Understanding the Truth, Issue 1, January 1, 1918 Têgeyştinî Rastî (Understanding the truth) was a semiweekly newspaper published by the command of the British army in Iraq in 1918–19. At the time, Britain was at war with the Ottoman Empire, which had ruled Iraq since the 16th century. When British forces …

Mahabad – the first independent Kurdish republic By Mufid Abdulla:   One of an occasional series of articles on aspects of Kurdish history The first independent Kurdish republic was in Iran. The ‘State of Republic of Kurdistan’ was founded in Mahabad in January 1946 and, although it survived for less …

BEDIR KHAN BEDIR KHAN (Badr Khan; d. 1867), last ruler of the principality of Cizre-Botan and by extension also the name of a well-known Kurdish clan that has played important political, social, and cultural roles in Kurdish history since the mid-13th/19th century. The princi­pality of Cizre-Botan was, like those of Bābān and the …

The Emergence of Kurdish Nationalism and the Sheikh Said Rebellion, 1880-1925 By Robert Olson, University of Texas Press, Austin The Sheikh Said rebellion was the first large-scale nationalist rebellion by the Kurds. The role of the Azadi was fundamental in its unfolding. Kurdish intellectuals and military officers lay at the …

Remember Halabja Brian Brivati March 16 is Anfal and Halabja remembrance day – a good day to reflect on the Iraq War and why the left remains so blinded to the fate of the Kurds. On March 16 1988 Saddam Hussein ordered a series of gas attacks on the town …

Haji Qadir Koyi   Haji Qadir Koyi (Kurdish: Hacî Qadirî Koyî‎[1]), (* 1817 Koi Sanjaq -1897), was a Kurdish poet. He carried on the nationalistic message of Ahmad Khani in his writings. He wanted to enlighten the people and help them to remedy the problems of illiteracy and backwardness and …

I’d still vote to go to war in Iraq Ann Clwyd Ifirst became aware of human rights atrocities in Iraq in the 70s, before I became a politician. I met Iraqi students in Cardiff, some of whom had been imprisoned in Basra, and what they told me was so terrible …

Kurdistan in the shadow of Western betrayal: A critical historical overview   Kurdishaspect.com – By Kirmanj Gundi   Introduction   Kurds are descendants of the Medes who are mentioned ten times in the Bible. In 700-550 BCE, the Medes created one of the mightiest empires, the Medean Empire. They were …

The Shake Hand of Sheikh Mahmud Barzanji with the “dirty” British  By Minhaj Akreyi   We live in a society where our source of information is received in many different forms. The information is often without any concrete evidence and we tend to believe quickly, spread it, and before we …

Origin of The Kurds By Prof. Mehrdad A. Izady Being the native inhabitants of their land. there are no “beginnings” for Kurdish history and people. Kurds and their history are the end products of thousands of years of continuous internal evolution and assimilation of new peoples and ideas introduced sporadically …