Forty-four years ago today the bombardment of the city of Qaladizah by the former Iraqi government resulted in the martyrdom and wounding of dozens of people of Iraqi Kurdistan. The University of Suleimaniya, then located in Qaladizah during the September (Eylul) Revolution, was targeted.

On that day, the former Iraqi government expressed its hatred by trying to destroy the city and the will of the people of Kurdistan. Bombing campaigns, chemical weapon attacks, community destruction, and forced dislocation were prevailing features of the Iraqi government.

Qaladizah and other cities and villages stood steadfast and the will of our people’s love for life was strengthened. From that one university in Qaladizah in all of Iraqi Kurdistan, reconstruction, modernization, and urbanization have since produced thirty universities plus other institutions of higher education today.

To overcome the neglect and destruction imposed, during decades, by the  Iraqi successive governments on Iraqi Kurdistan , the Kurdistan Regional Government continues to rapidly develop and erase the negative economic, social, psychological, and cultural features of the past.

On this anniversary, we salute the memory of the martyrs of the 1974 bombing, martyrs of the 1982 Qaladizah uprising, and all martyrs of Kurdistan.

Kurdistan Regional Government
Council of Ministers
24 April 2018