February 17 or “Bloody 17”: From Sniper Bullets to the Execution of Freedom in Badinan
Hemen Salar Faraj – Activist
Every year, as we reach the milestone of February 17, we do not merely revisit a memory; we reopen the grim pages of a governance that inaugurated its era with the blood of its own youth. Fifteen years have passed since that civil uprising a movement that sought to restore “dignity” to the Kurdish individual. Yet, the response from the authorities, instead of reform, was the “hunting” of dissenters.
The fundamental question remains: Did the KDP and PUK truly understand the message sent by the streets? No. They simply modernized their “techniques of suppression.”
Tribal Rule Behind a Mask of Institutions
If the streets in 2011 demanded an end to corruption, today we stand before an unprecedented “moral and political collapse.” The KDP and PUK have transformed the Kurdistan Region into two tribal estates. High-ranking posts are distributed not based on merit, but on “blind loyalty” and dynastic lineage. The division of “Yellow and Green zones” is no longer just geography; it represents two massive prisons where the citizen is treated as a meaningless statistic.
From “Physical Terror” to “Livelihood Terror”
On February 17, the authorities targeted the chests of young protesters with sniper bullets. Today, they employ a much “colder and more brutal” method: Starvation.
Through their sordid conflicts over oil revenues and border smuggling, the KDP and PUK have taken the people’s livelihoods hostage as a political bargaining chip. The region that was promised to become the “next Dubai” is now, under the shadow of these two parties, unable to provide its employees with the most basic right to life. Instead of building, they are busy “demolishing” the hopes of a generation that no longer feels a sense of belonging in its own homeland.
Badinan and Sulaymaniyah: When the Pen Becomes a “Spy”
The ultimate failure of this regime is revealed in its “slaughterhouse of freedom.” The imprisonment of activists and journalists in Badinan on farcical charges of “espionage,” alongside the violence against students in Sulaymaniyah, proves that these two parties know only one language: the language of force.
They no longer feel shame for their history. In their eyes, anyone who demands their rights is either a “terrorist” or a “foreign agent.” This is the mindset of dictators in the twilight of their fall.
Conclusion: The Walls of Fear Will Crumble February 17 is not just a memory for mourning; it is a “historical curse” branded on the forehead of a regime that offered bullets and dungeons instead of bread and liberty. The KDP and PUK must realize that no matter how high they build the walls of fear, or how much they expand their prisons, the flood of public rage will eventually sweep away their cardboard idols.
History is full of rulers who believed they could endure through oppression, only to remain now as “cautionary tales.” February 17 is a cry that will never be silenced not until the day the killers kneel before a true national court to answer for the blood of Rezhwan, Garmian, and all the fallen.
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