Kurdish “Mountain” Journalism

The old Kurdish adage “no friend but the mountains” expresses the ability of the Kurds to survive centuries of enemy onslaughts from the snowy peaks of their rugged homeland and is manifest even in the development of 20th-century journalism in Iraqi Kurdistan. “Mountain journalism was a journalism of resistance to the oppression against us,” says renowned poet Sherko Bekas. Iraqi Kurds used media in their opposition to the Ottoman Empire, the British colonial government, the Hashemite monarchy, and successive Arab Ba'ath regimes, all of them more or less intent on assimilating or destroying Kurdish cultural identity and political aspirations.

From tiny villages and mountain hideouts, Iraqi Kurds broadcasted radio programs in Kurdish and Arabic for a largely illiterate population. From hidden rooms or even isolated caves, Peshmerga (those who face death) fighters cranked out news bulletins, magazines, and scores of books on crude presses for clandestine distribution. Circulation was small, as possession was likely to result in arrest at least, death at worst.

“Mountain” journalism or “mountain” media designates clandestine publishing in general, but more specifically, it refers to an intense period of media production that began in 1975 with the “new revolution” against the Iraqi central government. The term was coined by Kurdish political leaders to distinguish their media from the propaganda the Ba'athist government was cranking out during the same period. Aside from news bulletins, between 1984 and 1988, Iraqi Kurds produced more than 80 books in the mountains, including the Peshmerga Handbook and volumes of resistance poetry.

It reached its zenith from 1984 to 1988, when it was stopped short by the Anfal genocide campaign. The Anfal was a systematic series of military campaigns led by Ali Hassan al-Majid (the notorious “Chemical Ali”) to destroy the mountain-based Kurdish rebellion. Nearly 200,000 Kurds were killed in scorched earth operations that destroyed more than 1,200 villages and included dozens of documented chemical attacks. The rebellion was destroyed, as was mountain journalism.

Iraqi Kurdish journalists generally describe mountain journalism as an effort to (a) reveal the Iraqi government's crimes against the people, (b) raise political and social awareness, (c) mobilize the public to stand up to the government, and (d) convey the positions of the various political parties. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the Kurdistan Democratic Party, and the Kurdistan Communist Party were the three largest during [Page 292]this time period, all involved in producing clandestine media.

Although Iraqi Kurds now enjoy a good measure of autonomy with a strong regional government, Kurds in Turkey, Iran, and Syria still suffer repression and generally lack the ability to publish or broadcast freely. For them, the spirit of “mountain journalism” continues.