When Kurds fled the Middle East in large numbers after Turkey’s crackdown on its large Kurdish minority following the 1980 military coup and during the 1980-88 Iraq-Iran war, it was the Kurdish Institute of Paris that helped many of the intellectuals in the fleeing crowds settle in France.
One of the oldest Kurdish organizations in the West, the institute has served as an ambassador for the Kurdish language, history and cultural heritage. Its tasks have included gathering Kurdish and Western activists and specialists together to influence international policy makers.
The institute has helped many Kurdish artists escape repression in Iran, Iraq and Turkey, among them Yilmaz Guney, the Turkish-born award-winning film director who was acclaimed at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival for his film, ‘’Yol.’’
‘’Three hundred students received scholarships from the institute, some of whom then became university professors or engineers,’’ explains Kendal Nezan, the institute’s president. “Forty percent of them were women.’’
After starting as an association for Kurdish and French intellectuals working on Kurdish issues, the institute progressively turned into a more active organisation in the early eighties, when the election of left-wing French president Francois Mitterand laid the ground for the development and expansion of cultural associations.
Since then, it has been a place where Kurds from around the Middle East can pursue research and share their knowledge and recommendations.
As an independent, non-political and secular organization, the institute embraces academics and experts of Kurdish descent and Westerners alike, with the goal of finding better solutions for Kurds in the Middle East.
On its website subscribers and occasional readers can find news about the Kurds as well as a quarterly linguistic magazine. The institute maintains the largest Kurdish library in the Western world, including some 6,500 monographs in 23 languages and a large collection of periodicals, newspapers, photographs and videos.
An online library provides access to many books and references on Kurdish history and language, as well as Kurdish essays, poetry and philosophy.
Academics, linguists, writers and artists publish their works and display their art at the institute, making it a privileged place for maintaining and sharing Kurdish heritage.
“In 1993, we held a special art exhibition as part of the activities organized against the genocide carried out by Saddam Hussein. The event was attended by both the Kurdish Ministry of Culture and the French president,’’Nezan says.
The Kurdish Institute of Paris has been significantly involved in increasing French public sympathy toward the Kurds. ‘’In 2002, 74 percent of French people were favorable to the Kurdish cause,’’ Nezan says, giving the results of one of the institute’s own polls.
Its advocacy work dates back to 1989, when it organized the first international conference on ‘’Kurdish Identity and Human rights,’’ which gathered 240 personalities and 85 journalists from 32 countries, as well as all existing Kurdish political parties at the time.
The institute’s influence over major political and international institutions was established when the United Nations decided on a northern security zone, following international concern over Saddam’s attacks on the Kurds. That laid the favorable conditions for an autonomous Kurdish enclave to emerge.
‘’The biggest lobbying campaign and achievement of the institute was during the Kurdish mass exodus, when the institute successfully managed to mobilize public opinion in France, as well as internationally, to create a security zone in northern Iraq,” Nezan explains.
With the newly-acquired autonomy of the Iraqi Kurdish region, the institute maintained its support to set the foundations of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), which now governs the autonomous enclave in northern Iraq.
Today, besides its normal activities, the institute is working at finding solutions for the Kurds of Turkey and Syria.
‘’The institute managed to have a common declaration adopted, which Kurds from Turkey have agreed upon, and that serves as a basis for discussions,’’ says Nezan.
Backed by its Cultural and Scientific Council, which is composed of 100 high-profile members, it suggests possible solutions that can increase the visibility of Kurds and respect for Kurdish culture, language and rights. The institute is run by 20 volunteers and many influential sponsors and friends.
“If we were to have Bill Gates’ or Steven Spielberg’s sympathy for our cause, we could have a Kurdish cultural TV,’’ Nezan exclaims.
Despite financial support from French and European institutions, as well as the regional Kurdish government and donors, Nezan admits that money is still an issue.
‘’We fought hard to survive until now. It’s been a survival strategy. With more significant funding, we could be 10 times more efficient,’’ he says.
Nezan says that the institute now looks at facilitating dialogue for the democratization process in the Middle East, and ensuring Kurdistan’s cultural and political autonomy.
