Kurdish Institute of Paris

kurdish institute of paris logo
Name:

Kurdish Institute of Paris

Website:

http://www.institutkurde.org/en/

Location

Paris, France

kendal nezan president of the kurdish institute of paris

Kendal Nezan, the President of the Kurdish Institute of Paris

About:

Created in February 1983, the Kurdish Institute is an independent, non-political, secular organisation, embracing Kurdish intellectuals and artists from different horizons as well as Western specialists on Kurdish Studies.

The founders of the Institute are Kurdish intellectuals and artists, well known in Kurdistan. Amongst them, the film maker Yilmaz Güney, whose film YOL won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1982; the Syrian Kurdish poet Cegerxwin; Hejar, Iranian Kurdish poet and linguist, translator of Avicenna into Persian and of the Coran and Omar Khayyam into Kurdish; Tewfiq Wahby, linguist and former Iraqi Minister of Education; Professor Q. Kurdo, grammarian and linguist at the Leningrad Institute of Oriental studies; H. Cindy, Kurdish writer from Armenia; Remzi Rasa, French Kurdish painter; N. Zaza, Swiss Kurdish writer and linguist.

Mission:

Its objectives are to maintain, in the Kurdish community, a knowledge of its language, its history and its cultural heritage, to contribute to the integration of Kurdish immigrants to Europe into their host societies and to make the Kurds, their culture, their country and their present situation known to the general public.

Impact:
  • Manages the largest Kurdish library in the world — over 6,000 publications
  • Offers 30-week Kurdish culture and Kurdish language courses
  • Publishes updates and latest Kurdish news from the region
  • Manages a calendar of Kurdish cultural events including meetings, exhibitions, films, speeches and public debates

The Kurdish Institute of Paris is at risk of disappearing — watch the video below to learn more, and sign a Change.org petition to help save the Kurdish Institute — or donate to help keep the Institute afloat.