Idris Barzani: The Peacemaker

Sometimes before March 1974, at the height of the Cold War and as Iraq was trying to contain the Kurdish rebels in the north, a delegation headed by a young Kurdish man was in Baghdad to try and maintain a fragile treaty that had been in existence for four years. The Kurds and the central government in Baghdad then reached an understanding to end the war.

The main official on the Iraqi side was Saddam Hussein who was frustrated by the lack of progress. He was the second in command in Iraq and threatened the Kurdish delegation that if they did not commit to peace with Baghdad, he would compromise with his enemy, Iran, to defeat the Kurds.

The young man heading the Kurdish delegation was Idris Barzani, the most trusted son of General Mustafa Barzani who had spent most of his life fighting the central government to win more right for the Kurdish people. 

Idris Barzani turned to Hussein and advised him to make a compromise with the people of his country, the Kurds, rather than the enemy.

Hussein did not listen and made concessions to Iran which then stopped providing assistance to Kurds. The Kurdish rebellion unraveled and tens of thousands of people became refugees many ended in Europe. 

This documentary is the story of that young man who ended up fighting the central government again in the 1980s before his death in 1987. 

He wanted to make peace with Baghdad, a peace that has eluded Iraq for decades.