Until the late 1970s, the printing presses in Kurdistan were housed in small workshops and owned privately (except the two municipal presses of Sulaymaniya and Arbil) by individuals who operated the machinery alone or assisted by one to three workers called apprentices. Zari Kirmanji Press was operated for years by Huzni and or his brother Giw. In Arbil, Giw himself worked 16 to 17 hours a day. He put a note in his journal Hetaw in 1956 (No 71) seeking to recruit "two apprentices with an education no less than the fifth grade of elementary school and residing in Arbil." The apprentices would learn typesetting, printing and photography, and receive pay, too.

Until the late 1970s, the printing presses in Kurdistan were housed in small workshops and owned privately (except the two municipal presses of Sulaymaniya and Arbil) by individuals who operated the machinery alone or assisted by one to three workers called apprentices. Zari Kirmanji Press was operated for years by Huzni and or his brother Giw. In Arbil, Giw himself worked 16 to 17 hours a day. He put a note in his journal Hetaw in 1956 (No 71) seeking to recruit "two apprentices with an education no less than the fifth grade of elementary school and residing in Arbil." The apprentices would learn typesetting, printing and photography, and receive pay, too.

The municipal press at Sulaymaniya was usually run by a manager (mudîr) and one or two workers paid by Shaikh Mahmud’s government or, later, by the Municipality. Piramerd, owner of Zhin Press, was both printer and writer, though he had three apprentices in 1935.

None of the presses ever made any profit; the purchase of spare parts or the replacement of worn-out letters was usually done through donations. The building occupied by the Kurdistan Press in Arbil was also donated by a Kurdish nationalist. In 1946, the apprentices of Zari Kirmanji and Zhin presses volunteered to go to Iran to help their inexperienced brothers in the Kurdish Republic run their own Kurdistan Press. To give one example, the workers of the relatively well-equipped Kamaran Press spent their evenings and weekends, often without pay, working to print the monthly Rojî Nö on time. Nationalism was, in fact, the inspiration that kept the old machines running.

Source: Dr. Amir Hassanpour, "Nationalism and Language in Kurdistan 1918-1985", 1992.