The Co-Presidency of the KCK Executive Council issued a statement on the 37th anniversary of the "genocidal Anfal Campaign, a crime against humanity committed by Saddam’s Baathist regime against the people of southern Kurdistan."

The statement underlined that "In that genocide, 182,000 Kurds, above all women and children, were brutally murdered. The Anfal Campaign was not only a genocidal crime but also a femicide and ecocide. An important geography of southern Kurdistan, its natural habitats, villages, and hamlets were destroyed in such a way that they will never be inhabited again. We condemn the Saddam Baath regime and the mentality and politics behind it for committing this crime of genocide, femicide, and ecocide. At the same time, we respectfully bow to the memories of those who lost their lives in this massacre and offer our condolences to their relatives and the entire Kurdish people."

The statement added: "The genocidal Anfal Campaign is just one of the genocidal attacks that the Kurdish people have suffered in the recent past. The politics and mentality that deny the existence and freedom of the Kurdish people have never hesitated to carry out genocide and massacre attacks such as the Anfal Campaign whenever they had the opportunity. It is the interest calculations of the forces of capitalist modernity, which manifested in the Treaty of Lausanne a century ago, and the sexist, nationalist, religious, and fascist characters of the nation states in the region that lead to genocides such as the Anfal Campaign. This is why, after the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne, crimes of genocide were committed against the Kurdish people in the four parts of Kurdistan. The massacres in Dersim (tr. Tunceli) and Geliyê Zilan (tr. Zilan Deresi) were followed by the massacres in Halabja, Shengal (Sinjar), in the cinema of Amude, and most recently in the village of Berxbotan in Kobane/Rojava."

The statement continued: "The Kurdish people have waged great struggles and resistance against this genocidal mentality and politics, which the Treaty of Lausanne laid the foundation for, and insisted on their existence and free life at great cost. As the region is being redesigned in the new century, there are various conspiracies and plans of regional powers against the existence and freedom of the Kurdish people. At such a historic juncture, Rêber Apo [Abdullah Ocalan] has called for “Peace and Democratic Society”, which is labeled as the Manifesto of the Century, in order to protect the Kurdish people from new genocides, femicides, and ecocides such as the Anfal Campaign, Halabja, and Shengal and to determine a new strategy of struggle.

As the Kurdish people and all the peoples of the region, we can prevent new Anfal Campaigns and guarantee the existence and freedom of the Kurdish people and the peoples of the region by embracing the call, struggling for the physical freedom of Rêber Apo, who made the call, adopting the call as a paradigm of struggle, and fulfilling its requirements in all areas of life. On this basis, we once again commemorate the martyrs of the genocidal Anfal Campaign with respect and reiterate our promise to uphold their memories by raising the struggle for freedom and democratic society."