Iraqi Kurdish “Badirkhan” Family in Encyclopedia to carry its name
ARBIL / IraqiNews.com: The French Cultural Center in Arbil, the capital of north Iraq ’s Kurdistan Region, has announced on Monday the authoring of a project, carrying out the name of “The Badirkhanians Encyclopedia,” aimed at collecting the heritage of the Kurdish Badirkhanian Family. “The Badirkkhanian Family had become a bridge for communication between France and the Kurdish People,” the Director of the French Institute in Arbil, Emily Yonzi, said in a speech on the inauguration of a celebration on the occasion, adding that “this encyclopedia is very important, because the Badirkhanian Family had played a major role in developing the Kurdish language.” The Badirkhanian Family is an ancient Kurdish family that had played an outstanding role in politics, literature and culture, and had demanded the Othman Empire to achieve the rights of the Kurdish people. Noteworthy is that the first Kurdish newspaper, that carried the name of (Kurdistan) was issued by a member of the family, called Miqdad Mid’hat Badirkhan, he published in Egypt in 1988, and its issuance was considered as “the Year of the Kurdish Press,” along with many books, authored by the family, who had also played an active role in the Kurdish liberation movements. On his part, Member of the Higher Committee for the ‘Badirkhanian Encyclopedia’ project, Azad Hama Sharif, said that his committee “comprised six persons, led by Mrs. Saynam Badirkhan, belonging to the Badirkhanian Family.” Sharif said that the committee’s first meeting was held on 22/4/2011, “when we gathered about 3,000 pages, 1,000 pictures and about 46 books for the Badirkhanian Family, and demanded a group of writers and journalists from Turkey to look into the Othman Archive about the family, along with a collection from Syria for the same reason.” “The Badirkhanian Encyclopedia is expected to comprise 16-20 editions,” Sharif said, adding that the work would take about three years to be completed. SKH (FT) 1099