several decisions in favor of the KRG employees, including emphasizing that "not paying monthly salaries is an assault of their rights" and obligating the Iraqi Ministry of Finance to pay them via Iraqi federal banks.
But the Iraqi Ministry of Finance has repeatedly stressed that the KRG does not abide by agreements with Baghdad to reach a solution that ends the crisis, including saying that "local oil and non-oil revenues have not been channeled to the federal government."
It also stressed that the KRG is not ready to deposit employees' salaries, which they believe will prevent the existence of “ghost” employees, in reference to thousands of illusive names in the payrolls lists which do not exist.
On February 4, 2025, after dozens of meetings between delegations from the KRG and the central government, Amanj Rahim, Secretary of the KRG Council of Ministers, stated that according to the agreement between the two governments, Erbil and Baghdad have reached an agreement about payment of the 12 monthly salaries for 2025.
"Yet to ensure the continuity of this agreement, the Kurdistan Region will continue to implement its technical obligations and its oil and non-oil obligations, especially since there are no legal obstacles to exporting oil from the region by approving the budget amendment," he added.
One of the protesting teachers anonymously said, "They made a thousand promises and did not fulfill them, and we will not stop anymore."
The current stage of the protests is taking place in the Degala region, which has been divided into two yellow and green areas due to the bloody civil war that lasted for three decades, in reference to the flags of the two parties that have been ruling the IKR since 1991.
Ali Hama Salih, a member of parliament and decision-maker in the Halwest Movement, a new opposition party that has four seats in Kurdistan parliament, held KDP and PUK both accountable.
“When they come to agreement, they share domestic revenues yet when they fight, sons of ordinary people are killed.”
