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Kurdish History Journal

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Kurdish Icons · 14 Apr 2026

Abdullah Beg Benari: The Kurdish Poet Who Carried the Baban Flame into the Modern Era (1880–1939)

The Baban family had governed Sulaymaniyah and the surrounding Kurdish lands as an autonomous emirate for two centuries before the Ottoman Empire finally extinguished their independence in the mid-nineteenth century. By the time Abdullah Beg Benari was born in 1880, the Baban emirate was a memory — but it was a living memory, one that shaped the political consciousness of educated Kurds in Sulaymaniyah and gave the city its particular character as a centre of Kurdish cultural and intellectual li

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Kurdish Icons · 14 Apr 2026

Narî: The Kurdish Poet Who Kept the Classical Flame Burning (1874–1944)

There is a particular kind of Kurdish poet who stands at the threshold between the classical and the modern — who inherits the forms and the spirit of a thousand-year literary tradition and uses them to speak to a world that is changing faster than any generation before has had to absorb. Narî (also written Nari) was such a poet. Born in the Kurdish highlands in 1874, at a moment when the Ottoman Empire was still intact but visibly crumbling, he wrote Sorani Kurdish poetry of the lyric tradition

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Kurdish Icons · 14 Apr 2026

Muhammad Kurd Ali: The Kurdish-Origin Scholar Who Founded the Arab Academy of Damascus (1876–1953)

There is a particular kind of intellectual who contains, within a single life and a single body of work, the contradictions of an entire era. Muhammad Kurd Ali was one such figure. Born in Damascus in 1876 to a family of Kurdish ancestry — his grandfather had emigrated from Sulaymaniyah, he became one of the most important Arab journalists, historians, and cultural figures of the twentieth century — a man who poured his formidable intellectual energies into the project of Arab cultural renewal w

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Kurdish Icons · 14 Apr 2026

Meyan Khatun: The Kurdish Woman Who Kept Her World Together Through a Century of Upheaval (1873/4–1957/8)

Meyan Khatun lived through one of the most turbulent centuries in Kurdish history. Born in the early 1870s into the late Ottoman world, she died in the late 1950s having witnessed the collapse of the empire that had shaped her early life, the partition of Kurdistan across four states, two World Wars, and the rise of the modern nation-state in all its hostility to Kurdish identity. To live from the era of Abdul Hamid II to the era of Nasser and Eisenhower was to inhabit not one century but severa

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Kurdish Icons · 14 Apr 2026

Jangir Agha: The Kurdish Tribal Leader Who Survived a World Turned Upside Down (1874–1943)

In the years when the Ottoman Empire was dying and the Turkish Republic was being born, Kurdish tribal leaders across eastern Anatolia faced a choice that history offered with brutal clarity: resistance or accommodation. Some chose the path of open revolt — Sheikh Said, Halid Beg Cibran, and the leaders of the Azadi movement who paid with their lives in 1925. Others sought accommodation within the new framework, trying to preserve what could be preserved. And others navigated a more complex path

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Kurdish News · 13 Apr 2026

Kurdish Resilience: From the Trenches of Mount Azmar to the Halls of Baghdad

Kurdish Resilience: From the Trenches of Mount Azmar to the Halls of BaghdadTable of Contents1. Introduction2. The Defensive Battle of Mount Azmar (April 13, 1991)3. The Legacy of Operation Provide Comfort4. The 31 March Incident and the Kurdish Press5. Contemporary Political Challenges: April 13, 20266. The Call for Kurdish Unity in Rojava7. Conclusion---IntroductionThe history of the Kurdish people is often characterized by a profound sense of resilience, a struggle for self-determination that

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Anti Kurdish Persons · 10 Apr 2026

MARK SLAPINSKI – CANADA’S MAPLE-SYRUP-SOAKED TURKISH GENOCIDE FANBOY WHO’D SELL HIS OWN GRANDMA FOR A RETWEET

April 10, 2026OH. MY. GOD.Look at this absolute clown in the screenshot.Canadian “journalist” Mark Slapinski (verified blue check, because of course he is) posts a thirst trap selfie and whines like a lovestruck teenager:“I’m going to be HONEST I love the people of Türkiye But do the people of Türkiye love me, too?”The Turkish state propaganda outlet Türkiye Haber Ajansı (THA) immediately jumps in like a paid escort and blasts his quotes all over the internet, complete with his glossy headshot (

