“This Friday, September 5, Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris, will inaugurate the Peshmerga Alley, in tribute to Kurdish fighters, alongside Masoud Barzani, President of the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq from 2005 to 2017, and leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party,” Hidalgo’s office said in a statement on Thursday.
The tribute will serve as a powerful symbol of gratitude for the sacrifices made by the Kurdish fighters.
"We owe a great deal to the Kurdish people and the Peshmerga. They fought so that we could have this freedom. It is only natural for Paris to give this tribute to them," Arnaud Ngatcha, deputy mayor of Paris, told Rudaw in April.
The Kurdistan Region and France enjoy close relations dating back to the 1980s. Danielle Mitterrand, first lady of France from 1981 to 1995, advocated for Kurds suffering under the regime of Saddam Hussein and was instrumental in campaigning for the no-fly zone that allowed the Kurdistan Region to develop its current autonomy. She was affectionately known as the “Mother of Kurds” and inaugurated the first Kurdish parliament in 1992.
A core member of the global coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS), France has trained about 10,000 Iraqi soldiers, including Kurdish Peshmerga, and its armed forces continue to play a key role in the fight against ISIS.
