New memoir offers insider account of Kurdish political history

NEWSROOM — A new memoir by Kurdish architect Jamal Alemdar offers a firsthand account of major events and figures in modern Kurdish history, drawing on a life that moved between Erbil, Turkey, Sweden and the wider world.

“The Unfinished Journey of a Kurd: Jamal Alemdar Remembers,” published by Apec in 2026, traces the author’s path from his childhood in the Kurdistan region of Iraq through political imprisonment in Turkey, exile in Sweden and decades of involvement in Kurdish affairs. It runs to more than 400 pages.

Born near Erbil in 1940, Alemdar was studying architecture in Istanbul when he was arrested in 1963 and held for nearly a year. The memoir recounts his interrogation and torture in Turkish custody and his refusal to sign a confession implicating other Kurds. After his release, he fled to Sweden in 1965, where he completed a degree in architecture and began organizing support for the Kurdish cause in Europe.

The book describes his role in Kurdish advocacy committees in Scandinavia and his later work in London, which he presents as part of early efforts to build international support for the Kurdish movement.

Much of the memoir centers on Alemdar’s ties to the Barzani family, including encounters with Mullah Mustafa Barzani during the Kurdish revolution of the 1960s and 1970s and later dealings with younger members of the family.

The narrative closes with reflections on the Kurdish national movement, in which the author argues its setbacks owed less to a lack of courage than to persistent disunity and weak institutions.

Dedicated to the author’s son Sherwan, who died at 17, the memoir adds a personal narrative to the literature documenting the Kurdish struggle and its place in the modern history of Iraq and the wider region.

Download link: The-Ufinished-Journey-of-a-Kurd_Jamal-Alemdar-remembers