SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region - Kurdish school systems in the Kurdistan Region and northeastern Syria (Rojava) agree on medieval Kurdish symbols but diverge on more recent history, a French scholar told Rudaw English, reflecting competing narratives across different parts of Kurdistan.
“Whether in Bashur [Kurdistan Region] or in Rojava, the school systems reinstated, put the Kurds at the center of the history of the people who consider themselves as Kurds,” said Boris James, a historian specializing in the history and cultures of the Middle East.
He spoke Friday at the inaugural Kurdish Studies Forum at the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani (AUIS). The forum, organized by AUIS’s Kashkul arts and culture center, seeks to foster dialogue, research, and cultural exchange on Kurdish history, literature, and the arts.
James noted that schools in both Bashur and Rojava present a shared consensus on medieval Kurdish figures. He cited the Sharafnamah, a 16th-century chronicle often regarded as the foundation of Kurdish historiography, and Salahaddin al-Ayyubi (Saladin), the 12th-century Muslim leader celebrated for defeating the Crusaders and ruling parts of the Middle East. Both, James said, are embraced across the Kurdistan Region and Rojava as unifying historical symbols.
“The divergence,” he added, “lies in the more recent history.”
In Rojava, textbooks after 2010 began to “reinstate the history of the Kurds, reinstate the historical mythology of the Kurds,” with a strong emphasis on the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan.
The PKK, founded in 1978 in response to discrimination against the Kurdish population in Turkey, is considered a terrorist organization by Ankara and its allies. The group initially called for an independent Kurdistan, but it later dropped that demand and shifted focus to securing cultural and political rights for Kurds in Turkey.
By contrast, James explained, “The PKK is totally absent in the school system in the history of textbooks in Bashur.”
However, he said that “In Rojava… Mullah Mustafa Barzani is mentioned… because it is a very central figure.”
Mustafa Barzani, founder of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), led the September or Aylul Revolution in 1961 after failed negotiations with Baghdad. Nearly a decade of fighting ended with a 1970 autonomy agreement that was never implemented. The revolution collapsed in 1975 after the Algiers Accord cut off Iranian support.
“He has reached the level of an institution of importance that is part of history,” he added.
James noted, however, that curricula in Rojava have evolved.
“From 2015 to 2020, the school books in Rojava have changed. Abdullah Ocalan is less important in the new school books,” he said, suggesting that history education in the region reflects shifting political needs.
Turkey has repeatedly accused Rojava of harboring PKK members and considers the People’s Protection Units (YPG) - the backbone of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Rojava’s de facto army - to be affiliated with the PKK. The SDF has consistently denied the allegations. In December, Murat Karayilan, a senior PKK commander, insisted the group has no presence in Rojava.
Amid these tensions, Turkey’s far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), an ally of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), called in October for a restart of peace talks between Ankara and the PKK. The initiative led to Ocalan’s historic call in February for the PKK to disarm, followed by the group’s unilateral ceasefire. In July, 30 PKK fighters held a symbolic disarmament ceremony in the Kurdistan Region’s Sulaimani province as a gesture of goodwill and commitment to peace.
Besides hosting the symbolic disarmament ceremony, the Kurdistan Region’s leaders have played a vital, though indirect, facilitating and supportive role in the peace process between Ankara and Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) - the party mediating the Ankara-PKK peace talks.
“The pan-Kurdish, the Kurdish imagination is not restrained to the borders that we have right now,” James said. “If we are looking for unity and for solutions… it must be, because otherwise Rojava would not survive. It is an obligation, in a way.”
The outcome of Turkey’s peace process is expected to have significant repercussions on Rojava, where tensions with Damascus remain high after the stalling of a March 10 deal between SDF chief Mazloum Abdi and Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa. The agreement aimed to integrate Rojava’s civil and military institutions into those of Damascus, alongside a nationwide cease-fire.
Turkey has positioned itself as a staunch supporter of Damascus.
Evolving Kurdish identity
James argued that Kurdish identity is fluid and continuously reshaped by political and social circumstances. “The cultural identity of the Kurds is not something that is immutable, that has never changed over the years. It was recreated in the face of these political and social situations,” he said.
He described how outsiders have often framed Kurds as “warlike, rural, outside of the city people.” Yet, he emphasized their role in intellectual and urban life, pointing to the Ayyubid dynasty founded by Saladin, in which Kurds played a significant part.
“They followed the Ayyubid dynasty in Syria, in Egypt, and became very important actors of city life, especially in mystical Islam networks. The intellectual madrasa background was filled with Kurds, and they took a very important role,” James said, highlighting their contributions to “higher forms of… intellectual productions.”
Kurdish scholars and Sufi leaders rose to prominence during the Ayyubid time, studying religion, law, and philosophy, and sometimes sciences in madrasas that were traditional Islamic schools.