The flag of Kurdistan ( ku, ئاڵای کوردستان ,Alaya Kurdistanê) is the flag of

Kurds ug:كۇردلار Kurds ( ku, کورد ,Kurd, italic=yes, rtl=yes) or Kurdish people are an Iranian peoples, Iranian ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Ir ...

, Kurdish Institute of Paris. and created by the

Society for the Rise of Kurdistan Society for the Rise of Kurdistan ( ku, Cemîyeta Tealîya Kurdistanê) also known as the Society for the Advancement of Kurdistan (SAK), was secretly established in Constantinople on 6 November 1917 and officially announced organization forme ...

in 1920. It would later, in different variants, be adopted as the national flag of different Kurdish states including Republic of Ararat,

Republic of Mahabad The Republic of Mahabad or the Republic of Kurdistan ( ku, کۆماری کوردستان / Komara Kurdistanê; fa, جمهوری مهاباد) was a short-lived Kurdish self-governing unrecognized state in present-day Iran, from 22 January to ...

and most recently by

Kurdistan Region Kurdistan Region ( ku, هەرێمی کوردستان, translit=Herêmî Kurdistan; ar, إقليم كردستان), abbr. KRI, is an autonomous region in Iraq comprising the four Kurdish-majority governorates of Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, Duhok ...

in 1992. Moreover, the

Kingdom of Kurdistan The Kingdom of Kurdistan was a short-lived Kurdish state proclaimed in the city of Sulaymaniyah following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Officially, the territory involved was under the jurisdiction of the British Mandate of Mesopotamia. ...

used the crescent flag (shown below) which was also considered a Kurdish flag.

History

Origins (1920s)

The flag was created in 1920 by the Society for the Rise of Kurdistan (CTK). Shortly after, it was used by the nationalist party Xoybûn who hoisted the flag over the city of

Ağrı Ağrı ( ku, Agirî; ) is the capital of Ağrı Province in eastern Turkey, near the border with Iran. Formerly known as Karaköse ( ku, Qerekose) from the early Turkish republican period until 1946, and before that as Karakilise ( ota, قره‌� ...

during the Ararat rebellion. In his memoir ''Doza Kurdistan'', Kurdish politician Kadri Cemilpaşa of the CTK declared that this flag was the national Kurdish flag whose colors and shape had now been defined. In 1925, during the trial of CTK politicians in

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...

, they stated that the Ottoman flag was dead and that the Kurdish flag would shine like a sun. Flag of Kingdom of Kurdistan (1922-1924)

During the same period, the

crescent A crescent shape (, ) is a symbol or emblem used to represent the lunar phase in the first quarter (the "sickle moon"), or by extension a symbol representing the Moon itself. In Hinduism, Lord Shiva is often shown wearing a crescent moon on his ...

flag was hoisted in Sulaymaniyah by Mahmud Barzanji of the

. According to historian Rafiq Hilmi, the Kingdom of Kurdistan considered the crescent flag as the national flag of Kurds. He wrote: "''A big meeting was held at the house of Şêx Qadir, the Speaker of the National Assembly, and with official permission, the official Kurdish flag was raised. On the day of the meeting, about 10,000 people gathered in front of the Grand Mosque.''"

Republic of Mahabad (1940s)

Prior to the declaration of the

from

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

in 1946, Kurdish leaders in Iran from

Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan The Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI; ku, حیزبی دێموکراتی کوردستانی ئێران, Hîzbî Dêmukratî Kurdistanî Êran, HDKA; fa, حزب دموکرات کردستان ایران, Ḥezb-e Demokrāt-e Kordest� ...

(KDPI) with support from Kurds in Iraq, had prepared the flag to be used as the national flag of the Mahabad Republic. The prepared flag was altered and approved by the KDPI who went on to hoist it in the official office of the Iranian government in Mahabad on 17 December 1945. When the republic was declared on 22 January 1946, the flag was hoisted at the main square while

Ey Reqîb "" ( ku, ئەی ڕەقیب, ) is the Kurdish national anthem and the official anthem of the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The poem was written in 1938 by Dildar in Sorani. History It was written by the Kurdish poet and political acti ...

was being sung. In his speech, President Qazi Muhammad declared the flag as "flag of Kurdistan" and it was hoisted in all towns which was under his control. Days before the collapse of the republic, President Muhammad handed over the flag on his desk to Mustafa Barzani, leader of

Kurdistan Democratic Party The Kurdistan Democratic Party ( ku, Partiya Demokrat a Kurdistanê; پارتی دیموکراتی کوردستان), usually abbreviated as KDP or PDK, is the largest party in Iraqi Kurdistan and the senior partner in the Kurdistan Regional G ...

, who had fled to Mahabad after the

1943 Barzani revolt The 1943–1945 Barzani revolt was a Kurdish nationalistic insurrection in the Kingdom of Iraq, during World War II. The revolt was led by Mustafa Barzani and was later joined by his older brother Ahmed Barzani, the leader of the previous Ku ...

