NEWS CENTER - 36 years have passed since the massacre in Halabja in which thousands of people lost their lives as a result of the poison gas attack.

  

36 years have passed since the Halabja Massacre, carried out by Saddam Hussein on March 16, 1988, which left a dark mark on human history. The incident that took place in Halabja, located near the Iranian border, approximately 100 kilometers away from the city of Sulaymaniyah in the Federated Kurdistan Region, was considered one of the most painful massacres in the world in the 20th century.

 

'MASSACRE' HAS FALLED THE KURD'S SHARE

 

Towards the end of the war that broke out between Iran and Iraq on September 22, 1980, Saddam Hussein launched Operation Anfal against the Kurds between 1986 and 1988. Saddam Hussein headed towards the city after the Kurd parties of the period, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (YNK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), ended the conflicts between each other and allowed the Iranian army to enter Halabja. Following the rebellion that started in Halabja, Saddam Hussein instructed Lieutenant General Ali Hasan al-Majid al-Tikriti, known as "Chemical Ali", to use chemical bombs.

 

8 MiG-23 planes of the Iraqi army, which took off with the order given by "Chemical Ali", bombarded Halabja for 3 days. First, the windows were broken with conventional weapons, and then the second phase of the operation began. According to some studies, bombs known as cocktails consisting of a mixture of 12 chemical substances, and according to other studies as mustard and sarin gases, began to be left in the city in the second phase of the operation.

 

MORE THAN 5 THOUSAND PEOPLE MURDERED

 

The poisonous gases emitted due to the bombardment soon covered areas where thousands of people lived. Thousands of people who threw themselves into the streets in fear of their lives died due to gases. Heard a little boy running and saying, “Dayê bêhna sêva tê. (Mom, I smell apples)", where he spoke to his mother for the last time. It was announced that more than 5 thousand people lost their lives and more than 7 thousand people were injured due to the bombardment.

 

THE REAL FIGURES WERE NOT RELEASED

 

However, it was later determined by foreign delegations coming to the region that the number of people who lost their lives was higher due to the increasingly intense "apple smell". Although actual figures regarding the massacre cannot be reached, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that the massacre has caused the death of 43 thousand 753 people and the disability of 61 thousand 200 people so far.

 

Most of Halabja, which had a population of around 75 thousand at that time, was evacuated after this attack. Thousands of people tried to cross to Iran and Turkey, without being able to bury their relatives who passed away without understanding where death came from. In addition to people, many people who escaped from the bombardment, which caused the destruction of all living things in the city, lost their lives due to hunger and thirst in the places where they later settled. After the bombardment ended, all that remained was a ruined city.

 

THE EFFECTS STILL LAST

 

Even though many years have passed since the massacre, the people of Halabja still feel the effects of the gas released. Chemicals that cause temporary and permanent blindness have led to an increase in the number of birth defects, colon cancer, respiratory diseases, and miscarriage and infertility in women.

 

JOURNALIST OZTURK: INSTEAD OF GRASS, HUMAN BODIES WERE MOWED

 

Journalist Ramazan Oztürk, who later went to the city and announced the genocide to the whole world with his photographs, said the following about the massacre that the world turned a blind eye to: “All the streets were full of corpses. There was an unbearable smell around. The skin of some of the young babies was parched, and the bodies of some were purple. Most of the bodies belonged to women, children and elderly people. Some babies had jumped out of their mothers' arms and were lying sprawled on the ground. Some sit around a table in the courtyard of their house; some on the doorstep; While some are breastfeeding their babies; Some of them were caught in the grip of poisonous death while playing... In the empty fields outside the city, there were hundreds of people died. When viewed from afar, it was as if human bodies had been mown in the fields instead of grass. In this open-air cemetery, women and children were again the majority. They all huddled together, surrendering to the terrible death. Some of them died near puddles. These were people who tried to escape from being burned by chemical gases by dousing their bodies with water. In the background of the mass corpses, the image of animals that had perished and whose bodies were swollen due to the effects of poisonous gas while grazing stood out. In short, everything was in place, except for a few bomb-hit buildings, but all living things were dead."

 

Shortly after the Halabja Massacre, a ceasefire agreement was signed between Iraq and Iran, which had been fighting for 8 years, on August 19, 1988. 5 days after the ceasefire, the Iraqi army took back Halabja.

 

Despite all this, the people of Halabja were left alone for a long time after the genocide they were subjected to. Commemoration events are held every year on March 16 at the monument and museum built for those who lost their lives in the city.

 

SADDAM HUSSEIN WAS TRIALD FOR CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY

 

The Saddam Hussein regime, which ordered the Halabja genocide, was overthrown by the US intervention in 2003. He was tried and held responsible for the deaths of 180 thousand people within the scope of the Anfal Movement against the Kurds. Saddam Hussein, who was executed on December 30, 2006 with the death penalty he received from another sentence, was found guilty in the case where he was tried for committing "genocide" against the Kurds after his death.

 

Al-Tikriti, nicknamed "Chemical Ali", who was also tried for the Anfal Massacre and sentenced to death for "crimes against humanity and genocide", was executed on January 25, 2010.

 

IT WAS RECOGNIZED AS 'GENOCIDE'

 

The Iraqi Supreme Criminal Court recognized the Halabja Massacre as "genocide" on March 1, 2010. Following this decision, the Iraqi Parliament and the Federated Kurdistan Region Assembly, as well as Norway, Sweden and the UK, accepted what happened in Halabja as "genocide".