Baghdad must punish the KDP and PUK, not Kurdish citizens

Kurdfile Editorial Team

On Wednesday, June 4, 2025, outside the Iraqi Embassy in London, a group of Iraqi Kurdish activists gathered to protest the ongoing withholding of salaries for public employees in the Kurdistan Region. Among them was Didar Askandar Aziz, who shared his perspective in an interview during the demonstration.

“By the hands of just fifty people, neither land nor nation remains,” participants were chanting. Solemnly, referring to the small circle of leaders within the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) who control the Region’s wealth.

Mr Aziz explained the core of the crisis: “The main reason the Kurdistan Region isn’t receiving salaries from Baghdad is that both the PUK and KDP have taken control of the oil and non-oil revenues here and cannot come to an agreement with Baghdad.”

Asked about who should bear the blame, Aziz was clear: “Baghdad must punish the KDP and PUK, not the citizens of the Kurdistan Region. It’s unjust to make ordinary people pay the price for political disputes.”

The protestors called on both Baghdad and Erbil to stop using the livelihoods of their people as political bargaining chips. Aziz expressed hope that international awareness and pressure might help break the cycle of corruption and suffering.

As the crowd chanted slogans demanding dignity and justice, their message echoed far beyond London: the Kurdish people refuse to be caught in the crossfire of power struggles that starve their nation.