Symbolism

The Kurdish flag is the most important symbol of cohesive Kurdish identity. Since it was first hoisted in 1946 to represent the concept of an independent

Kurdistan Kurdistan ( ku, کوردستان ,Kurdistan ; lit. "land of the Kurds") or Greater Kurdistan is a roughly defined geo-cultural territory in Western Asia wherein the Kurds form a prominent majority population and the Kurdish culture, languag ...

(called the

and founded in Iranian territory) it has become a symbol of the national identity of Kurds. The main characteristic of the flag is the blazing golden sun emblem (''Roj'' in Kurdish) at its center. The emblem's sun disk has 21 rays, equal in size and shape, with the single odd ray at top and the two even rays on the bottom. The symbolism of the colours is: In the fall of 2006, the

Iraqi Kurdish Iraqi Kurdistan or Southern Kurdistan ( ku, باشووری کوردستان, Başûrê Kurdistanê) refers to the Kurdish-populated part of northern Iraq. It is considered one of the four parts of "Kurdistan" in Western Asia, which also inc ...

leadership gave orders for Kurdish officials to stop flying the Iraqi flag under decree number 60 "to hoist the flag of Iraqi Kurdistan". Masoud Barzani issued orders that the

Ba'athist Ba'athism, also stylized as Baathism, (; ar, البعثية ' , from ' , meaning "renaissance" or "resurrection"Hans Wehr''Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic'' (4th ed.), page 80) is an Arab nationalist ideology which promotes the creation a ...

flag should be lowered and all regions in Iraqi Kurdistan should "hoist only the Kurdistan flag" because the symbols of Ba'athism were associated with the

Anfal genocide The Anfal campaign; ku, شاڵاوی ئەنفال or the Kurdish genocide was a counterinsurgency operation which was carried out by Ba'athist Iraq from February to September 1988, at the end of the Iran–Iraq War. The campaign targeted rur ...

where 180,000 people lost their lives. When the Ba'athist symbols were removed from the Iraqi flag in 2008, the KRG hoisted the Iraqi flag to fly alongside the Kurdish flag, reported to still be the practice as of March 2013. Flying the Iraqi flag side by side with the Kurdish flag is symbolic of their acceptance of Iraqi federalism.

Modern adaptation to international flag standards

The flag appeared in Kurdish media throughout the 1990s with

MED TV MED TV was the first Kurdish satellite TV with studios in London, England and Denderleeuw, Belgium. MED TV broadcast programs mainly in six languages, Kurdish (Sorani and Kurmanji dialects), Zaza, English, Arabic, Assyrian and Turkish. Prog ...

Kurdsat Kurdsat Broadcasting Corporation ( ku, کوردسات, translit=Kurdsat) is a satellite television station in Kurdistan Region, Iraq, broadcasting since 8 January 2000. It belonged to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and is based in Sulay ...

, Kurdistan TV and their affiliates broadcasting with the flag appearing frequently in their programming allowing it to become a symbol of Kurdish statehood.

Other flags used by Kurds

File:Flag of Rojava.svg, The Tricolor flag of TEV-DEM, adopted circa 2012 for the

Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), also known as Rojava, is a de facto autonomous region in northeastern Syria. It consists of self-governing sub-regions in the areas of Afrin, Jazira, Euphrates, Raqqa, Tabqa, ...

Similar flags

Due to

Iranian Iranian may refer to: * Iran, a sovereign state * Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran * Iranian lan ...

roots of the Kurds, the colours used in flags used by Kurds are the same that are used in other Iranian-origin areas like Iran and Tajikistan. File:State flag of Iran (1964–1980).svg, Flag of the modern era

Persian Empire The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was contemporarily the largest emp ...

( Iranian monarchy until 1979) File:Flag of Iran.svg, Flag of the Islamic Republic of Iran (since 1980) File:Flag of Tajikistan.svg, Flag of the

Republic of Tajikistan Tajikistan (, ; tg, Тоҷикистон, Tojikiston; russian: Таджикистан, Tadzhikistan), officially the Republic of Tajikistan ( tg, Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон, Jumhurii Tojikiston), is a landlocked country in Centra ...

(since 1992)

Kurdistan Region's flag day

Since 1993, the Kurdish Flag Day is celebrated on December 17.

References

External links

* {{cite web, url=http://www.webchin.org/extend/kurdistan-flag/, title=High Resolution Kurdistan Flag For Print

History of the Kurdish people Politics of Kurdistan Politics of Kurdistan Region (Iraq) Kurdish nationalist symbols

Kurd ug:كۇردلار Kurds ( ku, کورد ,Kurd, italic=yes, rtl=yes) or Kurdish people are an Iranian ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Ira ...