Reclaiming Kurdish Baklava - A Historic Kurdish Dessert 

 

The origin of baklava is one of the most "heated" debates in the culinary world. Baklava is part of a shared Mesopotamian and Anatolian heritage, but the Kurdish claim to it is massive and almost entirely ignored by the mainstream.

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While the Ottoman Imperial kitchens in Istanbul get the "official" credit for the modern, multi-layered version we eat today, the heart and soul of baklava production is located in Kurdish lands.

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1. The "Antep" Connection (Dîlok)

 

If you ask anyone in the Middle East where the best baklava comes from, they will say Gaziantep (known in Kurdish as Dîlok).

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• The Reality: Dîlok is a historically and demographically Kurdish city.

• The Theft: The Turkish state has turned "Antep Baklava" into a global brand. However, the master bakers, the labor, and the centuries of tradition in that region are rooted in the local Kurdish populations who lived there long before the modern state of Turkey existed.

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2. The "Pistachio" Factor

 

Baklava is nothing without the pistachio. The specific variety used for world-class baklava (the Antep fıstığı) grows almost exclusively in the regions of Amed (Diyarbakir), Dîlok (Gaziantep), and Riha (Urfa).

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• These are Kurdish lands.

• Kurdish farmers have been cultivating, harvesting, and perfecting the "Green Gold" (pistachios) used in baklava for a millennium.

• When a Turkish company sells "Turkish Pistachio Baklava," they are selling a product where the raw materials and the agricultural expertise are 100% Kurdish.

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3. The Ancient Mesopotamian Roots

 

Long before the Ottomans arrived from Central Asia, the peoples of Mesopotamia (including the ancestors of the Kurds) were making layered breads with honey and nuts.

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• Historical records suggest that a primitive form of baklava existed in the Assyrian Empire (8th Century BC), centered in the heart of what is now Kurdistan.

• The Kurds, being one of the indigenous groups of this region, carried this tradition forward. The Ottomans simply took this "rural" Kurdish/Mesopotamian dish and refined it with thinner yufka (filo) in the Sultan's palace.

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🏛️ Why it's labeled "Turkish" today

 

State Power: Turkey has a Ministry of Culture and a massive tourism budget to "trademark" these foods.

1. UNESCO Branding: Turkey successfully registered "Antep Baklava" as a protected geographical indication in the EU. They used the name of the state to claim a craft that belongs to the region’s people.

2. The Labor Filter: For decades, Kurdish master bakers moved to Istanbul to find work. They baked the baklava, but because the shop was in Istanbul, the world called it "Turkish."

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The Word Baklava - Where Does It Come From?

 

While the "official" history books often point to a Turkic or Mongolian origin for the word, if you look at the word through a Kurdish linguistic lens, it fits perfectly.

In Kurdish, the word is often pronounced as Baqlewa or Baqilawa, and it breaks down into two very meaningful roots:

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1. "Baq" (باق) In Kurdish, Baq means a "bundle," a "bouquet," or a "sheaf."

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• Think about how baklava is made: it is a "bundle" of hundreds of micro-thin layers of dough, precisely stacked together.

• It describes the physical structure of the pastry far better than the abstract "pile" definition often used in Turkic etymology.

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2. "Lawa" (لاوا)

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This root is deeply connected to the Kurdish word for "youth" or "young man" (Law / Lawan).

• A popular folk history in Kurdistan suggests the dish was originally a "Bundle for the Youth" or made by the "young ones" in the family.

• Some also connect it to "Lawa" as a term for "supplication" or "sweetness/beauty" in older dialects. 

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The "Baqilawa" vs. "Baklava" Erasure

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This is a perfect example of what we were talking about earlier. When the Ottoman state adopted the word, they "Turkified" the phonetics.

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• Kurdish: Baqlewa (Soft, rhythmic, descriptive of a bundle).

• Turkish: Baklava (Sharper, branded, and legally protected).

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By claiming the word is "Turkish," historians ignore that Baq is a living, breathing word in the Kurdish language today. If you go to a Kurdish market and ask for a "Baq" of herbs, everyone knows what you mean. The word grew out of the soil of Mesopotamia, just like the pistachios and the wheat used to make it.

The City of Dîlok (Gaziantep)

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You cannot talk about the word without talking about the place. As we noted, Dîlok is the world capital of baklava.

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• It is a city with a massive Kurdish heart and history.

• The masters who spent their lives rolling dough so thin you can see through it were local Kurds.

• When they said Baqlewa, they were using their own language to describe their own craft.

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