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# Kurdistan

##

Last modified: 2026-08-08 by ian macdonald
Keywords: kurdistan | türkiye | iran | iraq |
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image by Zoltan Horvath, 15 June 2024

- About Kurdistan and the Kurds
- Official Description of the Flag
- Colour Specifications
- Two Representative Entities

See also:

- Representative entities:
  - Kurdish Parliament in Exile
  - Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq
  - Kurdistan - President
  - Kurdish National Congress
  - Kurdistan Region Security Council
  - Kurdistan General Directorate of Police
  - Rojava (Western / Syrian Kurdistan)
- Political parties and entities:
  - In Turkish Kurdistan:
    - Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
    - National Liberation Army of Kurdistan (ERNK)
    - People's Liberation Army of Kurdistan (ARGK)
    - Liberation Units of Kurdistan (HRK)
    - Komkar
    - Patriotic and Revolutionary Youth Movement
    - Pro-Türkiye Kurdish Militia
    - Kurdistan Freedom Falcons
  - In Iraqi Kurdistan:
    - Kurdistan Democratic Party
    - Patriotic Union of Kurdistan
    - Rizgary Party of Kurdistan
    - Kurdistan Islamic Komal
    - Kurdish National Council
    - Kurdish Social Democratic Party
    - Socialist Party of Kurdistan (PSK)
    - Kurdistan Communities of Women
    - Security Forces of Kurdistan Regional government
  - In Iran:
    - Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK)
    - Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK)
  - In Syria:
    - Rojava
    - Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES)
    - Syrian Democratic Forces
  - Other groups:
    - Jewish Kurdish Community
- Historical Flags
  - Mahabad Republic (Iran, January-December 1946)
  - Short-Lived Independent Kurdish States
- Peshmerga
- Tevgera Jinên Kurd Li - Europe
- Unidentified Kurdish Flags
- Countries Over Which Kurdistan Spreads
  - Iraq
  - Iran
  - Türkiye
  - Syria

## About Kurdistan and the Kurds

The Kurds are the largest national group without a nation state. Since the First World War, they have enjoyed three brief periods of geographically-limited near-nationhood, but their own disunity has often hindered progress. More importantly the existing regional powers have found Kurdish nationhood threatening, and major powers like the United States have shared that perspective.
Most of Kurdistan is now divided between Türkiye, Iran and Iraq, and all three countries have experienced numerous Kurdish insurgencies since 1920. Smaller pockets lie in Syria, Armenia and Azerbaijan. There are major communities of refugees throughout western Europe and the United States. Kurdistan divides into two general socio-linguistic regions at the Greater Zab River near the Iraqi-Turkish border:
(1) Northern Kurdistan is the Kurmanji-speaking region which mostly lies in Türkiye (most of eastern Anatolia). Since the 1980s, one of the PKK-related flags has emerged as the principal flag representing Kurmanji Kurdistan.
(2) Southern Kurdistan is mostly Sorani-speaking and lies principally in Iraq (north) and Iran (northwest). Also since the 1980s another flag seems to have emerged as the most widely used for that region.
There is no central authority to legislate flags for Kurdistan, and until very recently most Kurds did not seem interested in any precision about flags. I have some friends who were very close to government officials of the former Mahabad Republic, and they insisted 15 years ago that there was no Kurdish flag. They were surprised when I presented historical evidence to the contrary.
T. F. Mills, 27 September 1997

## Official Description of the Flag

Editor's note:: Most of the following information is reproduced from the former website of the Center for Kurdish Political Studies [no longer on-line] with kind permission of its director, Bijan Eliasi.

### Introduction

The aim of this document is to introduce in brief the history of the current National Flag of Kurdistan and to help those who use the Kurdish national flag to reproduce it correctly. The document contains the basic rules for the construction of the flag as well as the standard colors to be used.

### Historical background

The National Flag was first introduced by the leaders of the Khoyboun, ("independence") movement to represent the Kurds in their struggle for independence from the moribund Ottoman Empire. It was subsequently presented to the members of the international delegation at the Paris Peace Conference that devised a plan for Kurdish independence as a part of the Treaty of Sèvres with Ottoman Türkiye in 1920. Under the same flag the Khoyboun announced the formation of the first "Kurdish Government in Exile" in 1927 and fought a drawn-out war until 1932, in order to revive the Kurdish national independence, lost since 1848.

In 1946 and the creation of the Republic of Kurdistan at Mahabad, the old "sunny flag" was adopted by its parliament as the official Flag of the Republic. Following these historic background, the National Flag is widely adopted in Kurdistan and has been set aloft by various Kurdish movements and entities in all sectors of the land.

