Kurdistan
"Ey Raqîp" (Hey Enemy!)

Words by: Yunis "Dildar" Rauf
Music by: Shivan Perwer
Adopted: 1946

The Kurds live in an area mainly consisting of northern Iraq. The Kurdish national anthem is from a poem by the revolutionary poet Yunis Rauf, who wrote under the name Dildar, written in 1938. The poem became so popular among the Kurdish people that it was officially adopted as the anthem of Kurdistan during the few months that an independent Kurdistan existed (known as the Kurdish Republic of Mahabad), in what is now western Iran. It was later adopted as the anthem of all Kurds by Kurdish political parties and organizations. The song was originally written in the Kuridsh dialect of Soranî, but it is also sung in the Kurmancî dialect.

Special thanks to: Brusk Chiwir Reshvan who was the translator of the anthem into English as well as for some of this information.

See also: Iraq.