VIDEO: Independence of Kurdistan: Challenges, Opportunities Conference

DUHOK, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – The American University of Kurdistan (AUK) - Duhok held its inaugural conference titled the Independence of Kurdistan: Challenges and Opportunities. 

Many senior Kurdish officials and former foreign representatives attended the conference where they discussed several topics. 

Below are the opening speeches by the AUK President Michael Mulnix, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the AUK and Chancellor of the Kurdistan Region Security Council (KRSC) Masrour Barzani, and Member of the Board of Trustees and former US Ambassador to the UN, Iraq, and Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad.

The first panel of the conference was on international law and the Kurdish right to self-determination.

The panelists included the former Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Barham Salih, former Iraqi Foreign and Finance Minister Hoshyar Zebari, a Turkish scholar and author Ismail Besikci, and scholar and author Michael Gunter:

The second panel discussed contemporary challenges and opportunities for Kurdistan.

The group included the Prime Minister of the KRG Nechirvan Barzani, the secretary-general of the Kurdistan Socialist Democratic Party and a prominent Peshmerga Commander Mohammed Haji Mahmoud, and Kurdistan Islamic Movement Secretary-General Erfan Ali Abdulaziz:

The third panel involved the consequences of independence for regional peace and security.

The panelists were member of the AUK Board of Trustees and Former French Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Bernard Kouchner, Professor Ofra Bengio, Turkish Journalist Cengiz Candar, and a journalist and fellow from the Woodrow Wilson Center:

On Dec, 16, the conference continued and held its fourth panel which discussed the future of the Middle East.

The members included founder and President of MERI Dlawer Ala’Aldeen, Professor Carol O’Leary, Professor David Romano, and Washington Institute Fellow for Near East Policy David Pollock:

The fifth and final panel was on the intra-Kurdish issues and independence.

The issues were discussed by a senior member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) Mala Bakhtiyar; Chief of Staff to the Kurdistan Region Presidency Fuad Hussein; Co-Chair of the pro-Kurdish BDP party in Turkey Kamuran Yuksek; the leader of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) Mustafa Hijri; and Ibrahim Biro, the head of Syria’s Kurdish National Council (ENKS).

AUK President Mulnix, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the AUK, and KRSC Chancellor Barzani concluded the conference with closing remarks:

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany