ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The bill to elevate Halabja to provincial status is likely to be passed following its inclusion in the Iraqi parliament's agenda for Tuesday’s session, according to Second Deputy Parliament Speaker Shakhawan Abdullah. The parliament’s official agenda, released on Monday, lists the first item as “Voting on the draft law establishing Halabja province.” The session is scheduled to take place at 8:00 pm local time in Baghdad. “Today I spoke with the other parties in the parliament so that [the bill] is passed in a consensus vote,” Abdullah told reporters on Monday, adding, “I have spoken with the larger blocs [in the legislature], they do not have an issue [with passing the bill].” “This is the smallest gesture of loyalty to present Halabja, and it is a symbol that is given to those people,” Abdullah stressed. In December 2013, the Iraqi Council of Ministers approved a bill to make Halabja the country’s 19th province. However, strained relations between Erbil and Baghdad, along with disagreements between Sunni and Shiite blocs in the Iraqi parliament, have delayed the bill’s passage. The Kurdistan Region’s Council of Ministers issued a decision in 2014 to designate Halabja as a province, making it the Region’s fourth. Four years later, the Iraqi interior ministry recognized it as a province. On the 37th anniversary of the 1988 Halabja chemical attack on March 16, Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani, Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leader Masoud Barzani, and Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani urged Baghdad to shoulder the responsibility of compensating the victims and elevate Halabja’s status to a province. On March 16, 1988, towards the end of the eight-year war between Iran and Iraq, the city of Halabja was targeted with chemical weapons by the regime of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. The attack resulted in the deaths of at least 5,000 people, primarily women and children, and injured thousands more. The massacre was part of the toppled Baath regime’s Anfal campaign against the Kurds, which killed over 182,000 people. Halabja has a population of about 120,000 and consists of four subdistricts: Khurmal, Biyara, Bamo, and Sirwan. It is also a popular tourist destination.
