Rafiq Hilmi

1) His Biography:

Born in Kirkuk, Rafiq Hilmi (1898–1961) was a Kurdish historian, author, and politician. In 1938, he founded the Kurdish party Hîwa. He is the author of numerous publications about Kurdistan’s history and the Kurdish language. He completed his education at the Military Academy and Technical School of Istanbul after attending schools in Sulaimania and Baghdad.

2) Main Works:

Kurdish Poetry and Literature, Vol. I, Kurdish Poetry and Literature, Vol. II, The History of Kurdistan, Kurdistan at the Dawn of the Century, The Science of Arithmetic, Yaddasht, Summary of the Kurdish Case (The Sévre Treaty).

3) His fight for the Kurdish cause:

Early in his writing career, he contributed to Bangî Kurdistan and Rojî Kurdistan, the two Kurdish publications that are part of the Kingdom of Kurdistan. After the second book of his Kurdish Poetry and Literature was published in 1956, he gained notoriety as a gifted literary critic. For the first time, Goran’s poetry and the traits of the modernist literary movement he represented were thoroughly examined in this study. A number of additional works regarding Kurdish politics and history have also been authored by him.

In Kurdish politics, Rafiq Hilmi is well known as the leader of the Hîwa party (Hope). It began as a covert group made up of Kurdish academics and government employees. In 1937, Rafiq Hilmi founded and led a student movement known as “Darker” (Darker is the Kurdish term for charcoal makers, but was about the Italian term of the “Carbonari”), which later became the Hîwa and openly acknowledged its shining examples, the Italian fascism under Mussolini and the German National Socialism under Hitler. This movement was influenced by the predominantly Arab faculty in Kirkuk.

These lecturers had explained to their students the national unifications that took place while Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, and the Prince of Bismarck were in power. This was viewed by many Kurds as a striking illustration of Kurdish unity. Although Iraqi Kurdistan’s autonomy was a key component of Hîwa’s political platform, many of its members also had socialist ideologies. Later, as political views and perspectives inside the party grew more divisive, the Hîwa Party eventually broke up. A hardline, pro-German wing and a more moderate, pro-British wing were its two sections.

Additionally, Hîwa had developed relationships with Komala JK militants in Mahabad and dispatched two army commanders, Mustafa Khushnaw and Mir Haj Ahmad, to the organization’s formation ceremony in September 1942. Until the fall of the Republic of Mahabad in 1947, Hîwa retained its connections to the Mahabad movement. In addition, Rafiq Himli held other positions during the tenure of various Iraqi governments, including Director of Education in Sulaimaniya in 1943, Deputy Governor of Baghdad in 1954, and Iraqi Cultural Attaché in Ankara in 1959.