ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Rudaw on Tuesday screened Glory, a new documentary highlighting the legacy of the Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga forces, from their early uprisings against successive Iraqi regimes to their defining role in defeating the Islamic State (ISIS).
The film traces the evolution of the Peshmerga, whose name translates to “those who face death,” as both a national symbol of resilience and the Kurdistan Region’s official defense force recognized under the Iraqi constitution.
“In my family, my brothers, uncle, father, and grandfather were all Peshmerga. Two of my uncles are martyrs,” Rebin Rojbayani, an officer at the Peshmerga Ministry, says in the documentary. “Since childhood, I have heard their stories, and I grew up with those memories. That inspiration developed within me.”
Rojbayani, born in 1987 in Erbil, said his grandfather, Younis Sorkhan, fought in the September Revolution - the 1961 uprising led by Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) founder Mullah Mustafa Barzani against then-Iraqi Prime Minister Abd al-Karim Qassim. The movement, known locally as the Aylul Revolution, sought autonomy for Kurds and lasted until 1975, when the Algiers Agreement between Iraq and Iran dealt a major setback to Kurdish aspirations.
Following the 1991 uprising against Saddam Hussein’s Baath regime, the Peshmerga institutionalized their forces. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) established the first military academy in Qalachwalan, Sulaimani province, followed by the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s (KDP) Zakho Military Academy in Duhok in 1996.
The Peshmerga gained global recognition in 2014 for their frontline role against ISIS, particularly after the Iraqi army’s collapse during the group’s rapid territorial expansion.