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Born and later imprisoned in Syria, Kurdish director Mano Khalil found asylum in Switzerland where he befriended a fellow refugee: a beekeeper. As his own family faces the twin threats of Assad and Isis, he tells both their stories When Mano Khalil’s documentary The Beekeeper screened in cities across Australia as part of the 2015 Human Rights Arts and Film festival, the Kurdish director toured with it. In Sydney, he spoke about the film’s story – and his own:

    Zarok TV started broadcasting in Kurdish on March 21st, Newroz day, becoming Turkey's first Kurdish-language TV channel for children. The privately owned station Zarok (Kurdish for children) has launched Kurdish-language broadcasts from its headquarters in Diyarbakir.  

Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality has organised International Kurdistan Art Days jointly with the Kayapınar, Bağlar, Sur and Yenişehir district municipalities in support of Rojava. Gathering together under the slogan “Rojava is the perspective for freedom and equality”, artists from all over the world will exhibit their works in various disciplines.

  Mano Khalil's The Beekeeper examines the conflict between the Turks and the Kurds through the eyes of a sole protagnonist: a Kurdish man working as a beekeeper in Switzerland. By creating an intimate portrait of this man's life and philosophy, Khalil expands the thematic relevance of the conflict to the rest of the world. The film will screen on June 17 at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival.  

  With more sorrow and grief we mourn our colleague the poet and director of Duhok radio station Kamiran Rasheed Barwari who in 21/22/ 6/2014 after a severe struggle with sickness left us. Kamiran Rasheed Barwari was a famous poet in Duhok Province and Kurdistan Region and always has a good p;ace in the variety activities of the Union of Kurdish Writers – Duhok and he took part in several times the writers delegations to abroad.

    With Peshmerga forces fighting Islamic State in Iraq and Sham (ISIS) in Iraqi disputed regions, Kurdish pop singer Helly Luv sends out a message for them and pleads to God to protect Peshmarga forces. On her Facebook page, Helly Luv recently posted photos of herself wearing a sand-colored suit inspired by the Kurdish sharwal, with a traditional jamana scarf wrapped around her torso. Posed with a gun, she stands looking off into the distance.  

The Erbil Citadel is considered among the oldest continuously inhabited sites in the world. Photo: AP The Erbil Citadel has won the battle to get on the coveted UNESCO World Heritage List, thanks to active support by Algeria, Lebanon and Turkey. The listing was decided during the current session of the World Heritage Committee in the Qatari capital, Doha.

In Beliefeld – Germany, the fourth conference of the West Kurdistan intellectuals’ Union was held on 25-26/01/2014.

    Hosting three internationally renowned Kurdish filmmakers and a range of awarded films, theLondon Kurdish Film Festivalis delighted to announce its 8thFestival from 15th to 24th November 2013.   This year’s opening gala is crowned with the UK premiere of Before Snowfall, a thought provoking and poignant film about honour killing, by the multi-award winning director HishamZaman, who will also be attending the festival.

  Galawezh festival which would include the name of renowned intellectuals, writers and educated people worldwide, the cultural and literary works which have been received by the preparation committee of the festival, which consists of 31 researchs, 84 poems and 38 stories would demonstrate the importance of the festival for the intellectuals and writers. The festival shall be held in Sulaymani, at the Sulaymani Palas starting Nov. 21 to Nov. 25, 2013, the festival will include Iraqi, Kurds and international artists. PUKmedia

 In this year's edition Duhok IFF is showcasing a series of Special Screenings in addition to its main programme. One of them is dedicated to Taha Karimi with a selection of his films. Taha Karimi is among the most famous Kurdish filmmakers of our time who dealt with the political struggle of the Kurdish people in his works. Duhok IFF  is going to present Karimi's films “1001 Apples” and “White Mountain”.

  Recognising the vital importance of well constructed and developed screenplays for the enrichment of Kurdish cinema, the London Kurdish Film Festival is organising a competition to select the best entry for a screenplay for a feature film on a Kurdish theme.

