ERBI, Kurdistan Region – Kurdish leaders have paid tribute to former South African President Nelson Mandela, likening his struggle to that of the Kurdish people for freedom and justice.

“Today the world lost a great political leader who valued democracy and peace more than his own lost life in prison,” said Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani in a statement posted on the government website.

Mandela died at home, aged 95, after months of intensive medical care for lung infection he contracted during his 27-year imprisonment on Robben Island.

“Mandela has a special place in the heart of the people of Kurdistan,” said Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barzani. “Our people have also suffered oppression and misery.”

After his release from prison Mandela led South Africa's transition from white-minority rule in the 1990s and he served as the country’s first back president from 1994 to 1999.

The former South African president had expressed support for the Kurds on several occasions.

In 1992 he turned down the Kemal Ataturk award from the Turkish government for “human rights violations in Turkey.”

“Nelson Mandela has spent his whole life in the service of democracy, human rights and freedom from oppression. The ANC wishes to state quite categorically that Mr Mandela has not accepted the Ataturk Award, and has no plans to visit Turkey,” said Mandela’s African National Congress (ANC) in 1992.

“Although Mr. Mandela did not have a chance to visit Kurdistan, he felt strongly for the Kurdish cause and made it clear on several occasions that our struggle to survive and achieve justice was a universal call,” said PM Barzani.

The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) led by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani also sent a message of condolence to the people of South Africa, saying, “He [Mandela] has taught the Kurds that no regime or force can stand in the way of basic Kurdish rights.”

Former Kurdish Prime Minister Barham Salih described Mandela in a tweet as “Inspiration for human dignity, justice & forgiveness.”

On his official Facebook page, Khalid Azizi, the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran wrote, “We the Kurds of Iran who face discrimination and oppression by the Islamic Republic everyday, hold Mandela in high esteem.”

Azizi recalled a conversation between himself and current South African President Jacob Zuma from last year in which President Zuma had said, “Mandela has great sympathy for the Kurds and he wants the freedom of your nation.”

RUDAW