Kurdish Literary Movement in Baghdad City"1958 -1975"

Abstract

B aghdad city is considered as one of the most prominent places for Kurdish intellectual movement. Residing the Kurds in Baghdad has a deep-rooted history that belongs to the stage of pre-establishing Iraq as a state and recognizing Baghdad as its capital; this basically associates with many historical and geographical factors. The geographical factor is one of the noticeable factors that are related to the closeness of Kurdish territories to Baghdad. However, the intellectual group among the residents has had a crucial role in establishing the intellectual movement at the city. Along with its long history, the movement has also been impacted by so many political events after the establishment of Iraq. The 1958 revolution, for instance, created an environment where freedom of publishing and expressing national and political opinions has been liberated. This had its own reflection on a variety of aspects in Kurdish language and literature. Following the outbreak of Kurds’ September revolution in 1961, there were still some literary activities existed in the city, like continual issuing of some intellectual magazines, such as Hiwa (1957-1963) and Ronahi (1960-1962). However, between 1963 and 1967, the Kurdish intellectual movement faced a harsher circumstance; The Kurdish Victory Club, Hiwa Magazine, and the majority of the Kurdish magazines and newspapers were closed, a few number of Kurdish books and booklets were printed, and The Department of Kurdish at College of Arts was threatened with closure. Between 1967 and 1970 a suitable political situation was attained for the Kurds, as a result of the treaty negotiated in 1966 between the Iraqi government and Kurdish presidency. The issuance of each Brayi (Al-Ta’khi) newspaper in 1967 and 1968 and Bayan magazine in 1969 was the output of that political change. As of the 1970 Treaty, a new stage was achieved for Kurdish intellectual movement. This stage is considered as a golden era in reliving different aspects of Kurdish intellectual. The city of Baghdad hosted a wide range of this progress, even, to a great extent, became the center of evolution for Kurdish intellectual movement.