Kurdish SIS: February Newsletter

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Barham Salih meets Sudanese refugees and members of the local community who grow and sell crops together at a market garden in Farchana, Chad.

I have been a refugee four times, three before I turned eleven. People talk about displacement as a single rupture, a before and after, then a new life begins. Mine was repetition. Leave, try to settle, get uprooted. Leave again. You learn early that safety is borrowed, and that home can dissolve into memory without warning.

So, when Dr. Barham Salih, then President of Iraq, called me in 2019, it landed differently than it might have for someone else.

He had read my NBC News piece about Kurdish families being forced again into refugee life, this time in the shadow of violence in Syria. I knew his public role. I had no reason to think he knew anything about me. But the call was not ceremonial. He spoke like someone who recognized the texture of what I had described, not as policy, but as something that happens to your body and sense of place. He had fled Saddam Hussein's regime. He has called himself a former refugee. That shared knowledge changed the tone of the conversation from "I read your article" to "I also know this pain."

During that call, he told me he was working through diplomatic channels to stop attacks on Kurds in Syria. I did not hear it as a promise that diplomacy would succeed. I heard it as a window into how he understood his responsibility: not only to the state, but also to people caught between states, alliances, and borders.

That first contact grew into something more sustained. I interviewed Dr. Salih for my dissertation and met him several times afterward. Those meetings mattered because they moved him, for me, from a public figure to a person. It is easy to respect someone when the relationship stays formal. It is harder when you challenge them to their face and watch what they do next.

I did challenge him—more than once!

One criticism of Dr. Salih is that he can be ruthless in politics, making moves that serve him even when they cost those around him. I confronted him about that directly. I also pressed him on something many Kurdish observers still feel sharply: his decision to leave the political party he helped build, then step into the Iraqi presidency. To many, that looked like betrayal. Colleagues had taken real risks when he broke from his old party. In their eyes, he asked them to walk into a split and then left them to absorb the consequences while he moved to a national post.

I did not raise this to provoke him. I raised it out of conviction, one echoed by Roman statesman Marcus Cicero, that politics and ethics cannot be separated. Kurdish politics is intimate. It runs on loyalty, sacrifice, and long memory. When a leader makes a sharp turn, people judge it not only by the outcome but by what it signals about trust.

After that conversation, I expected silence. Many people in high office disappear the moment you stop affirming them. Dr. Salih did not. He stayed responsive. He did not treat disagreement as disrespect, and he did not punish honest questions with distance. That does not mean he accepted every critique. It means he stayed in dialogue after being challenged on choices most people prefer to leave unspoken.

Over time, what struck me most was his continued obsession with good governance and incentives. That matters in Kurdistan and Iraq, where politics often rewards short-term survival over everything else. In my interactions with him, he was drawn to long arcs: education, civic life, legitimacy, reform, and the slow, grinding work of building a state that functions without crushing the people it claims to serve.

That instinct also lines up with the public record. In Kurdistan, he is often associated with institution-building and efforts to elevate merit. He founded the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani. He backed civic projects meant to signal a return to normal life, not just crisis management, including Hawari Shar Park in Sulaimani. He supported scholarship pathways that sent students abroad and pushed hiring norms that gave more weight to qualifications, even where that shift is not complete. None of this resolves the structural failures of governance. But it reflects a worldview where talent should not be trapped by name, party loyalty, or proximity to power.

This is where the story circles back. 

On 18 December 2025, the UN General Assembly elected Barham Salih as the next United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. He took office on 1 January 2026 for a five-year term. In his statement after the election, he described himself as a former refugee and said that experience would shape how he leads. The role is not ceremonial. It is stewardship of the world's primary refugee protection mandate at a moment of record displacement and real strain on humanitarian funding. 

For me, the personal and the political converge here. That 2019 call was not just about my article. It was a glimpse of how he reacts to displacement as lived, not filed away. When he told me he was trying to stop attacks on Kurds in Syria, he sounded like a leader constrained by geopolitics but also like someone who knew what it means to lose your footing in the world.

In Kurdistan and Iraq, a figure like Dr. Salih can feel like a loss, because it removes a certain kind of mind from local politics. For the wider world, he may be a gain, because UNHCR needs leadership that can speak for refugee protection with credibility rooted in lived experience, not just in spreadsheets.

Yerevan Saeed,

Barzani Scholar-in-Residence

Director of the Global Kurdish Initiative for Peace

Director Yerevan Saeed attended a private lunch with Hemin Hewrami, the former deputy speaker of Parliament, along with several respected scholars and other guests. The discussion centered on recent developments in the Kurdistan Region, Iraq, and the Middle East. He also participated in the launch of Unlocking the Potential of Eurasia’s East-West Economic Corridor, a report prepared by the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy and the International Tax and Investment Center. The event included a panel discussion addressing east-west investment opportunities across Eurasia, with the ambassador of Kazakhstan to the United States among the speakers.

The political future of Syria’s Kurds is being negotiated in real time, across battle lines, in diplomatic back channels, and at international security forums, but the terms of that future remain deeply uncertain. That was the central tension running through “The Future of Kurds in Syria,” a panel discussion hosted on February 17, 2026, by the Global Kurdish Initiative for Peace at American University’s School of International Service (SIS).

