ERBIL () - Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani on Friday marked the ninth anniversary of the Kurdistan independence referendum, invoking the popular will expressed in the Sept. 25, 2017, vote.
"May the triumph of the people's will remain blessed and enduring,"Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said on Friday, Sept. 25, 2026.
His message came nine years after voters in the Kurdistan Region and Kurdistani areas outside the Region's administration went to the polls in a referendum on independence from Iraq. More than 92% of participating voters backed independence, according to referendum figures and records published by the Kurdistan Region Presidency.
The referendum remains one of the most consequential political events in the Kurdistan Region's modern history, reflecting longstanding Kurdish aspirations for self-determination while also triggering a period of heightened tensions between Erbil and Baghdad.
According to figures from the vote, 4,561,255 people were eligible to participate and 3,305,925 cast ballots, representing turnout of more than 72%. Of those who voted, 2,861,471 supported independence.
The vote followed a June 7, 2017, meeting of senior Kurdish political parties, Kurdistan Regional Government officials and President Masoud Barzani, at which the leadership agreed to proceed with the referendum and established a High Council to oversee preparations.
The council included representatives of several Kurdish political parties, including the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), Kurdistan Islamic Union, Kurdistan Islamic Movement, Kurdistan Toilers' Party, Kurdistan Communist Party and Socialist Party.
The Kurdistan Parliament subsequently approved the referendum by a majority vote on Sept. 15, 2017, while the Kurdistan Region's High Electoral and Referendum Commission was tasked with organizing the ballot.
The referendum was held across the Kurdistan Region as well as in Kurdistani areas outside the Region's administration, including territories whose status has long been contested between the Kurdistan Regional Government and the Iraqi federal government.
The Kurdistan Region Presidency says disputes between Erbil and Baghdad over those territories, particularly the unresolved implementation of Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution, as well as disagreements over oil and other questions, contributed to deteriorating relations in the years preceding the referendum.
Kurdish leaders presented the referendum at the time as an exercise in self-determination rather than a decision belonging to any one political party. President Masoud Barzani, who led the referendum campaign, repeatedly described the ballot as a decision for the people of Kurdistan to make.
In remarks before the vote, he said the Kurdish political leadership had agreed on Sept. 25 as the referendum date and maintained that the people had the right to determine their political future.
The Iraqi federal government rejected the referendum and did not recognize its result. The Kurdistan Region Presidency records that the vote was followed by another period of tensions and complications between Baghdad and Erbil.
Those tensions intensified in October 2017, when Iraqi forces moved into Kirkuk and other Kurdistani areas outside the Kurdistan Region's administration after Peshmerga forces withdrew from a number of positions.
The loss of Kurdish control over Kirkuk became one of the referendum's most consequential immediate political and territorial outcomes.
The events surrounding Kirkuk in 2017 has been a major turning point in the subsequent relationship between Kurdish authorities and Baghdad.
Despite the political consequences that followed, the referendum continues to occupy a prominent place in Kurdish public memory.
On its ninth anniversary, citizens across the Kurdistan Region have again shared photographs and memories of the campaign and voting day, recalling Sept. 25, 2017, as a defining episode in the Region's recent political history.
Prime Minister Masrour Barzani's anniversary message placed that legacy squarely on the popular mandate expressed at the ballot box, describing it as the enduring "triumph of the people's will."
Report updated on Friday, Sept. 25, 2026, at 9:20am.
