Next Annual General Meeting
Sunday, December 6, 2026
Report 2025
Dilan Berzinjeyie was responsible for the technical side of this Teams Online event, assisted by Bhes Tofek. The images found in the report were created retrospectively. During the event, the visual material was streamed online on the website or at the storage location.
Part 1 – Review of the year 2025
The date for the event was set at relatively short notice, which led to some cancellations. Not least, the situation in the USA is currently extremely challenging. Sirwan and Yado apologized for this reason.
The date following this year's annual meeting, i.e. December 8, was particularly appreciated by all those involved. It marked the eighth anniversary of Jemal Nebez's departure. Seven full years have passed since then, and in terms of the foundation itself, it will be five full years on March 20, 2026.
There was also agreement on the assessment of what the three outstanding results of the past year were for us:
• We successfully changed our name to Jemal Nebez Foundation (also in German), As an internationally positioned foundation by and for Kurds, the foundation hopes that this measure will add to the awareness of the thinking and work of our namesake, who was cosmopolitan and recognized for his commitment to the common good.
• It was an honor for us to award the foundation's Jemal Nebez Award for the second time this year, on September 21, to Professor Khanna Usoyan (Omarkhali). She teaches Kurdish and gives lectures on interesting historical topics at the Institute for Iranian Studies at the Free University of Berlin, which received important reform impulses from Jemal Nebez in the 1970s when he worked there for a time as an assistant professor. His goal was to revive Kurdish studies, which had been dormant in Europe for decades at the time. Nebez envisaged Kurdology as a field of study, and he came quite close to achieving this goal at the Free University in West Berlin but for lack of institutional support failed in the end.
• Of utmost importance to our foundation is the work on the estate of our namesake by Halo Mohammad, who has been working on this task at our foundation all through 2025 (and a few months before that).
Report on the work on Jemal Nebez' estate
Halo's report was supplemented during the event by an online tour of parts of our OnMicrosoft database. Here is a recent photo of most of the materials that were sorted into approximately 37 boxes.
The creation of the archive index of the estate was an important step forward. Here is a photo of the cover page. It provides a valuable initial key to the estate of our namesake.
During his stay in Germany, Dr. Phersat Rosbeiani of Saladin University in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq was involved in the creation of the archive index of Jemal Nebez's estate from the ground up and, on behalf of the foundation, completed its initial edition together with our estate representative Halo Mohammad.
Thankfully, Halo has already begun to differentiate the initial rough classification. By creating supplementary tables of contents, those who are scientifically interested in the work and writings of Jemal Nebez will have tools at their disposal with which they can search for specific documents or topics.
In addition to the three existing electronic or digital editions, three further works have been edited for publication as ebooks this year, specifically: two unpublished works that Jemal Nebez completed in 1979 and had bound for his own personal use, and an ebook of the story of Lalo Kerim translated by Bisam Mistefa (which was recently published in print by Avesta Verlag/Istanbul, but not yet as an ebook). We hope to complete the remaining work soon in the new year.
Jan Gosau - The year 2025 from a financial and administrative perspective
While Jan analyzed the foundation's finances for the past year, the current PDF table with our financial data up to and including November 30 was displayed online. We publish this so-called transparency table at the beginning of each month on the transparency subpage of the foundation's website.
Although the year was not yet over at the time of the annual meeting, a considerable deficit (shortfall) was already apparent. Jan explained that this had to do with the donation of another property by the founder, which was effected in April this year. Fees had to be paid. The foundation also refrained from re-lettingt the property when two tenants moved out in the middle of the year. There was too much for the foundation, as the new owner, to be considered and not all information necessary for taking decisions was as yet availabl.e
From an administrative point of view, the dedication 2025 was also costly, as was the administration of the official name change. In addition, we ventured to change the system in our office to a provider that accepted us as a non-profit foundation with a special rate for our multiple users/computers. This change caused us a lot of trouble. Now, the administration of our database in the cloud is slowly being clarified.
The three speakers pictured above agreed that the foundation's prospects for success are in general good, even in these times of scarce resources.
We actually decided to seek public funding for an administrative assistant for the foundation in the coming year. If we are successful, the foundation will be able to offer regular opening hours for the library and visitors,
An objection from the chairman of the advisory board
Markus Kuchler, who lives in Stockholm and participated online, struck a minor note towards the end of the meeting. He has served on the advisory board since the foundation was established, currently as the elected chairman of a total of three members. Markus raised the question of why more Kurds were not involved in this foundation, which was established “by Kurds for Kurds.”
