18 December 2017: responding to the call of the Goran Party, several thousands of officials demonstrated, at Sulaymaniyah, the second town in the Iraqi Kurdistan, calling for the resignation of the regional government.

The demonstrators, directly challenging the authority of the Barzanis, were displaying placards slamming “26 years of robberies and poor decisions”. Some of them, unable to exercise self-restraint, set alight the headquarters of the PDK, the Barzanis’ Party (Sunnites), as well as that of the PUK party allied to the Taliban (Shiites).

The population has been rebelling against the Barzani family following the occurrence of two events:
– the Iraqi soldiers taking back control of the Arab town of Kirkuk, which had been illegally occupied by the regional government of Kurdistan and colonized; and
– the resignation of President Massoud Barzani who is now without mandate.

Translation
Anoosha Boralessa