Hundreds of thousands of men, women and children were executed during a systematic attempt to exterminate the Kurdish population in Iraq in the Anfal operations in the late 1980s. They were tied together and shot so they fell into mass graves. Their towns and villages were attacked by …

The Marwanids, a Kurdish dynasty to have governed in al-Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia) from 983 to 1085, merit special and separate mention in Diyarbakır’s history. The near-century-long rule of the Marwanids in this area is, in many ways, a unique parenthesis that may be deemed ahead of its time for the …

The family of Baban (1649–1850) ruled a Kurdish principality which encompassed areas of present-day Iraqi Kurdistan and western Iran from the early 17th century until 1850. The Baban principality played an active role in Ottoman-Persian conflict. The founder of the princely Baban family is thought to be Ahmad Faqih or Faqi Ahmad from the district of …