Historical flags
Historical flags and variants
The sun tricolour did not stand alone. This page documents the flags that came before it, the Mahabad variant, and the incorrect versions circulating today. Almost all images of pre-1946 flags online are modern reconstructions; we say so under each one.
Crescent flags, 1919 to 1925
A crescent flag was used in the 1919 revolt and by the Kingdom of Kurdistan in Silêmanî (1921 to 1924); a contemporary chronicler called it the Kurdish national flag of that moment. Surviving depictions are later reconstructions and their details are contested.
The Xoybûn flag, 1927
From 1927 Xoybûn flew the tricolour with the sun over the Ararat rebellion. The exact ray count and sun form of that period are not established; the drawing in the 1928 letter is the earliest known primary depiction.
The Mahabad flag, 1946
The Republic of Kurdistan at Mahabad used the tricolour with a distinct emblem: a sun flanked by two ears of wheat and a pen, for work and learning. That emblem continues today in a party flag and should not be presented as the national flag.
A sun for the Kurds in a state flag, 1959
The 1959 to 1963 state flag governed from Baghdad carried a yellow sun explicitly representing the Kurds.
Party flags are not the national flag
Kurdish parties carry their own flags and colors. Recoloring the national flag in party colors happens and is criticized within Kurdistan itself; the national flag belongs to everyone and its green band is not negotiable.
Wrong versions in circulation
The most common errors: suns with the wrong ray count, rotated suns, darkened colors, the yellow, red and green color triad presented as the flag, and the Mahabad emblem flag shown as the current national flag. The specifications page shows how to check a file in seconds.
Sources for this page
- Britannica: the state flag article covering 1959 to 1963 · Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Mahabad Republic · FOTW
- FOTW party flags
- FOTW 1959-1963
- Xoybûn · Wikipedia
- Kingdom of Kurdistan · Wikipedia (Rafiq Hilmi; MacArthur-Seal 2022; Kilic 2018)
- kurdish-history.com Kingdom of Kurdistan
- The History of the Kurdistan Flag · KurdShop
- Flags, Colours and our National Identity · Medium · 2015
- Sadat Ulugana on the history of the Kurdish flag · Medya News
- Stockholm Center for Freedom on Newroz prosecutions of minors (2022) · Stockholm Center for Freedom · 2022
Last reviewed: 2026-08-05