In Memory of 31 August Betrayal

PUKMEDIA

Erbil in 1996 and Ba'ath regime's soldiers standing before their tanks in the city.

Nearly three decades have passed since the treacherous events of 31 August, yet the wounds of this national tragedy have not fully healed.

Our people have not forgotten the dark and bitter day when the tanks of the Ba'ath regime, with the support and invitation from the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), occupied Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region. The same Ba'ath regime that killed over 180,000 Kurds and committed the most notorious crimes against our people during the Anfal campaigns, the Halabja chemical bombardment, and many more.

The misguided political choice of resorting to the occupying regime to resolve internal conflict has left lasting scars. To this day, our people remain the primary victims of such policies. While there was hope that the patience of our people, and entrusting the lessons of 31 August to the court of history, might open the way for reconciliation and peace, the wound of that day continues to fester, unhealed.

For 29 years, this grief has endured, awaiting a new page that can heal the wounds of the past and honour the martyrs who gave their lives for Kurdistan’s freedom.

The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the first victim of that military aggression which claimed the lives of many of its commanders and heroic Peshmergas, reaffirms its enduring principle: political disputes must never be settled through weapons or foreign intervention, but through dialogue and understanding. Only this path can safeguard our democratic experience and return it to the course of growth, reform, and development.

This is the path that will safeguard our experience and guide it once more towards growth, reform, and development. For this purpose, the PUK has always prioritised the highest interests of our people and has never hesitated to make sacrifices to this end.

On this painful anniversary, we once again renew our national pledge and salute the souls of the martyrs of 31 August 1996, and all the martyrs of our people.



PUKMEDIA