By Arian Mufid: Professor Kamal Mazhar Ahmed, born on the 14th of February 1937 in the town of Akjalar, which belongs to the city of Kirkuk He was born to a father who was a civil servant and born on Valentine’s day. This is the probable reason for his lifelong love and passion for his…
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Category Archives: History
Kamal Mazhar Ahmad, 1937-2021
KT News: Kurdish historian Professor Kamal Mazhar Ahmad has passed away today at a hospital in Bonn, Germany. Professor Ahmad was born in Sulaymani province in 1937 and completed his education in the Soviet Union before returning to Iraq. He had studied Kurdish history since 1959. During the Kurdish uprising in 1974 he joined the…
The Endless Cycles of Betrayals and Killings of the Kurds
By Dr. M. Koohzad: After the defeat of the Turkish Ottoman Empire in WWI (1914 – 1918), European victors dissected the world’s most potent Muslim Empire. In the middle of the Great War, the Allies predicted the result of the conflict and planned to take over by signing the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement. The two, a…
Kamaran Said Majeed, The Veteran Kurdish Fighter
By Friends of Kamaran: Kamaran Said Majeed, who died of Coronavirus complications on 9th April, was a Kurdish activist, humanist and dedicated family man. He held British citizenship, but he remained at heart a Kurd, through and through. He was born to a large family of 9 in 1959, in Sulemani (officially called Al-Sulaymaniyah) in…
Ten Days in Kurdistan
An Irishman recalls a solidarity visit to North Kurdistan back in the 1990s. First published on Rebel Breeze By Diarmuid Breatnach: I was anxious for the Turkish airline plane to take off but it was being held up by Turkish State security agents. Two of them were walking down the airplane aisle from the forward…
Mufti Penjweni, The Awakening And Righteousness Poet
The faculty of Kurdish studies of the college of languages at the university of Sulaimaniyah in partnership with the District Directorate of Penjwen, is organising a conference about the great Kurdish poet of the locality of Penjwen, Mufti Penjweni, on 18th and 19th of August 2018. Bookmark on Delicious Recommend on Facebook Share on Linkedin Tweet about…
The Massacres and Oppression of the Kurds in 20th Century Turkey
By Helin Newroz Boztosun: The 20th century was one of the most destructive eras in Kurdish history. While you may be aware of the current Kurdish-Turkish conflict, such as Turkey’s recent attacks on Afrin, Syria, most of you probably don’t know of their historical campaigns against the Kurds, and other minorities for that matter, until…
Sykes-Picot: An Agreement That Should Have Never Been – Part III
By Hiwa Nezhadian: In Part I and Part II, the agreement and its aftermath for the Kurds in Turkey, Iran and Iraq was discussed. Western Kurdistan (Syria) Western Kurdistan has always opposed French or Arab domination. When Qudsi and Azam seized power in September 1961, they campaigned against Kurdish nationalism and accused Kurdish leaders of…
From a Tribal Chief into an Emperor, King, President or Dictator Leader
By Abdul-Qahar Mustafa: In Mesopotamia people in the past believed that if they appointed a single person in power with good faith and trust, he would extend justice and goodness over society, over every single individual, and bring them all blessings and rights within the orbit of his justice. But history and life experiences have…
Sykes-Picot: An Agreement That Should Never Have Been (Part II, Eastern & Southern Kurdistan)
By Hiwa Nezhadian: In Part I the Sykes-Picot agreement and its impact in Northern Kurdistan was discussed Eastern Kurdistan (Iran): In 1917 Serdar of Maku, who established the first Kurdish school in 1913, was invited to Tabriz for negotiations but was poisoned and killed. His abundant wealth was confiscated by the Iranian parliament. By summer…
Aleppo and Hatay
By Dr Jan Best de Vries: During the Ottoman Empire the now allegedly Turkish province of Hatay formed part of the Vilayet of Aleppo and on the basis of geography rightly so (just have a look on the map of West Asia). Now that Salafist Turkey, after the failed coup by remaining secular parts of…
Sykes-Picot: An Agreement That Should Have Never Been (Part 1)
By Hiwa Nezhadian: Part I Between November 1915 and March 1916 a secret agreement was agreed upon by British colonel Mark Sykes, and French diplomat Francois Georges Picot with the assent of the Russian Empire on the division of the Middle East after the fall of the Ottoman Empire and it was signed in May 1916. The…
The Task of the Kurdistan People on the Hundredth Anniversary of the Sykes-Picot Agreement (16 May 1916)
By the Executive Council of the Kurdistan National Congress / KNK: Kurdistan is a rich and a fertile land. Therefore, it has been subjected to aggressions and occupations. The richness of Kurdistan has always attracted both neighboring countries and other countries far away in a colonial-interest manner. They all have exploited Kurdistan and have tried…
Sykes-Picot and Kurdish Hopes Today
By Dr Simon Ross Valentine: It has been stated with much justification that “the twentieth century was a period of false promises, betrayal, and abuse for Kurds”.(1) Such “abuse” was exemplified in the Sykes-Picot agreement, a secret deal signed by Britain and France 100 years ago, on 16 May 1916. Sykes-Picot divided the Middle East…
Mahabad Amnesia
By Ata Hariri: In the modern age it is all too easy to get caught up in what is going on today and tomorrow, and forget what happened yesterday, last week, last decade. At first this may not seem like such a bad thing — after all the future is what is important, right? Well…