WASHINGTON DC - Earlier this month, at the Virginia hospital where he has been in a life-and-death struggle for a month, I went to visit Khalaf Zebari, whose voice is known to many Kurds around the world from Kurdish-language broadcasts of the Voice of America (VOA). His wife Chiman, who was beside him at the intensive care unit, told me that doctors had told her he would not survive, and they should let him go. “No, I told them angrily,” she said. “I told them, ‘do everything you can.’”

 Sherko Bekas, the acclaimed modern Kurdish poet, died yesterday (4 August) of cancer. Son of the poet Fayak Bekas, Sherko was born in Sulaymani in 1940. He joined the liberation movement in 1965, working for the Voice of Kurdistan radio station until he was forced into exile in 1986 and he then returned to south Kurdistan in 1992.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pMwx8I9hLY This spring and summer, National Geographic Young Explorer Julia Harte is traveling along the Tigris River from Southern Iraq to Southeastern Turkey, documenting ancient sites and modern communities along the river before they are transformed by the Ilısu Dam, an 11 billion-cubic-meter hydroelectric dam that will generate 2 percent of Turkey’s power. 

The ROJ TV trial in Denmark resumed at Copenhagen Municipal Court on Wednesday. The Court revoked the license of all satellite channels of Mesopotamia Broadcasting, including MMC, NUCE TV and ROJ TV. Three Kurdish channels were also punished by a pecuniary penalty of five million DKR. Speaking about the court's decision, journalist Amed Dicle said lawyers of the company would soon object to the decision.

Under the emblem "We ask for the implementation of Girona Manifesto on languages in our country", the 8th Congress of Kurdish PEN Centre was held on 18- 19/05/2013 in Amed (Diyarbakir),

  American Newspaper ,An independent Kurdistan is now more feasible than ever.Today, Iraqi Kurds have an autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), a military with a civilian commander-in-chief, and modern state institutions. Kurdistan has attracted billions in foreign investment, and is the only place in Iraq where Westerners truly feel safe.

  The Kurdish case, which considered the biggest issue since founding the Turkish Republic till the day. Failur e to resolve the Kurdish issue will not only create an economical or social problems but will also weaken the regional geopolitical role of Turkey. In fact, the last Turkish governments have tried over the years to suppress the Kurdish uprisings and deny the existence of the Kurdish people in various ways, but could not satisfy itself nor the Turkish public opinion.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden – Due to her Kurdish looks, actress Aveen Ahmed has many times played the role of a young foreigner in Swedish films. The Swedish-born actress, 22, says that Kurds are now part of Swedish society and the roles she plays must reflect that. “We are a part of this society now. I was born and raised here, and I am a Swede,” she says.

 The Nashville Film Festival always draws crowds of movie buffs from around Middle Tennessee and the rest of the nation. But this year, organizers are welcoming a special contingent from halfway across the globe. Since 2008, the festival has used a grant to reach out to theNashvillecommunity. So the means were already in place when they got a special request from a very particular group:Nashville’s Kurds–the largest concentration of Kurdish immigrants and refugees anywhere in theUS—wanted to see the films of their people included in the schedule.

  WASHINGTON, United States  -  This is an abbreviated eulogy of Musa Anter (“Uncle Moses”) recently given to a group of Ohio University students in Athens, Ohio. It has been edited for Rudaw's Culture & Art page.  

  U.S. magazine: The Kurds enjoy relative peace and stability compared with the rest of the country An essay written by Joost R. Hiltermann and was published in the U.S. magazine Foreign Affairs in, pointed to the independence dream of the Kurds of Iraq and factors to achieve this dream. The title of the essay is “the Revenge of the Kurds”

      ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—With the withdrawal of the Syrian army from the cities and towns in Kurdish regions of the country, some Syrian Kurdish filmmakers in exile feel confident enough to return home and make movies.