The "sunny flag" has thus been consecrated by the blood of all Kurdish patriots of this century, from tens of thousands who fell in defending the independence movement under the Khoyboun, to the President of the Republic of Kurdistan and his elected cabinet who were hanged in sight of this flag by the foe. The flag was aloft when Dersim was immolated in 1938; it was aloft when wounded Kurds on stretchers were placed before the firing squads in 1980; it was aloft when Kurdish civilians were gassed in their thousands in cities and towns in 1988; it was aloft when millions were driven from their villages and towns that have been set alight since1989; and, it remains aloft everywhere today--150 years after the loss of Kurdish independence--when Kurds are redoubling their perennial struggle to regain their dignity and equality with other nations by reviving their right to choose the course of their own future.

### Description of the National Flag

The Kurdish flag has three horizontal bands. The upper stripe is red, the middle one white and the bottom band green. The width of the flag is two-thirds of the length. The primary Kurdish characteristic of the flag is the golden emblem at the center. The sun emblem has a religious and cultural history among the Kurds, stretching into antiquity. The sun disk of the emblem has 21 rays, equal in size and shape. The number 21 holds a primary importance in the native Yazdani religious tradition of the Kurds.

### Construction Sheet

image by Ivan Sache, 08 May 2003

The diameter of the sun disk is 0.5 without the rays and 1.0 with the rays (considering the 2x3 dimensions of the flag). The rays are keen-pointed at the end, with their sides made of straight lines. No space separates two adjacent rays at their base which touch on the disk, thus leaving no part of the sun disk exposed. The sun emblem is situated at the geometric center of the flag. The sun is placed in such way the vector going through its uppermost odd ray is perpendicular to the length.

### Regulation Colors

I have just learned that the Kurdish Government have apparently adopted the flag specification I drew up for them a few years ago – see http://www.kurdistan-parliament.com/KurdishFlag_english.htm.
The flag is in the following colors, according to Pantone matching system:

- Red: PMS 032
- Green: PMS 354
- Yellow: PMS 116

Christopher Southworth, 05 September 2006

## Colour Specifications

The Kurdish Institute in Paris maintains a website with illustrations, specification and also gives color values in Pantone system: https://www.institutkurde.org/en/kurdorama/the_national_flag_of_kurdistan.php
Other sources for colors:
The Olympic Flag Manuals are not relevant in case of Kurdistan, because it is not member of IOC, the athletes compete as member of Iraqi Olympic team, or special group of Individual Athletes.
The Album des Pavillons 2000 [pay00] doesn’t illustrate the flag of Kurdistan.
Kurdistan is illustrated in the Album des Pavillons 2016 for the first time, and the yellow color added to color specifications.
Yellow: Pantone 116c, CMYK 0-16-100-0
The Album des Pavillons 2023 illustrates the flag, but doesn’t give separate the color specification, only colors of Iraqi flags with yellow added.
Red: Pantone 186c, CMYK 14-100-79-4, RGB 200-16-46
Yellow: Pantone 116c, CMYK 0-21-93-0, RGB 255-204-0
Green: Pantone 7732c, CMYK 88-26-94-12, RGB 0-123-61
Vexilla Mundi doesn’t illustrate flag of Kurdistan.
Wikipedia gives color values as follows:
Red: RGB 235-35-35, Hex #ED2024
Green: RGB 39-138-65, Hex #278E43
Yellow: RGB 250-185-20, Hex #FEBD11
White: RGB 255-255-255, Hex #FFFFFF
Flag Color Codes gives the following color values:
Red: Hex. # ED2024, RGB 237-32-36, CMYK 0-87-85-7, Pantone 1788 C, RAL 3026
White: Hex. # FFFFFF, RGB 255-255-255, CMYK 0-0-0-0, Pantone N/A, RAL N/A
Green: Hex. # 278E43, RGB 39-142-67, CMYK 73-0-53-44, Pantone 7731 C, RAL 6032
Yellow: Hex. # FEBD11, RGB 254-189-17, CMYK 0-26-93-0, Pantone 1235 C, RAL 2007

Zoltan Horvath, 15 June 2024

## Two Representative Entities

Similarly, there are two entities which claim to officially represent the Kurds:

- The Kurdish Parliament in Exile (Brussels, Belgium), mainly dominated by the PKK.
- The Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq and the National Assembly of Kurdistan (Arbil, Iraq), mainly dominated by the other Kurdish parties.

Ivan Sache, 19 November 1999

## Pro-Türkiye Kurdish Militia

image by Jaume Ollé Casals, 1 July 2012

I saw the flag of the Kurdish militia that fought together the Turkish army against PKK on the Catalan TV channel TV3 on 21 February 1999, in a report about the conflict in Eastern Türkiye.
Jaume Ollé Casals, 1 July 2012