BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Tennessee World Affairs Council - ECPv6.13.1//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-WR-CALNAME:Tennessee World Affairs Council X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://www.tnwac.org X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Tennessee World Affairs Council REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Chicago BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0600 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:CDT DTSTART:20230312T080000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0600 TZNAME:CST DTSTART:20231105T070000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20230308T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20230308T190000 DTSTAMP:20260415T031106 CREATED:20230108T173814Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250428T191836Z UID:33970-1678298400-1678302000@www.tnwac.org SUMMARY:Kurdistan Region Developments | Rep to US Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman | Mar 8 DESCRIPTION:TNWAC | World Affairs Council of the Year 2022 \nRegister Now \n\n\nDISTINGUISHED SPEAKER SERIES\nvia Zoom\nKurdistan Region Developments\nThe View from the KRG Rep to the United States\n \nHon. Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman\n  \nMarch 8\, 2023 @ 12:00 p.m. CT\nWith Moderator \n\nLCDR Patrick Ryan\, USN (Ret)\nFounding President\, TNWAC \nRegister Now\n\nThe story of the Iraqi Kurds and the establishment of the autonomous zone and the Kurdish Regional Government is a great Middle East epic that continues to play out. The Kurds have sought to carve out their own state amid the turmoil of unfolding regional history. They’ve been gassed and chased into the mountains by Saddam Hussein and attacked by the dangerous terror group ISIS. The Kurds have stood up courageously against their opponents. \nThe Iraqi Kurds and the United States have had a long history of cooperation and sadly\, at times\, abandonment. The aspirations of the people of Kurdistan took shape in the 2017 independence referendum as the coalition battle against ISIS was winding down. The referendum won with 92% of Kurds voting to free the region from Baghdad’s authority. However\, the central government through a Supreme Court ruling\, quashed the initiative. The KRG continues its close relationship with Washington as it continues to navigate a tough neighborhood\, wedged among its Iraqi neighbors and Turkey\, Iran and Syria. The KRG has been very well represented in Washington by the Hon. Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman. TNWAC is pleased to host her for a conversation about the relationship with the U.S. and developments in Kurdistan and the region. Join us. \n\nBayan Sami Abdul Rahman \nKurdistan Regional Government Representative to the United States \nBayan Sami Abdul Rahman is the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Representative to the United States of America. \nKey to her role are strengthening ties between Kurdistan and the United States\, advocating her government’s position on a wide array of political\, security\, humanitarian\, economic\, and cultural matters and promoting coordination and partnership. Prior to her US appointment in 2015\, Ms. Abdul Rahman was the High Representative to the United Kingdom. She was elected to the Leadership Council of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in 2010. \nBefore her career in public service\, Ms. Abdul Rahman worked as a journalist for 17 years. She began her career on local newspapers in London and won the Observer Newspaper’s Farzad Bazoft Memorial Prize in 1993\, which led her to work at The Observer and later at the Financial Times. She worked for the FT in Britain and in Japan\, where she was Tokyo Correspondent. \nHer late father\, Sami Abdul Rahman\, was a veteran of the Kurdish freedom movement\, joining the Kurdistan Democratic Party in 1963 and playing a critical leadership role in the Kurdish and Iraqi opposition to Saddam Hussein’s regime. He held the post of Deputy Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government and General Secretary of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). Sami Abdul Rahman was killed alongside his elder son Salah and 96 others in a twin suicide bombing in 2004. \nMs. Abdul Rahman was born in Baghdad. Her family briefly lived in Iran in the mid-1970s before moving to Britain in 1976. She is a history graduate from London University. \nPatrick W. Ryan \nPatrick Ryan is founding President of the Tennessee World Affairs Council (2007). He served in the U.S. Navy for 26 years (1972-1998) as a Submariner\, Surface Warfare Officer and Intelligence Officer. Ryan founded Ryan & Associates\, a publisher of newsletters on international affairs (1999-2015). He also is founding President of the Tennessee Submarine Memorial Association (tennsub.org). \n  \n\n  \n<a href=”https://secure.lglforms.com/form_engine/s/UIWFuNKSqdQxGClymSLZVg”>In Focus: Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine | Anna Novosad | A Ukrainian Perspective</a><br />
\n<span id=”mce_marker” data-mce-type=”bookmark” data-mce-fragment=”1″>​</span> \n\n\nTHANKS TO TNWAC CORPORATE MEMBERS FOR SUPPORT TO EDUCATION OUTREACH PROGRAMS \n \nTHANKS TO OUR PARTNERS IN GLOBAL AFFAIRS AWARENESS AND EDUCATION OUTREACH \n \n \nA PROUD MEMBER OF THE WORLD AFFAIRS COUNCILS OF AMERICA SINCE 2007 \n \nTHANKS TO OUR PARTNERS IN GLOBAL AFFAIRS AWARENESS AND EDUCATION OUTREACH \n \nTHANKS TO OUR PARTNERS IN GLOBAL AFFAIRS AWARENESS AND EDUCATION OUTREACH \n \nTHANKS TO OUR PARTNERS IN GLOBAL AFFAIRS AWARENESS AND EDUCATION OUTREACH \n \nTHE MISSION of the nonprofit\, nonpartisan Tennessee World Affairs Council is to promote international awareness\, understanding and connections to enhance the region’s global stature and to prepare Tennesseans to thrive in our increasingly complex and connected world. \nTHE VISION of  the Tennessee World Affairs Council is a well-informed community that thinks critically about the world and the impact of global events. URL:https://www.tnwac.org/event/kurdistan-region-rep-to-us-bayan-sami-abdul-rahman-feb-22/ CATEGORIES:Distinguished Speaker Series,Webinar ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.tnwac.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/2023-03-08-kurdistan.jpg END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR