The month of May began with a visit to the Kurdistan Region by the Biden Administration’s Middle East team, jointly led by Brett McGurk, National Security Council Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, and Derek Chollet, Counsellor at the State Department.

The high-level delegation met with the leadership of Kurdistan and reaffirmed America’s support for the Region and the friendship that has seen the peshmerga and American soldiers fight tyranny and terrorism side by side.

Soon after this visit, a second delegation headed to Erbil, this time led by Joey Hood, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs.

These exchanges are important and timely, coming at a moment of political uncertainty and increasing security challenges, both from ISIS and militia groups. Underscoring friendships and having frank and open discussions on issues of mutual concern are critical to maintaining the strong partnership between Kurdistan and Washington. Due to restrictions stemming from the covid-19 pandemic, there have been fewer in-person high-level meetings than in the past, but we hope that this will change as the vaccine roll-out continues and the threat from COVID-19 diminishes.

There were two significant developments this month in the effort to bring to justice those responsible for genocide against the Yezidis, Christians, and others in Iraq. 

The Kurdistan Parliament had the first reading of the draft law to establish a tribunal for crimes committed by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The draft law seeks to provide a legal framework to create a tribunal to help the victims of ISIS find justice and accountability for what they endured.

There is time for consultation before the second reading and those with an interest are encouraged to send their views to the KRG or to the member of parliament representing their community.

The other significant development was a briefing to the United Nations Security Council by Karim Khan, who leads UNITAD, the UN team investigating ISIS’ crimes in Iraq. Mr. Khan said that the team found ‘clear and convincing evidence that the crimes against the Yezidi people clearly constituted genocide.’

UNITAD has identified 1,444 possible perpetrators of attacks against the Yezidis and 20 who may have been responsible for the mass murder of cadets and military personnel at the Tikrit Air Academy, also known as Camp Speicher, in 2014.

Domestically, there is an ongoing public debate on the Kurdistan Region’s constitution. The debate was brought to the forefront at a conference earlier this month hosted by the University of Kurdistan Hewler, titled The Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Unity and Constitution. Among the speakers were the President, Prime Minister, and Speaker of the Kurdistan Parliament, as well as the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General in Iraq.

The Iraqi constitution allows for the Kurdistan Region to have its own constitution, a draft of which was passed by Parliament in 2009 but was later halted due to political differences. There is now a renewed effort to draft a constitution that is for all citizens, whatever their ethnicity, faith, gender, or social group. President Nechirvan Barzani has visited the leaders of the main political parties in Kurdistan to exchange ideas and consult with them on the constitution. 

At the conference, President Barzani said, ‘We want the constitution to organize the political system of Kurdistan, to enforce rule of law in this country, to make all the [religious and ethnic] groups in Kurdistan feel safe in this country and feel like they will have a better future for themselves and their descendants.’

You can read about these events and developments in this month’s newsletter below.

Representative to the United States

Kurdistan Regional Government

This month, the Kurdistan in America podcast is honored to have Colonel Myles Caggins as its guest. Colonel Caggins currently serves as the Director of the Public Affairs for the U.S. Army’s III Corps at Fort Hood, Texas, and was the former Spokesperson for the Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve: The international military intervention against ISIS.

He shares with us his upbringing, lifelong professional experience in the U.S. Army, including his views of and encounters with the people of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and Rojava (North-East Syria) while serving as the Spokesperson for the Anti-ISIS Coalition and since his return to the United States. He also talks about his hopes of visiting Kurdistan in the future in a personal capacity.

Michael Waltz, US Congressman and Co-Chair of the Kurdish-American Congressional Caucus, talks to Rudaw TV’s Roj Eli Zalla, stating that a small US troop presence in Iraq is important for providing security for the US and its allies.

Retired United States Army Lieutenant General Jay M. Garner shares memories of his time while serving as US military commander in the1990s in the Kurdistan Region and as Director of the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance for Iraq following the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

This two-minute video is a virtual tour of the various historical and modern sites of Erbil, the Kurdistan Region's capital.