Kurdish History Journal
Articles filed under Kurdish History and Resilience.
The Baghdad Pact began with an Iraq–Turkey agreement in February 1955. Its treaty, accession records and declassified U.S. assessments show how regional defence and internal security overlapped, while requiring care about claims concerning particular Kurdish movements.
Read article →The notes exchanged by Ahmad Qavam and Soviet ambassador Ivan Sadchikov on 4 April 1946 linked negotiations over Soviet withdrawal with a proposed joint oil company. The proposal still required parliamentary ratification. Its importance for Kurdish history lies in the changing balance of power around the Republic of Mahabad.
Read article →Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Turkey signed a non-aggression pact in Tehran in 1937. Its provisions on sovereignty and cross-border organisations mattered for Kurdish politics, but the treaty, its stated purposes and its implementation need separate examination.
Read article →The 1926 settlement confirmed the Iraq–Turkey frontier, provided a Turkish share of specified oil royalties and regulated frontier cooperation. League records also document Kurdish administrative and language safeguards, and complaints about their implementation.
Read article →The Treaty of Lausanne (1923) erased Kurdistan from international law, replacing Sèvres’ promise of Kurdish autonomy with total silence. It sealed the four-part partition that persists today.
Read article →The Joint British-Iraqi Declaration (1922) was the first recognition of Kurdish autonomy in Iraq. Known as the Christmas Declaration, it was never honoured — yet its principle endures.
Read article →Sèvres proposed Kurdish local autonomy and a conditional route to independence, but never entered into force. The three articles set out different commissions, deadlines, minority safeguards and a separate possibility for Kurds in the Mosul vilayet.
Read article →The Paris declaration of 20 November 1919 proposed independent Kurdistan and a united independent Armenia, with outside assistance and minority protections. Its terms, contested representation and later treaty context require separate examination.
Read article →The Sykes-Picot Agreement (1916) secretly divided Ottoman Kurdish lands between Britain and France, completing the four-part partition of Kurdistan that persists today.
Read article →The Second Treaty of Erzurum (1847) drew a precise border through Kurdistan under British and Russian mediation — transforming Kurdish partition into international law.
Read article →The 1823 Ottoman–Qajar agreement addressed seasonal movement, the Haydaran and Sepki tribes, pilgrims and commerce. Its wording and negotiation records explain both its restrictions and the frontier questions it left unresolved.
Read article →The Ottoman–Safavid settlement of 1639 followed the Ottoman recovery of Baghdad. It became an important reference for later frontiers, but Kurdish borderland politics and the eventual surveyed boundary cannot be reduced to one permanent line drawn that year.
Read article →The Peace of Amasya (1555) was the first formal partition of Kurdistan, splitting the Kurdish homeland between the Ottoman and Safavid empires without Kurdish consent.
Read article →The 1514 battle was followed by campaigns and negotiated appointments. Kurdish rulers made different choices, and hereditary privileges developed within a changing imperial system.
Read article →Al-Kamil, Saladin’s nephew, negotiated a temporary settlement with Frederick II over Jerusalem and other places. Contemporary letters, later histories and modern research reveal disputed defences, protected Muslim holy sites and a settlement shaped by competing rulers.
Read article →The settlement left Jerusalem under Muslim rule while preserving Frankish coastal holdings and access for Christian pilgrims. Latin and Arabic accounts explain why both sides accepted a temporary truce after the fighting of the Third Crusade.
Read article →Mumahhid al-Dawla’s encounter with Basil II brought imperial honours and security arrangements. Chronicles, an inscription and coins reveal both Marwanid political agency and the unequal relationships of the frontier.
Read article →The settlement between Rome and the Sasanian king Narseh changed authority over frontier territories, Armenian and Iberian royal affairs, and trade through Nisibis. Its surviving summaries name Corduene, but the original treaty document has not survived. Modern scholarship dates the settlement to 298 or 299 CE.
Read article →Plutarch describes a secret alliance, the death of Gordyene’s king and a funeral arranged by Lucullus. Reading that account alongside Strabo and Cassius Dio separates ancient diplomacy from unsupported treaty terms and later national claims.
Read article →Introduction For over a decade, the presence of U.S. forces in northeastern Syria was the ultimate tripwire — a security umbrella that allowed the Syrian Kurds to carve out an unprecedented level of autonomy in a region they called Rojava. It was an experiment unlike anything the Middle East had seen: a secular, multi-ethnic, gender-equal administration rising from the rubble of civil war, underpinned by the quiet but overwhelming military power of the United States.But as of April 16, 2026, th
Read article →Jineology, usually written jineolojî, is a project of knowledge and social change developed within the Kurdish women’s movement. Understanding it requires attention to Abdullah Öcalan’s proposals, women’s collective work, practical institutions and debates about feminism and evidence.
Read article →7 April 2026 marked 35 years since the opening relief flights of Operation Provide Comfort. Dated statements also document concerns about Syrian citizenship applications, a KRG protest to Iran and the Easter holiday for Christian public employees.
Read article →Resolution 688 condemned repression in Iraq and demanded humanitarian access on 5 April 1991. Its provisions, the divided vote and the coalition’s later relief measures explain the date’s significance and its limits.
Read article →The Peshmerga Ministry reported six deaths and thirty wounded in two attacks in Soran on 24 March 2026. This account follows the ministry’s notice, the next day’s funeral and the president’s report of Iranian communications.
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