On Tuesday, 25th of April, 2017, at 11:00 am, the General Directorate of Culture and Arts in Dohuk Governorate at the Rixos Hotel celebrated the 119th anniversary of the Kurdish press under the motto "The 119th Anniversary of the Independent Kurdish Press in Words and Ideas".

In the beginning, a minute of silence was observed in honour of the martyrs of Kurdistan. The opening ceremonies of the celebration began with the speech of Mr. Ayub Ramazan, general director of the general directorate of culture and arts. He talked about the history of the Kurdish press, and referred to the publication of the first Kurdish newspaper by the name of "Kurdistan", which was created by Kurdish intellectuals. On the other hand, he referred to the influence of the press in society and the role and efforts of journalists in the Kurdish society.

After Mr. Ayoub finished his speech, Mr. Khoshnaf Jameel delivered a speech in which he referred to the stages of the development of Kurdish press and the importance of the press in society. He praised the efforts of Kurdish journalists and wished for further progress and success to them.

After the opening ceremonies, the celebration began with the screening of a film about the history of the Kurdish press in the Bahdinan part until 2003. After that, the first number of "Vejan" magazine was announced by Aram Balatay and Saman Omar, who work in the secretariat of the magazine.

It is worth mentioning that, Mr. Delir Kamal Ahmed, Research Assistant at the ICT & Statistics Center at the University of Zakho, was invited to the celebration by the general Directorate of the Culture and Arts as the official spokesman for the celebration. Mr. Delir has a distinguished collection of articles in the field of public culture and literature. He Participated in the magazine for the purpose of publishing his distinguished articles on behalf of the University of Zakho.