The session was opened by Yerevan Saeed, Barzani Scholar-in-Residence and Director of the Global Kurdish Initiative for Peace, and moderated by journalist and Barzani Peace Fellow Sirwan Kajjo, with analysts Aliza Marcus and Dlshad Othman as panelists.

In coordination with the Global Kurdish Initiative for Peace, the Kurdistan Regional Government Representation in the United States hosted an evening reception to mark the start of the Spring 2026 semester on January 30. The reception was held at the KRG Representation in Washington, D.C., and allowed students to connect with KRG Representative Treefa Aziz, as well as other current and incoming students, faculty, and guests.

The Global Kurdish Initiative for Peace at the School of International Service invites you to a reception celebrating Newroz and the New Kurdish Year. Enjoy an evening filled with Kurdish music, great food, and cultural festivities as we honor Newroz, a festival of renewal, hope, and solidarity.

Sirwan Kajjo published an article with the Middle East Forum titled "The Newest Deal Between Syria and the Kurds Is Not Sustainable." In the article, he argues that the agreement between Damascus and the SDF is ambiguous and open to different interpretations, making it difficult to implement.

Sirwan Kajjo published an article with the Middle East Forum titled "Under Al-Sharaa, Islamization in Syria Is an Incremental Process." In the article, he argues that under Ahmed al-Sharaa, Syria’s leaders are slowly reshaping the state and society along Islamist lines, leaving little real chance for democracy.

"I don’t create from theory. I create from lived experience. My Kurdish identity is not something I add to my work; it is the foundation it grows from."

As a child in Western Kurdistan (Rojava), Vian Hussein watched buildings crumble around her. Now, she reconstructs them, not as monuments to destruction, but as testimony to survival.

This Kurdish refugee artist transforms the fragments of war into hauntingly beautiful sculptures, paintings, and textiles that refuse to let memory disappear.

Vian did not learn about art in galleries. She learned from women who stitched stories into fabric and shared their culture through their hands. "At the time, I didn't think of it as art," she admits. "It was just life." After she had to leave home, she realized how quickly memories can fade. Art became her way to hold on to them.

Her figures often walk away, their backs turned. They are anonymous but still feel personal, inviting people to connect with the shared experience of migration and loss. In Manchester, young people saw their own struggles in her abstract art, showing that Kurdish stories can speak to everyone.

"When politics cannot fix something," she says, "art can still speak."

"Everything we do ensures our neighbors are doing well. That is how we have preserved our history and culture: by caring for one another like family. Community building was one of my biggest takeaways, and I hope to implement that within the AU community."

Aheen's story starts with their parents’ difficult escape from Kurdistan to Guam in the 1990s during Operation Pacific Haven. This experience shaped Aheen's commitment to honoring her family’s sacrifices through learning and community work. Today, as a Barzani Peace Fellow at American University’s School of International Service, Aheen has turned their heritage into activism.

She revived George Mason University’s Kurdish Student Organization and built welcoming spaces where young people from the diaspora can feel comfortable with identities they once felt pressured to hide.

Aheen's journey includes painting campus benches with Kurdish flags and helping people during Congressional internships. Her story shows how a stateless community keeps its culture alive by supporting each other. “In every dance, we hold hands or interlock pinkies,” she says, describing the close-knit spirit of Kurdistan. “There is never a dance where we are alone.”

In this conversation, Aheen talks about why advocacy means standing firm, how campaigning during COVID taught her to solve problems in new ways, and why education is the best hope for Kurdistan’s future.

Iraq

With rising tensions between the United States, Israel, and Iran, Iraq has become more unstable. Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region, has faced drone strikes on Iranian Kurdish opposition camps in Koya, threats from militias, and power outages caused by halted gas supplies at the Khor Mor field. These problems have left residents anxious, leading to panic-buying.

The KRG also published a report pointing out that Article 140 of Iraq’s constitution, which was meant to settle territorial disputes, has not been put into practice for over twenty years.

Türkiye

In mid-February, a parliamentary committee strongly approved a plan to help former PKK fighters return to society. The plan is meant to support reconciliation by offering ways for militants who give up violence to rejoin the community.

Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, called for democratic politics instead of armed conflict. His message, shared by the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party, praised Türkiye's leadership at a February 27 event that highlighted his call for peace.

Syria

In early February, Kurdish representatives, including the Kurdish National Council, met with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa to talk about protecting Kurdish rights in the constitution. The KNC also called for an end to the siege on Kobani as conditions there continue to get worse.

Iran

On February 28, the United States and Israel carried out a joint strike that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The attack came after weeks of threats from President Trump about Iran’s nuclear program and led to quick Iranian retaliation against U.S. and Israeli targets.

Five major Kurdish groups announced a coalition to try to overthrow the Islamic Republic on February 22. The alliance includes the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran, the Kurdistan Freedom Party, the Kurdistan Struggle Organization in Iran, the Komala Party of Kurdistan Toilers, and the Kurdistan Free Life Party.

Established in honor of the Kurdish leader Mustafa Barzani, the Global Kurdish Initiative for Peace offers the Barzani Peace Fellowship, a prestigious scholarship for graduate students dedicated to Kurdish affairs. Beyond financial support, it empowers future leaders through academic excellence, professional development, and opportunities to engage directly with the program and its mission for peace.

The Global Kurdish Initiative for Peace

4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW,

Washington, D.C. 20016