On July 17, 1994, the Kurdistan Students Union organization was granted an official regional operating license by the Ministry of Interior of the Kurdistan Regional Government1. According to the recommendations of the Eighth Congress, the Ninth Congress of the Kurdistan Students Union should have been held in 1995, but this date was delayed by three years. There were several reasons for the delay of this Congress, the most important of which was the involvement of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in the series of civil wars of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in May 1994. As a result, most of the Kurdistan Students Union headquarters fell to looting sprees and its members faced arrest and intimidation2.
Despite the difficult situation imposed, in the period between 1993 and 1998, nine broad meetings were held by the Executive Committee of the Kurdistan Students Union to reorganize their ranks and carry out student affairs. In the final meeting, namely the ninth meeting of the Executive Committee on April 17, 1998, the decision to hold the Ninth Congress of the Kurdistan Students Union was made3. The Congress Preparatory Committee was formed and until May 20, 1998, elections to determine the delegates of the Congress were held in the territory of all branches4.
Conducting the Congress:
After completing all preparations by the Preparatory Committee, on Wednesday, July 27, 1998, with the presence of 260 delegates, the Ninth Congress of the Kurdistan Students Union, under the slogan (Science, Freedom, Nurturing), was held in the presence of President Masoud Barzani, in the Cultural Hall of the city of Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region5.
On Wednesday, July 29, 1998, the Congress delegates voted for the members of the new Executive Committee6. For the first time in the history of the Kurdistan Students Union and the Kurdistan Democratic Party, a quota for women was set for their success to the Executive Committee, which resulted in four women benefiting from the women's quota.
In the Congress, the Executive Board was elected as follows:
1- Issa Ahmed Agha
2- Ali Awni Nimat
3- Shaban Shaban Ahmed
4- Shakir Abu Bakr Aziz
5- Awaz Abdulwahid Khidr
6- Ghalib Hussein Osman
7- Ahmed Mohammed Omar
8- Ali Tatar Tofiq
9- Musa Ahmed Agha
10- Hajar Kako Ahmed
11- Hangaw Abdullah Khan
12- Shamiran Ali Mohammed
13- Zubair Abdullah Hussein
14- Fakhir Hussein Sadiq
15- Mohammed Shukri Mohammed Saeed
16- Karwan Jalal Ali
17- Salam Hussein Mohammed
18- Samira Nadir Qadir
19- Bayan Osman Hassan.
The reserves were as follows:1- Nazim Rashid Ismail
2- Sirwan Osman Hassan
3- Muslih Hassan Miran
4- Murad Khoshawi Hussein
5- Shilan Jaafar Ali, known as Shilan Sheikh Jaafar7.
On August 12, 1998, the Executive Committee in its first meeting elected Ali Awni as Secretary and the following persons as members of the Secretariat Bureau:
1- Shakir Abu Bakr Aziz
2- Hangaw Abdullah
3- Shaban Shaban
4- Awaz Abdulwahid
5- Karwan Jalal Ali
6- Issa Ahmed Agha8.
Also in this phase, the Kurdistan Students Union became the owner of eight branches, which consisted of the branches of Salahaddin University, Raparin, Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, Duhok-Nineveh (the Duhok University branch was established in July 1998), Soran, Akre9.
Sources and footnotes
1- Sasan Awni, Kurdistan Students Union: Some Aspects of Struggle and History, (Erbil - Ministry of Education Press - 1998), p. 214.
2- Erfan Aziz Aziz, Congresses and Conferences of the Kurdistan Students Union, First Edition, (Erbil - Rojhalat Press - 2012), p. 128.
3- Sasan Awni, previous source, pp. 190-270.
4- Erfan Aziz, previous source, p. 129.
5- With the presence of President Barzani, our union held its ninth congress, Khabati Qutabiyan Newspaper, organ of the Kurdistan Students Union, Issue 31, Third Term, Erbil, September 20, 1998, p. 1.
6- Conclusion of the Ninth Conference of the Kurdistan Students Union by electing a new leadership, Khabat Newspaper, mouthpiece of the Kurdistan Democratic Party - Unified, Issue 885, Friday, July 31, 1998, p. 1.
7- Election of members of the new body of the Executive Committee of the Kurdistan Students Union, Khabat Newspaper, mouthpiece of the Kurdistan Democratic Party - Unified, Issue 886, Friday, August 7, 1998, p. 3; In a democratic atmosphere, the new board of the Executive Committee of our union was elected, Khabati Qutabiyan Newspaper, organ of the Kurdistan Students Union, Issue 31, Third Term, Erbil, September 20, 1998, p. 4.
8- Karwan Kadani, previous source, p. 25.
9- Erfan Aziz, previous source, pp. 137-145.