Kurdish President Barzani: The Sykes-Picot Agreement Has Failed; It Is Time To Establish A Kurdish State | MEMRI

In a statement on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Sykes-Picot agreement, Masoud Barzani, president of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, called on the international community to acknowledge that the Sykes-Picot agreement has failed. Barzani said that this agreement, which disregarded the makeup of the region and the will of its peoples, was a great injustice perpetrated against these peoples, especially against the Kurds. For the Kurds of Iraq, he said, it resulted in 100 years of discrimination and atrocities perpetrated against them by the various Iraqi regimes. Barzani stressed that, despite this, for 100 years these Kurds did their best to protect the integrity of the Iraqi state. But today, the countries of the region and the world at large must not allow the tragedy to continue, but must allow the peoples of Iraq to determine their political future. Barzani called for a serious dialogue between Baghdad and Erbil to reach a new solution. „If partnership cannot be achieved, let us be brothers and good neighbors,“ he said.