December 17th is Kurdistan Flag Day. The day was commemorated at the University of Human Development with an event and several activities.

Students gathered for a special concert at Professor Dr Ali Qaradaghi Hall by the well-known Kurdish singer Bokan Hawrami and his team. This event lasted around an hour. The songs performed were carefully selected to represent Kurdistan’s history and its rich culture.

Outside the hall and in the main square of the UHD campus, students carried a massive Kurdistan flag, and a student read a poem that he wrote himself to mark the occasion. Behind the gathering was a loudspeaker playing traditional Kurdish songs.

The Kurdistan Region of Iraq has recognised December 17th as Flag Day through legislation passed by its parliament. The designation of this day holds immense historical significance. On this day in 1945, the first Kurdistan Republic in Mahabad raised the Kurdistan flag over its institutions. This is an important moment in Kurdish national consciousness.

The Kurdistan flag consists of three equal horizontal stripes: red (on top), white (in the middle), and green (at the bottom), with a golden sun emblem in the centre. The colours and the emblem have deep symbolic significance:

Red symbolises the blood of the martyrs and the ongoing struggle; white symbolises peace; green symbolises the beauty and landscapes of Kurdistan, and the sun symbolises light, with the twenty-one sunbeams representing March 21, the Kurdish national day of Newroz.