İHD: Turkey should recognize Halabja Massacre as a genocide

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Releasing a written statement to mark the Halabja Massacre, the Human Rights Association (İHD) said Turkey should recognize the massacre as a genocide.

The Halabja Massacre committed by the Saddam Hussain regime in Iraq as part of the Anfal campaign is commemorated on March 16 every year.

• The Anfal campaign began on March 29, 1987 and continued until June 7, 1989. Ali Hassan al-Majid, the nephew of Saddam nicknamed "Chemical Ali," was authorized by the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council. 

The Saddam Hussain regime massacred more than 100,000 Kurds between 1983 and 1991.

In the airstrikes that started March 16, 1988, and lasted three days, the Halabja town and its surrounding areas were bombed with chemical weapons and more than 5,000 people were killed.

The İHD has recognized March 16 as the "Kurdish Genocide Day" and demands Turkey recognize the genocide.

Pointing out the definition of genocide in the UN Rome Statute, the association said, "The crimes that Saddam Hussein's regime aimed and committed, especially within the scope of Operation Anfal, are crimes of genocide."

Along with the High Criminal Court of Iraq and the Kurdistan Federal Region, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands and the UK have recognized the genocide, said the İHD.

"It will be meaningful and important that Turkey, where most Kurds live in the Middle East, recognizes the crimes committed within the scope of Operation Anfal as genocide," it said. (AS/VK)