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…
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Category Archives: History
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…
Portsmouth’s Halabja Memorial Ceremony, 16 March 2016
By Judith Kerby & Brian Futcher: Wednesday, 16th March 2016 at 12.00 noon Ceremony held in the Garden of Hope, (D-Day Museum), Clarence Esplanade, Portsmouth PO5 3NT The Kurds have suffered many tragedies not least being 16th March 1988 when chemical bombs were dropped on Halabja, immediately killing 5,000 men, women and children and leaving thousands more destitute and…
Iran: Between Fuad and Behrouz, an Islamic Fascism!
By Rebwar Rashed: Iran, according to US President Carter in 1977, was “an island of stability in one of the more troubled areas of the world”. But it became a centre of murder and destruction just two years later. The Ayatollahs came to power in 1979 and established the Islamic state which soon developed into…
Ignoring Self-Determination: The Imperialist Agenda and The Artificial Failed State of Iraq
By M.I. Augustine: From the time Cyrus the Great of Iran conquered Babylon in 539 B.C., all the way until British cartographers created something called “Iraq” in 1920, the area along the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers was never a united political entity. Due to one very important business interest, the British, after WWI, clumsily drew…
For History — Unfiltered: How Arab, Turkish, and Persian So-called Intellectuals and Educators Fight the Kurds Thousands of Miles Away From the Homeland
By Dr. Rashid Karadaghi: (This is not a story; I was a witness to it.) The year was 1973. I had already finished my graduate studies in English at UC Santa Barbara and earned a Ph.D. in that field. At that time, I was working on an English-Kurdish dictionary, which I eventually published in 2006…
Zilan Valley Massacre – July 13, 1930
By Dr. Amy L. Beam: Eighty-five years ago, the Turkish military slaughtered between 7,000 and 15,000 Kurds in less than a week in Zilan Valley in North Kurdistan (southeast Turkey). Some historians put the figure at 47,000 Kurds killed by the Turkish state. Bookmark on Delicious Recommend on Facebook Share on Linkedin Tweet about it…
The Case for a United States of Kurdistan, USK: Part 2
By Dr. M. Koohzad: PART 2 OF 2 Part 1 3. Kurdish-Centered Calls Kurdish nationalism predates Europeans organizing themselves into modern nation states. The uprisings for independence have their roots in the Ottoman Empire of the late 1820s. However, modern rebellions for independence began shortly after Ataturk founded his Turkish Republic and replaced the Ottoman dynasty….
