Kurdish Language Day: Anniversary of the publication of "Hawar" magazine

Kurdish Language Day: Anniversary of the publication of "Hawar" magazine by "Celadet Elî Bedirxan"

"Hawar is the voice of knowledge. Knowledge leads to personal reflection. Personal reflection opens the way to freedom and happiness for us. One who knows himself can introduce himself to others. Our Hawar will first of all recognize the existence of our language. Because language is the main term of existence.".

"Hawar is the voice of knowledge. Knowledge leads to personal reflection. Personal reflection opens the way to freedom and happiness for us.One who knows himself can introduce himself to others. Our Hawar will first of all recognize the existence of our language. Because language is the main term of existence.". is the main term of existence.".

These sentences are a summary of an article under "Hawar's goals and activities and writing style" at the beginning of the first issue of Hawar a Kurdish literature magazine, which was published in Damascus between 1932 and 1943. The magazine was first issued by Celadet Alî Bedirxan on 15 May 1932.

May 15, the anniversary of the publication of the first issue of Hawar magazine, has been designated as Kurdish Language Day. A magazine that played a very important role in the standardization of the Kurdish language (it's Kurmanji variety) and was a test and experience for various fields of the Kurdish language include poetry, prose, grammar and so on. During the 11 years of publication of this magazine, there is a relative evolution in the way of writing, grammar, rules and even the use of letters. For example, up to issue 3 of this magazine, the letter "Q" was used instead of "K" in some words, which is also evident in the first issue.

A brief look at the identity and features of "Hawar" Magazine

• The word "Hawar" has different meanings in different varieties of Kurdish language, including call for help, complaining, evocation and requesting.
• Hawar magazine was first published by Jaladat Ali Badr Khan (Celadet Elî Bedirxan) on Sunday, May 15, in the Syrian capital, Damascus.
• The language of the magazine was Kurmanji Kurdish and in this magazine the Latin script was used for the first time to write this language.
• This magazine had a literary, cultural, linguistic and, of course, political perspective, and two issues of it were published every month.
• The first 23 issues of the magazine were published in both the Latin and the Arabic alphabets, but from the 24th issue onward, only the Latin alphabet was used.
• From the first issue to the 4th issue of the magazine, 4 pages were published in French.
• The Kurdish alphabet, which was formulated by the publisher Celadet Alî Bedirxan and also referred to as Hawar alphabet or the Bedirxan alphabet, was used to publish Hawar.
• The texts which were published emphasized the value of the Kurdish folklore for developing the Kurdish language and personal qualities.
• Since 2006, the 15 May, the date of the first publication of Hawar in 1932, is celebrated as the Kurdish language day.
• The first 23 issues were published between 15 May 1932 and the 27 September 1935. The issues number 24 - 26 appeared between 1 April 1934 and 18 August 1935. The remainder was published between April 1941 and August 1943. The 57th and last issue was released on 15 August 1943.
• The publication of this magazine continued until the year 1943, and by that time 57 issues of this publication were published. It is worth mentioning that the number of pages of all issues of this magazine is over 808 pages.
• The Kurdish writer and novelist "Firat Cewerî" collected all the issues of this magazine in the year 1998 and published it in the form of several volumes of "Nudam" publications.

The following names are mentioned along with "Celadet Elî Bedirxan" and "Kamran Elî Bedirxan" as the authors of Hawar magazine:

Osman Sabri, Qadrijan, Jagarkhovin, Mustafa Buti, Ahmad Nami, Hassan Hoshyar, Bashari Nirwan, Rashid Kurd, Goran, Tawfiq Wahbi, Abdul Khaliq Asiri, Shakir Fattah, Hafindi Suri, Pirout, Lavki Kurd, Jalal Ali Badr Khan, Roshan Badr Khan , Noureddin Zaza, Lavi Fendi, Qadri Jamal Pasha and Sobhi Diarbakri.