The factions of the Kurdish parties in the Kirkuk provincial council have called for the construction of an Anfal monument at the Topzawa military base. This request was approved by the Iraqi Martyrs Agency 10 months ago.
The two Kurdish factions of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan PUK and the Kurdistan Democratic Party KDP submitted the request to the speaker of the Kirkuk provincial council on April 13, the day before the anniversary of the Anfal.
They asked it to submit a request through both the Iraqi Martyrs Agency and the Ministry of Martyrs of the Kurdistan Regional Government in order to turn Topzawa military base into a monument for Anfal.
The request comes at a time when a number of activists in the field of Anfal and genocide have written a letter to Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Sudani, asking for approval of turning the base into a monument. The Security Council of Ministers forwarded the request to the Iraqi Martyrs Agency.
Hemn Hasib, a lawyer and coordinator of the petition, told KirkukNow that the petition from writers, activists, and genocide organizations was submitted to the prime minister and the Iraqi Martyrs Agency a year and a half ago.
“It should not have taken this long.”
The Secretariat of the Council of Ministers sent a letter to the Iraqi Martyrs Agency on November 2, 2023, and the Martyrs Agency requested the land property of the military base on September 9, 2024, according to the letters obtained by Kirkuk Now.
"After our efforts, six Kurdish members of the Kirkuk provincial council have asked the speaker of the Kirkuk provincial council to submit their request in writing to the Iraqi Martyrs Agency," Hasib said.
“A year ago, Ahmad Kirkuki took our letters from Facebook and wrote on his page that the decision to build a monument at the Topzawa military base was made at his request for this memorandum,” he added.
On the 36th anniversary of the Anfal crime, on April 13, 2023, a number of activists, writers and genocide organizations announced their steps for this purpose and once again insisted on the construction of an Anfal monument in Topzawa military camp.
On February 17, 2024, 44 writers and activists and 22 organizations in the field of genocide, submitted a request to the High Commission for Human Rights, to turn the Topzawa military camp, the place of imprisonment of Anfal victims, into a worthy monument.
The joint effort of the PUK and KDP members, despite their disputed, comes at a time while the request is at its final stages. The PUK participates in the local government of Kirkuk, while the KDP does not recognize the local government of Kirkuk.
Therefore, Hemn Hasib, an activist in the field of genocide, addressed the members, saying, "This memorandum either shows your ignorance of the city, or it is a way of showoff while we commemorate the crime of Anfal.”
The Topzawa military base was built in 1981 and later became a base of Jaish al-Shaabi. In 1987, the Topzawa village was destroyed, and its residents were forcibly relocated to Erbil province.
Witnesses and documents indicate that thousands of Kurdish citizens were imprisoned in the barracks before being transferred to the deserts of Samawa and Nugra Salman prison, where they were massacred during the 1988 Anfal campaign.
