Sema
Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani published a post in Arabic on Thursday, September 25, 2025, to mark the eighth anniversary of the Kurdistan Region’s independence referendum.
In his post, President Barzani said:
“The homeland is not a map on paper, but blood that runs through our veins. What you plant today, you will harvest tomorrow.”
The decision to hold the referendum was made on June 7, 2017, when Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani, who was then President of the Kurdistan Region, held a broad meeting in Erbil to set the date for the independence referendum. The meeting included government officials, representatives of political parties and forces, as well as officials from the Independent High Electoral and Referendum Commission in the Kurdistan Region.
The date of the referendum was set for September 25, 2017, and the independence option received an overwhelming majority of votes, with more than 93% of participants voting in favor of independence.