Twinning plan with Iraqi city proposed
The link with Portsmouth will be discussed by the city council at a meeting on Thursday.
A proposal for a friendship link between a UK council and an Iraqi city is set to be considered, in recognition of a figure who protected British soldiers during and after World War One.
Portsmouth City Council is due to examine the possibility of establishing a bond with Halabja, a Kurdish city in north-eastern Iraq.
The plan was originally put forward in 2019 by Kurdish Home, a Portsmouth-based support group representing the city’s Kurdish community, but the Covid-19 pandemic brought progress to a halt.
According to the group, the link would pay tribute to Lady Adela, a Kurdish noblewoman of the Jaff tribe, which governed the Halabja region in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.
She was acknowledged for helping preserve peace, restore stability and assist the British during World War One, including by hosting delegations in the city.
In 1919, when Kurdish nationalist leader Mahmud Barzanji rebelled and began a targeted campaign to kill all British political officers, Lady Adela stood against him.
She offered shelter to British officers in her own homes, protecting them from execution.
The British government later honoured her with the title of Khan Bahadur, meaning Princess of the Brave.
A council report said a connection with Halabja could bring Portsmouth benefits through "educational partnerships, cultural exchange, community cohesion, civic engagement and the strengthening of Portsmouth's international relationships".
Halabja sits close to the border with Iran
The Iraqi city was the location of the largest chemical weapons attack in history directly targeting civilians, carried out by Saddam Hussein's regime in March 1988.
About 5,000 people were killed and thousands more were injured.
The possible link has been supported by the local Kurdish community partly because of the shared suffering experienced in 1988 and Portsmouth's during the Blitz, which killed nearly 1,000 people.
Although the council said there were "limited resources" to establish and maintain the link, its twinning advisory group will discuss the proposal on Thursday.