ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Masoud Barzani, former Kurdistan Region president and leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), on Saturday marked the 79^th anniversary of the party’s establishment, stating that the party has always been a tool to defend the rights and identity of the Kurdish people.

President Barzani said in a statement that the KDP’s formation on August 16, 1946, was “a historical necessity for the continuation of the Kurdish people's struggle against the conspiracy of Kurdistan’s invaders who tried to break the will of the people of Kurdistan and silence their struggle.”

“Since its establishment, the KDP has been a tool for defending the rights, identity, and existence of the people of Kurdistan, and at the same time has been a tool for achieving the democratic, national, and ethnic goals of the Kurdish people,” the statement added.

The Kurdish leader stressed that the KDP has always “carried the message of peace, deepening multilateralism, brotherhood, and coexistence,” calling on all the party’s members and supporters to “be at the level of the greatness of their party's history” and continue to fulfill their duty of serving the Kurdistan Region and working toward its prosperity and stability.

Seventy nine years after its establishment, the KDP remains the ruling party in the Kurdistan Region. The party emerged as the clear victor in the Kurdistan parliamentary elections in October 2024, receiving around 810,000 votes –almost doubling the votes of its nearest competitor the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).