Kurdish political history in the twentieth century includes associations, religious leadership, socialist parties, experiments in government and campaigns for citizenship. Examples from Turkey, Iran, Syria, Iraq and the European diaspora show different routes to political and cultural rights.

Black ornamental entrance gate at 106 rue La Fayette in Paris, with the street number above and shops on either side
106 rue La Fayette, the Kurdish Institute of Paris address, photographed by Celette on 14 July 2019. The institute was founded in 1983; this photograph shows its building entrance decades later. Celette · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0.

Associations and education in the late Ottoman period

Murat Issı’s history of the Kurdish press describes the Kurdish mutual-aid and progress association formed in 1908 and the Hêvî student association founded in Istanbul in 1912. Publications and associations created settings for language, education and political discussion. [1] This was organisational work involving particular editors, students and patrons. It should not be reduced to a story in which every tribal leader shared the same programme. Nor were developments in Ottoman territory identical to those in Qajar Iran.

Sèvres in 1920: a conditional scheme

Articles 62–64 of the Treaty of Sèvres envisaged local autonomy in a defined area and a conditional route towards independence involving the League of Nations. The scheme did not grant an immediately functioning Kurdish state across all Kurdish-inhabited regions. [2] In a 1983 parliamentary answer, British minister Douglas Hurd confirmed that the treaty never entered into force. [3] The distinction between a proposed legal arrangement and implemented government is central to understanding why Sèvres became a powerful political reference without producing the state often attributed to it.

Turkey: different political languages over time

The 1925 Sheikh Said uprising has generated competing interpretations of religious authority, opposition to republican reforms and Kurdish political goals. Ebru Çoban’s study argues strongly for religious motives among those tried, while also discussing the participation of Kurdish movement leaders. That is a historical interpretation, not a complete record of every participant’s purpose. [4] Later organisations emerged in different settings: Gunter dates the PKK’s formal foundation to 27 November 1978 and describes its original Marxist and pan-Kurdish state programme. [5] The two moments cannot simply be assigned one unchanged ideology.

Iran: the Mahabad experiment of 1946

The Mahabad Republic was proclaimed on 22 January 1946 and collapsed by December. Qazi Muhammad led it; Kurdish teaching and printing were among its activities. Gunter stresses its limited territorial reach and discusses the distinction between independence and autonomy. [5] Mahabad became an important reference in Kurdish political memory, while its short life demonstrates why the existence of institutions, the extent of authority and international support must be examined separately.

Syria: citizenship as a concrete political issue

Human Rights Watch’s 1996 investigation describes the exceptional 1962 census in Hasakeh, after which an estimated 120,000 Kurds lost Syrian citizenship. The report includes named people born in Syria before 1935 who became classified as foreigners. It documents consequences for property, employment, travel and family registration, alongside a separate unregistered category. [6] This makes the politics of recognition tangible: access to identity papers and ordinary civil rights could be a central issue. These are historical findings, not an assertion that the same rules apply unchanged today.

Iraq: party formation after the 1975 defeat

Gunter records Jalal Talabani’s announcement of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in Damascus on 1 June 1975. It brought together organisations after the collapse of Mustafa Barzani’s revolt and competed with the KDP. [5] Party formation involved political programmes, leadership disputes and regional networks. It was not simply the arrival of nationalism where none had previously existed. The setting in which a party formed also differs from the places in which it later governed.

Iraqi Kurdistan: an elected regional assembly in 1992

The Kurdistan Parliament’s institutional history dates the first regional parliamentary election to 19 May 1992, following the March 1991 uprising and the withdrawal of Baghdad’s administration. It describes the resulting assembly and regional government. [7] This was a practical change in representation and public administration. The same history records the civil war that began in 1994, showing that institutions and party rivalry developed together. The regional government’s formation should not be postponed to the early 2000s.

Paris in 1983: cultural work in the diaspora

The Kurdish Institute of Paris describes its foundation in February 1983 as an independent, secular cultural organisation bringing together intellectuals and artists from different backgrounds. Its stated purposes include language, history, cultural heritage, integration in Europe and public knowledge about Kurds. It became a recognised public-interest foundation in March 1993. [8] This example adds libraries, teaching and cultural institutions to the century’s political history. Preserving a language, obtaining citizenship, electing representatives and seeking a state were related concerns, but involved different organisations and aims.

Sources and further reading

  1. Murat Issı, Kürt Basını ve Kürdistan Gazetesi (1898–1902), e-Şarkiyat 9 (2013), pp. 127–147, especially pp. 128–130.
  2. Treaty of Sèvres, 1920, articles 62–64, printed p. 21; original British treaty publication.
  3. Douglas Hurd, Treaty of Sèvres, House of Commons written answer, 18 February 1983.
  4. Ebru Çoban, Sheikh Said Case: Rebellion or Revolt?, History Studies 14/1 (2022), pp. 21–48; abstract and introduction.
  5. Michael M. Gunter, Historical Dictionary of the Kurds (2004), PKK, Mahabad and PUK entries, pp. 119–120, 129–130 and 163.
  6. Human Rights Watch, Syria: The Silenced Kurds, 1 October 1996; citizenship, the 1962 census and documented restrictions.
  7. Kurdistan Parliament, History of Parliament; 1992 election and the civil-war section.
  8. Kurdish Institute of Paris, Qui sommes-nous?; foundation in 1983, cultural purposes and public-interest status in 1993.
  9. Celette, 106 rue La Fayette, Paris, 14 July 2019; Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.