The Awez scientific journal is a quarterly publication based in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region, that operates within the framework of the comprehensive Awez Project and with the support of the Kurdistan Chronicle Media Foundation. This journal aspires to be a platform for exploring contemporary thought and theory, offering a window into the evolving landscape of conceptual knowledge.
Awez features articles by skilled Kurdish writers who engage with important issues affecting the global community and Kurdish society. It aims to familiarize its readers with new developments in philosophical discourse and to encourage critical reflection on the world around them. The name Awez means “intellect” in Kurdish, and the journal is founded on intellectual, epistemological, and theoretical principles.
Positioned as a forum for academic dialogue, Awez invites scholars and thinkers to contribute work that emphasizes rationality, scientific inquiry, and enlightenment, seeking to adopt a critical lens in examining societal issues and to promote analytical rigor in Kurdish intellectual life.
A key element of the Awez Project is the comprehensive support it provides to writers, thinkers, and researchers. While such support systems have deep historical roots in the Western world, they remain underdeveloped in the Middle East. Inspired by intellectual models such as that of Thomas Kuhn in his influential book, The Structure of Cultural Revolutions, Awez seeks to provide a working environment for researchers and present the Awez Award annually to outstanding researchers inside and outside Kurdistan.
Our journal’s motto is “Fact, Not Opinion,” because Kurdish society needs the kind of discourse and analysis that is rooted in empirical evidence and critical reasoning rather than ideology, political interests, or profit-seeking motives. We believe that the consciousness of the individual and society is guaranteed only through rational, fact-based analysis.
The goal of our project is to rationalize the political and cultural institutions of Kurdish society. Each issue of Awez includes a dedicated section addressing key epistemological and theoretical questions. For example, the inaugural issue focused on language and identity, the second issue presented a high-quality collection of articles on science and the philosophy of science, and the third discussed the importance and role of philosophy in society in general and in Kurdish society in particular.
Ultimately, the core mission of Awez is to promote a culture of research, thinking, enlightenment, and criticism across all fields of knowledge and thought. Our journal takes a position based on knowledge-based reading about the world and the situation in Kurdistan while, at the same time, pushing Kurdish society toward thinking in new ways. We operate, in other words, under the belief that criticism is the cornerstone of progress and therefore aim to critique traditions and expose their limits.
The editorial team is led by Farooq Rafiq, a prominent figure in Kurdish literature and philosophy, as editor-in-chief. Abdulkhaliq Yaqubi, a researcher and translator in the field of thought and literature, serves as writing secretary. To date, Awez has published three issues, attracting an elite and discerning readership in Kurdistan and promising a fresh and intellectually rich cultural vision.
Abdulkhaliq Yaqubi is the Writing Secretary of Awez Journal