The question remained unanswered. Halo was at least able to point out that certain conditions had been created for something to change in the coming year. He had contacted some old friends of Jemal Nebez and described in concrete terms how they could help, and they had agreed.
Yado and Sirwan's initiative remains important to JNF
During the event, reference was also made to Sirwan and Yado's 2022 initiative and their 'Online! Nebez Scientific Seminars.' Following the last of these seminars in April last year, we hope to see a continuation of this series, which has already become an integral part of the foundation.
May new times soon dawn and the everyday life of students and foreigners in the USA soon become less demanding!
We provide information about the seminars on this website here.
Recorded seminars can be viewed and downloaded at www.youtube.com/@JemalNebezFoundation-Berlin
To conclude
Here are he dates for our annual events in 2026
- Saturday, August 15, 2026, for the Open House Day at the foundation's headquarters in Berlin including Question & Answer Online Session.
- Sunday, December 6, 2026, for our Online Annual General Meeting.
The report was prepared by:
Dr. H. Küchler
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This was our annual online meeting 2024
Here follow the Minutes of our 2024 Online Annual Meeting written by Sirvan Renas
The Annual Meeting of the Jemal Nebez Foundation (JNF) took place online on December 14, from 5 to 7 PM
CET. It was held with the participation of 15 people across Kurdistan, Europe, the US, and Canada.
Sirwan Renas in his capacity as third member of the Foundation’s Board who joined in 2024 opened the meetin by welcoming attendees, introducing the board members, and providing general information about the Foundation.
He also moderated the bilingual annual meeting and summarized the content of the contributions in either Kurdish or English.
Dr Hannelore Küchler, founder of JNF, spoke briefly on recent new developments and additionally announced that the next important step will be finding her successor, which she hopes will be achieved in 2025.
Jan Gosau, deputy of the founder/chairperson of the board, presented the latest figures concerning the
Foundation’s income and expenses for the current year. He then presented the foundation's extended budget for 2025, which already includes the expected income and expenses of the small rental building recently transferred to the foundation.
Fexriye Adsay, the organizer of the second Jemal Nebez Award, provided an update on the Award Commission's members, key dates, and their progress so far. She announced that the awardee will be revealed on March 21, 2025.
Zara Mohammadi, the inaugural winner of the Jemal Nebez Award, was among the attendees. She briefly shared her activities promoting the Kurdish language and identity, highlighting her projects at Nojin and upcoming initiatives in this area.
Yado Rahmani, the organizer of the Jemal Nebez Scientific Seminars, presented a review of last year's seminars, outlined the plans for the first season of the upcoming year, and shared their broader vision for 2025.
Halo Mohammad, the Representative of the Estate of Jemal Nebez, Library, and Archive, who recently joined the Foundation, discussed his responsibilities and plans for organizing and managing the Foundation's archival work.
Dr. Aso Saiwani introduced himself and accepted the invitation extended to him to familiarize himself with the real estate objects the Foundation owns and to assess given possibilities of their development.
Hesamaldin Khakpour spoke about the ongoing translation project of Jemal Nebez's book, The Oppressed Kurds and Their Muslim Brothers, from Arabic to Kurdish in the oriental script. He emphasized the book's importance and the critical need for this translation in the current socio-political climate.
The meeting concluded with an engaging discussion among attendees. Participants introduced themselves,shared how they became familiar with the Foundation, and expressed their enthusiasm for contributing to itsmission. Suggestions included hosting additional scientific seminars with a focus on social sciences, expanding the Foundation's participation in Kurdish intellectual events, and securing more funding to support a broader range of projects. Several attendees praised the quality of the Scientific Seminars. Additionally, questions were raised regarding the diversity of the Foundation's members, to which Sirwan provided responses.
2023, 2022, and 2021 Annual Meetings as PDF
 | annuel_meeting_2023.pdf (76.01KB) |
| annuel_meeting_2023.pdf (76.01KB) |
| annuel_meeting_2022.pdf (75.91KB) |
| annuel_meeting_2022.pdf (75.91KB) |
| annual_meeting_2021.pdf (72.47KB) |
| annual_meeting_2021.pdf (72.47KB) |