Kurdistan Region, Russian universities cooperations
The Ambassador underscored scholarships for 70 Kurdish students granted seats from well-known universities in his country.
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – The Russian Ambassador to Iraq, Elbrus Kutrashev affirmed that his country is looking forward to strengthening the relations with the Kurdistan Region in various fields, to serves the bilateral interests.
The Ambassador delivered a speech at the joint international conference between Soran University and the Institute of Middle Eastern Studies (Russian Sciences Academy) in Erbil, on Sunday.
The conference discussed several matters related to the history of Kurdish-Russian relations, the results, impact, relations from the Soviet Union time, until present, and exchanging views on them to continue developing the relations.
He said “Moscow considers its relations with the Kurdistan Region as part of the bilateral relations between Russia and Iraq,”
He also values the loyalty of the people of Kurdistan to Russia.
He highlighted, valued the relationship between Kurdistan and Russia, stressed on the long history of Kurdish-Russian relations which dated back to the eighteenth century.
It was when the East became the ground of conflict in the Russian Empire’s foreign policy. Since then, the ethnicity science and Kurdish culture emerged under the name of Kurdology.
Mr. Kutrashev pointed out that Russia sees Kurds play an important factor in the internal political balance in Iraq and other countries in the region such as Syria, Iran and Turkey.
“We have very active political and diplomatic relations with our Kurdish friends, that led to hold regular visits and meetings to discuss the regional and international now-happening issues” He said “examples of our succeeded cooperations, the two companies work, Rosneft and Gazprom, the largest two investing companies in petrol and gas in Kurdistan Region, and that is important”
The Ambassador underscored scholarships for 70 Kurdish students granted seats from well-known universities in his country.
According to his statement, the Kurdistan Region had requested 60 seats for Kurdish students, separately, but now this number has increased to 70 seats, annually.
Furthermore, there is a direct contact and relation between the Kurdistan Regional and Russian universities, to open a branch for Russian language studies is part of direct relations.
Mr. Kutrashev concluded “I am certain that this occasion will give more nurturing to the relations between Kurdistan Region and Russia, also it is a good opportunity to mutual experiences and build useful relations”