Iraq Army Day was Monday, January 6. The day was celebrated by the Iraqi military, but a growing murmur filled the air as the people of Kurdistan rejected the holiday and instead honored their own Peshmarga forces by opening a photographic exhibition of anti-Kurdish atrocities committed by the military under Saddam Hussein.

Genocide is the manifestation of hell on earth. Since the 1960’s, the Kurdish people have lived in terror when a systematic and brutal campaign for their extinction began. During the height of Saddam Hussein’s regime, he launched the Anfal campaign, resulting in varied reports of the actual numbers of civilians killed. More than 5,000 civilians were killed in one attack, while hundreds of thousands more are believed to have died throughout the bloody regime of Saddam Hussein. To date, we know over a million people are missing, over 50,000 deaths have been documented by Human Rights Watch and this does not include all of the dead.

Additionally, the Kurdish people have become dispersed when many fled the area as a matter of survival. Of these people, many will not be able or willing to return, taking with them portions of the cultural fabric which has woven the people together. As these people resettle in various parts of the world, they are no longer able to participate in the traditional community appreciated by their ancestors.

Occupy World Writes stands in solidarity with the people of Kurdistan who have suffered beyond measure. Their honor and dignity as a people should remain a lesson to the world that the human spirit will not be defeated.