Kurdish scholar Dr. Khoshnav Rashad Sabri Rashid, known as Rashad Miran, on Tuesday received the Pushkin Medal during a ceremony in Moscow marking Russia’s National Unity Day.

The Pushkin Medal is a Russian state award given to citizens and foreigners for achievements in arts, culture, education, and literature, named after the poet Alexander Pushkin.

Miran is an ethnographer, translator, and public figure from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and is the first Kurd to receive the award.

“I am deeply honored to be here today on this special occasion. I am very happy that your special medal has been awarded to me. It is a mark of recognition that my work and efforts as an ethnographer have been acknowledged by the Russian Federation,” Miran said at the event.

“There is a strong and historic relationship between Kurdistan and Russia, and I have always supported this friendship, which I reaffirm today. I hope, as always, to continue working in coordination and in close relations with the Russian consular representatives, contributing through history and ethnography.

“On behalf of myself and the Kurds who speak Russian and are learning it, I would like to express my request that there be more books, journals, and newspapers about the Kurds and Kurdish culture (in Russian). We hope that our relations with the Russian language and culture continue uninterrupted.”

“I am very grateful to our foreign friends who are here today, who, by their very presence, confirm our belief that this is precisely what Russia is striving for, and who are ready to work with us to achieve this goal,” Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said at the event.