Kurdish History Journal
Bahman Ghobadi (born 1969), Kurdish Iranian filmmaker, made A Time for Drunken Horses (2000) — the first internationally acclaimed Kurdish-language film — and became the pioneering voice of Kurdish cinema worldwide.
Read article →Yılmaz Erdoğan (born 1967), Kurdish Turkish actor, director, and playwright from Adıyaman, created the beloved film Vizontele and is one of Turkey's most multi-talented and celebrated cultural figures.
Read article →Hülya Avşar (born 1963), Kurdish Turkish actress and singer from Edirne, is one of Turkey's biggest entertainment stars — a multi-decade icon of Turkish film, pop music, and television.
Read article →Seyran Ateş (born 1963), Kurdish German lawyer and women's rights activist, founded the Ibn Rushd-Goethe Mosque in Berlin in 2017 — a liberal mosque welcoming all Muslims regardless of gender or sexuality.
Read article →Kayhan Kalhor (born 1963), Kurdish Iranian master of the kamancheh, is one of the world's greatest living musicians — a Grammy-nominated artist who has brought Kurdish and Persian classical music to global audiences.
Read article →Ibrahim Tatlises (born 1952), Kurdish Turkish singer from Urfa, is one of Turkey's biggest-ever pop stars — a self-made phenomenon whose arabesk style brought Kurdish musical sensibility to tens of millions of listeners.
Read article →Ahmet Kaya (1957-2000), Kurdish Turkish rock musician from Malatya, was one of Turkey's greatest singers — driven into exile after announcing he would sing in Kurdish, dying in Paris just months later.
Read article →Şivan Perwer (born 1955), Kurdish singer from Urfa, is the most beloved Kurdish musician alive — the 'Voice of Kurdistan' whose folk and nationalist songs have sustained Kurdish identity across fifty years of exile.
Read article →Mehmed Uzun (1953-2007), Kurdish novelist from Siverek, wrote major novels in Kurmanji Kurdish from exile in Sweden — pioneering Kurdish prose fiction and bringing it to international audiences.
Read article →Hoshyar Zebari, Kurdish KDP politician and diplomat, served as Iraq's Foreign Minister for over a decade (2003-2014) — the longest-serving Foreign Minister in Iraqi history and the face of post-Saddam Iraq to the world.
Read article →Ahmed Arif (1927-1991), Kurdish Turkish poet from Diyarbakır, wrote Hasretinden Prangalar Eskittim — one of the most celebrated poetry collections in Turkish literature, merging Kurdish suffering with leftist humanism.
Read article →Muhamad Salih Dilan (1927-1990) was a Kurdish Sorani poet who contributed to the rich literary tradition of Iraqi Kurdistan in the mid-20th century.
Read article →Idris Barzani (1944-1987), son of Mustafa Barzani and brother of Masoud Barzani, led the KDP alongside Masoud after their father's death and was the political architect of the modern Kurdish Democratic Party.
Read article →Mehdi Zana (born 1940), Kurdish mayor of Diyarbakır, was imprisoned for years by the Turkish state for advocating Kurdish rights — becoming an international symbol of Kurdish political prisoners.
Read article →Mahmoud Othman (born 1938), Kurdish Iraqi politician, is one of the most respected independent voices in Kurdish politics — a founding figure of the PUK who became a celebrated independent commentator.
Read article →Fuad Masum (born 1938), Kurdish politician and PUK founding member, served as President of Iraq from 2014 to 2018 — the second Kurdish person to hold Iraq's highest office.
Read article →Yılmaz Güney (1937-1984), Kurdish Turkish actor and filmmaker, directed Yol (1982) from prison — winning the Palme d'Or at Cannes and becoming the most celebrated Kurdish figure in world cinema.
Read article →Muhammad Said Ramadan al-Bouti (1929-2013), of Kurdish origin from the Botan region, was Syria's most respected Sunni Islamic scholar — author of Fiqh al-Sirah, killed in a Damascus mosque bombing in 2013.
Read article →Turgut Özal (1927-1993), of Kurdish origin, served as Prime Minister and President of Turkey, transformed its economy through liberalisation, and initiated the first public discussion of Kurdish rights in Turkish history.
Read article →Sherko Bekas (1940-2013), Kurdish poet from Sulaymaniyah, published 30+ collections and is celebrated as the greatest Kurdish poet of the late 20th century — the dominant voice of Sorani verse.
Read article →Şerafettin Elçi (1938-2012), Kurdish Turkish politician from Cizre, publicly declared 'I am a Kurd' as a cabinet minister in 1979 — the most courageous act of Kurdish self-identification in Turkish political history.
Read article →Sadegh Sharafkandi (1938-1992), KDPI Secretary-General, was assassinated by Iranian agents at Berlin's Mykonos restaurant in 1992 — leading to a historic German court verdict on Iranian state terrorism.
Read article →Ahmad Moftizadeh (1933-1993) was a Kurdish Sunni Islamic scholar from Sanandaj who founded the Maktab Quran movement, supported the 1979 revolution, and was subsequently imprisoned for 10 years by the Islamic Republic.
Read article →Nadir Nadirov (1932-2021) was a Kurdish Soviet and post-Soviet scholar who continued the tradition of Kurdish linguistic and literary scholarship in the Caucasus, bridging the Soviet and modern eras of Kurdish studies.
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