Kurdish History Journal
A better-formatted Kurdish news round-up for 9 June 2026 covering Kurdistan Region security, Baghdad-Erbil disputes, Kirkuk, Rojava, Bakur and the diaspora.
Read article →The Anahita Temple at Kangavar in Kermanshah, western Iran, is a monumental ancient stone sanctuary of the Zagros — part of the Kurdish region’s deep Iranic heritage.
Read article →Karahan Tepe (Kurdish: Girê Keçel) is a 12,000-year-old Neolithic site in Şanlıurfa, sister to Göbekli Tepe and among the oldest villages on Earth.
Read article →Will Kurdistan become a country? A clear, sourced analysis of the world's largest stateless nation, why independence has failed before, and when it may finally happen.
Read article →Bukan (Bôkan) is a Kurdish city of the Mukriyan region in north-western Iran — a centre of Kurdish publishing, the Mahabad Republic, and political activism.
Read article →Qasr-e Shirin is a Kurdish town in western Iran, named for the Sasanian queen Shirin — home to Sassanid ruins and rebuilt after the Iran–Iraq War.
Read article →Bitlis Castle (Bitlis Kalesi) is an ancient clifftop fortress in southeastern Turkey — for centuries the stronghold of the Kurdish emirate of Bitlis.
Read article →The Halime Hatun Kümbet in Gevaş is a 14th-century polygonal tomb built by the Kurdish Hakkari emirate on the shore of Lake Van — medieval Kurdish heritage.
Read article →The Khan Bathhouse of Sanandaj is an early-19th-century Qajar bath built by the Kurdish Ardalan rulers — a landmark of Kurdish heritage in Iran.
Read article →The Hasan Pasha Han, a 16th-century Ottoman caravanserai in old Diyarbakır — a courtyard inn of banded black and white stone across from the Great Mosque, today alive with shops and tea houses.
Read article →The Paikuli Tower of the Sasanian king Narseh, c. 293 CE, in the mountains south of Sulaymaniyah — a ruined royal monument bearing one of the great bilingual inscriptions of the ancient world, its blocks now in the Slemani Museum.
Read article →Mount Piramagrun, the most recognisable massif near Sulaymaniyah — a towering Zagros peak of about 2,600 metres with villages, caves, and the ancient Parthian fortress of Rabana-Merquly on its flanks.
Read article →The Naram-Sin rock relief at Darband-i-Gawr on Qaradagh Mountain near Sulaymaniyah — an Akkadian-era carving of a victorious ruler from the 3rd millennium BCE, among the oldest monuments of the Kurdish mountains.
Read article →Mount Azmar, a high ridge rising over Sulaymaniyah beside Mount Goizha — part of the ring of mountains around the Kurdish cultural capital, offering wide views, with a sober legacy of mines on some slopes.
Read article →The Ahmad Awa waterfall in the Hawraman highlands east of Halabja — a cascade fed by the Zalm River in a green mountain valley near the Iranian border, a beloved summer resort and picnic spot of Kurdistan.
Read article →Mount Goizha, the mountain rising over Sulaymaniyah — its slopes bearing the city’s name and the Kurdistan flag, a beloved place for hiking, picnics, and sunset views over the Kurdish cultural capital.
Read article →Sami Abdul Rahman Park, the largest park in the Kurdistan Region — a vast green oasis of lakes and gardens in Erbil, built on a former regime military base and named for a Kurdish leader killed in 2004.
Read article →This weekly Kurdish news roundup covers Erbil’s first Kurdish book fair, France’s support for Kurdistan’s stability, Peshmerga air-defense gaps, the KRG environmental crackdown, Erbil-Baghdad oil-export urgency, and the continuing need for diplomacy during regional crisis.
Read article →The Kurdish Textile and Cultural Museum on the Citadel of Erbil — founded in 2004, holding carpets, kilims, costumes, and crafts, and preserving the weaving and natural-dyeing traditions of Kurdistan.
Read article →The Jalil Khayat Mosque in Erbil, the largest mosque in the city — a grand modern house of prayer of cascading domes and twin minarets, completed in 2007 and a landmark of the Kurdish capital of Hewlêr.
Read article →The Qaysari Bazaar of Erbil — the historic covered market of roofed alleys below the ancient Citadel, established centuries ago and still the bustling commercial heart of the Kurdish capital of Hewlêr.
Read article →The Sulaymaniyah (Slemani) Museum — the second-largest museum in Iraq and the great archaeological museum of the Kurdistan Region, holding collections from Zagros prehistory through the Mesopotamian, Sasanian, and Islamic ages.
Read article →Amna Suraka, the “Red Security” museum in Sulaymaniyah — a former Ba’athist security headquarters and prison, now a memorial to the Anfal campaign, Halabja, and the endurance of the Kurdish people.
Read article →Mar Petyun, the historic Chaldean church of Diyarbakır — the city’s only Chaldean church, in the old walled quarter near Surp Giragos, a witness to the multi-faith heritage of Amed.
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