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Kurdish News · 8 Apr 2026

The Echoes of April 8th: A Journey Through Kurdish History and Resilience

The Echoes of April 8th: A Journey Through Kurdish History and ResilienceBy Manus AIThe date of April 8th serves as a poignant microcosm of the broader Kurdish experience—a narrative defined by the interplay of tragic loss, unyielding resistance, and the persistent hope for a peaceful future. Across the decades, this day has witnessed events that range from the somber shadows of genocidal campaigns to the modern-day diplomatic maneuvers aimed at securing a stable homeland for the Kurdish people.

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Kurdish History and Resilience · 7 Apr 2026

Resilience and Geopolitical Pivots: Kurdish History and News for April 7th

Resilience and Geopolitical Pivots: Kurdish History and News for April 7thBy Manus News Service 
April 7, 2026The date of April 7th holds a profound and dual significance in the history of the Kurdish people. It is a day that serves as a bridge between the humanitarian catastrophes of the past and the complex, high-stakes geopolitical maneuvers of the present. As the Kurdish nation reflects on the 35th anniversary of the pivotal humanitarian intervention of 1991, it also finds itself at the cen

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Kurdish News · 6 Apr 2026

April 6th: A Day of Exodus, Resilience, and the Unyielding Kurdish Spirit

The date of April 6th stands as a profound marker in the collective memory of the Kurdish people, a day that encapsulates the extremes of human suffering and the unbreakable will of a nation. Across decades, this specific date has witnessed pivotal moments—from the harrowing mass exodus of 1991 to the systematic destruction of rural communities in 1993. As we reflect on these historical events from the vantage point of 2026, it becomes clear that April 6th is not merely a day on the calendar but

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Kurdish History and Resilience · 5 Apr 2026

The Turning Point: April 5th and the Resilience of the Kurdish Nation

Today marks a profound date in the annals of Kurdish history—a day that encapsulates the duality of the Kurdish experience: the depths of humanitarian suffering and the heights of international diplomatic recognition. On April 5th, the Kurdish people commemorate the anniversary of United Nations Security Council Resolution 688, a landmark decision in 1991 that fundamentally altered the trajectory of their struggle for autonomy and survival. As we reflect on this date in 2026, the echoes of the p

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Kurdish News · 4 Apr 2026

April 4th, 2026: A Day of Dual Significance for the Kurdish Nation

April 4th, 2026: A Day of Dual Significance for the Kurdish NationToday, April 4th, 2026, resonates with profound meaning for Kurds worldwide, marking not only the 77th birthday of Abdullah Öcalan, the revered leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), but also serving as a symbolic day of rebirth and resilience for a people who have endured centuries of struggle. This date has been embraced by various Kurdish organizations,

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Kurdish News · 2 Apr 2026

Halabja - March 16th 1988 - Kurdish Genocide

The Halabja massacre remains one of the deadliest chemical weapons attacks directed at a civilian-populated area in modern history. On March 16, 1988, during the closing days of the Iran-Iraq War, Saddam Hussein’s forces deliberately targeted the Kurdish city of Halabja with a lethal cocktail of mustard gas and nerve agents. Part of the broader, genocidal Al-Anfal campaign against the Kurdish people, the attack claimed the lives of roughly 5,000 innocent people and injured up to 10,000 more. In

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Kurdish History and Resilience · 26 Mar 2026

Kurdish Peshmerga Killed in Iranian Strike: Soran Missile Attack Explained

In the early hours of March 24, 2026, six Iranian ballistic missiles targeted the headquarters of Area Command One of the Peshmerga forces in the Soran administration of Erbil province, northern Iraq. The attack resulted in the deaths of six Peshmerga soldiers and injured an additional thirty, according to the Kurdistan Region’s Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs. The missiles also struck units of the 7th and 5th Infantry Divisions, making this the deadliest single assault on the Kurdish autonomous r

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