Kurdish History Journal
Fuad Hussein (born 1947), Kurdish Iraqi PUK politician and scholar, served as Iraq's Foreign Minister from 2020 — a senior Kurdish diplomat who was also Jalal Talabani's chief of staff for many years.
Read article →Latif Rashid (born 1944), Kurdish Iraqi PUK politician, became President of Iraq in October 2022 — the third Kurdish person to hold Iraq's highest office, succeeding Barham Salih.
Read article →Dengir Mir Mehmet Fırat (1943-2021), Kurdish politician from Urfa, was a co-founder of Turkey's AKP party and served as its deputy chair — the most senior Kurd in Turkey's governing party for years.
Read article →Ahmet Türk (born 1942), Kurdish Turkish politician from Mardin, is the longest-serving and most respected Kurdish political figure in Turkey — a parliamentarian across multiple parties who has dedicated five decades to Kurdish democratic rights.
Read article →Tosinê Reşîd is a Kurdish Syrian poet and cultural figure from the Jazira region who has contributed to the Kurdish literary and cultural tradition in Syria and the Kurdish diaspora.
Read article →Eskerê Boyîk is a Kurdish Syrian poet from the Jazira region who has contributed to the Kurmanji Kurdish literary tradition in Syria — continuing the poetic legacy of Cigerxwîn and the Syrian Kurdish literary world.
Read article →Adel Karasholi (born 1936), Kurdish Syrian poet based in Leipzig, writes poetry in Arabic and German — one of the most celebrated Arab and Kurdish cultural figures in Germany and a bridge between East and West.
Read article →Yitzhak Mordechai (born 1944), Kurdish Israeli general and politician, served as Israel's Defence Minister (1996-1999) — one of the highest positions ever held by a person of Kurdish origin in the Israeli state.
Read article →Tahir Elçi (1966-2015), president of the Diyarbakır Bar Association, was shot dead while making a press statement about protecting a historic minaret — becoming a symbol of Kurdish legal advocacy and the quest for peace.
Read article →Abdulbaset Sieda (born 1956), Kurdish Syrian politician and academic, led the Syrian National Council in 2012 — becoming the first Kurd to lead a major Syrian opposition body during the Syrian civil war.
Read article →Tofy Mussivand (1943-2021), Kurdish Iranian-Canadian inventor and surgeon from Kermanshah, invented the mechanical heart pump that has saved thousands of cardiac patients worldwide — one of the great Kurdish scientific achievements.
Read article →Amir Hassanpour (1943-2017), Kurdish Iranian-Canadian scholar, wrote Nationalism and Language in Kurdistan — the foundational academic work on Kurdish language policy — and pioneered Kurdish media studies.
Read article →Ali Ashraf Darvishian (1941-2017), Kurdish Iranian writer from Kermanshah, wrote short stories and novels championing the poor and dispossessed of Iranian Kurdistan — a major voice of Persian-language social literature.
Read article →Nazand Begikhani (born 1964), Kurdish British poet and academic from Bakur, writes poetry in Kurmanji Kurdish and English and is a pioneering scholar of Kurdish women's rights and gender studies.
Read article →Bachtyar Ali (born 1966), Kurdish Iraqi novelist from Sulaymaniyah, is widely regarded as the greatest living Kurdish novelist — his magical realist Sorani epics translated internationally and compared to García Márquez.
Read article →Bejan Matur (born 1968), Kurdish Turkish poet from Maraş, writes in Turkish poetry of extraordinary spiritual and political intensity — one of Turkey's most internationally recognised contemporary poets.
Read article →Farhad Pirbal (born 1961), Kurdish Iraqi novelist and scholar from Erbil, is one of the most important contemporary Kurdish prose writers — his novels and short stories bringing new dimensions to Sorani Kurdish fiction.
Read article →Abdulla Pashew (born 1946), Kurdish Iraqi poet from Erbil, is one of the most beloved Sorani Kurdish poets — his lyric verse of love, freedom, and Kurdish longing reaching millions of readers across the world.
Read article →Leyla Zana (born 1961), first Kurdish woman elected to the Turkish Parliament, was imprisoned for 10 years after speaking Kurdish during her oath — becoming one of the most celebrated political prisoners of the 20th century.
Read article →Vian Dakhil (born 1971), Kurdish Yazidi member of the Iraqi Parliament, gave the most powerful speech in Iraqi parliamentary history in 2014 — begging the world to save the Yazidis from ISIS genocide.
Read article →Ciwan Haco (born 1957), Kurdish Syrian singer from Afrin, is one of the most beloved living Kurdish musicians — a voice of extraordinary power who has performed Kurdish music on stages across the world for four decades.
Read article →Nizamettin Arıç (born 1956), Kurdish Turkish singer and filmmaker from Dersim, broke barriers by performing Kurdish music in Turkey and directed Keje — one of the first Kurdish-language feature films from Turkey.
Read article →Ayşe Şan (1938-1996), Kurdish Turkish singer from Dersim, was one of the greatest Kurdish folk singers of the 20th century — the Nightingale of Kurdistan whose voice preserved and spread Kurdish musical tradition.
Read article →Huner Saleem (born 1964), Kurdish Iraqi filmmaker from Duhok, directed Vodka Lemon and other internationally acclaimed films that brought Kurdish life in Iraq and the diaspora to world cinema audiences.
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