Kurdish PEN or the Kurdish Centre of the International PEN (''Navenda PEN a Kurd'' in

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish languages *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern Kurdistan **Eastern Kurdistan **Northern Kurdistan **Western Kurdistan See also * Kurd (dis ...

) is a branch of

International PEN PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous Internationa ...

. It was suggested by Kurdish writer Hüseyin Erdem and voted into existence during International PEN's conference in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

in 1988. Its headquarters are located in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. The Kurdish PEN Center actively works with Kurdish writers in all parts of

Kurdistan Kurdistan ( ku, کوردستان ,Kurdistan ; lit. "land of the Kurds") or Greater Kurdistan is a roughly defined geo-cultural territory in Western Asia wherein the Kurds form a prominent majority population and the Kurdish culture, Kurdish la ...

to promote the Kurdish language and

literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

. The Center is headed by Dr. Zaradachet Hajo. Kurdish PEN publishes research articles related to Kurdish culture in four languages:

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

and

. The Kurdish PEN is also active in

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

, where it organized a conference on cultural diversity in March 2005 in

Diyarbakır Diyarbakır (; ; ; ) is the largest Kurdish-majority city in Turkey. It is the administrative center of Diyarbakır Province. Situated around a high plateau by the banks of the Tigris river on which stands the historic Diyarbakır Fortress, ...

. It also encourages writers of International PEN to visit Kurdistan and meet Kurdish writer

Founding members

Mehmed Uzun Mehmed Uzun (January 1, 1953 – October 10, 2007) was a Kurdish writer and novelist born in Siverek, Şanlıurfa Province, Turkey. Though the Kurdish language was outlawed in Turkey from 1920 to 1990, he started to write in it and achieved much t ...

#Hüseyn Erdem #Yayla Mönch-Bucak #Abdurrahman Nakshabandy #Hüseyin Kartal # Emine Erdem #Haydar Işik

External links

Kurdish PENThe International PEN seminar on Cultural Diversity, Diraybakir, March 2005PEN Canada
{{Authority control Kurdish-language mass media International PEN centers Organisations based in Cologne