A line of memory
Twelve events that condense thousands of years into one thread. Walk the timeline.
Founded by Deioces around 700 BC, the Median Empire made Ecbatana (modern Hamadan) its capital. Many historians consider it the first great state of the ancestors of the Kurds. Allied with Babylon, it brought down the As...
Saladin was born in Tikrit in 1137 to a Kurdish family of the Rawadiya tribe. He founded the Ayyubid dynasty. In July 1187, his greatest victory came at the Battle of Hattin, and in October of that year he entered Jerusa...
In 1692, the poet-sheikh Ahmedê Xanî completed his epic "Mem û Zîn," a tragic love story between Mem and Zîn — but at its heart, a political manifesto demanding a Kurdish state. Written in Kurmanji, it is still read in e...
In the 17th century, the Kurdish Baban emirate was founded in southeastern Iraqi Kurdistan; Sulaymaniyah became its capital in 1784. Under its rule, Kurdish literature flourished, the poetry of Nalî and Salîm was written...
On 22 April 1898, the first issue of "Kurdistan" newspaper appeared in Cairo, founded by Miqdad Midhat Bedirxan. It was the first newspaper in the Kurdish language ever, opening the way to a Kurdish journalistic renaissa...
The Treaty of Sèvres was signed with the Ottoman Empire on 10 August 1920 by the victorious Allied Powers. Articles 62 and 64 envisioned the possible independence of Kurdistan. It was never ratified, and three years late...
On 22 January 1946, Qazi Muhammad proclaimed the Kurdish Republic of Mahabad on Chwarchira Square — the first independent Kurdish state of the modern era. It lasted only eleven months before Iranian troops entered the ci...
Between 1986 and 1989, the Ba'athist regime carried out eight systematic campaigns against the Kurds of northern Iraq, named "Anfal." Between 100,000 and 182,000 Kurds were killed and over 4,500 villages destroyed. Iraqi...
After the 1991 Kurdish uprising and the establishment of a UN-protected safe haven, the Kurdistan Regional Government was created in 1992 — the first internationally recognised Kurdish autonomous government of the modern...
Between September 2014 and January 2015, the small city of Kobanê on the Syrian-Turkish border withstood ISIS' siege for 134 days. The battle became a global symbol of Kurdish resistance, especially as images of Kurdish...
On 25 September 2017, the Iraqi Kurdistan Region held a non-binding independence referendum. 92.7% voted yes with a 72% turnout. The Iraqi federal government responded by closing the region's airspace and retaking Kirkuk...
On 16 March 1988, Iraqi planes bombed the Kurdish city of Halabja with chemical weapons, targeting its civilian population. In a few hours, 5,000 people were killed and more than 7,000 wounded, most of them women and chi...