Subject: The Tragic Plight of the Kurds
Featuring: Diliman Abdulkader of the American Friends of Kurdistan
Date: Wednesday, January 28, 2026
Kindly Note New Time: 1 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, 8 p.m. Jerusalem Time
The Kurds, a people who span parts of southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq and northeastern Syria have an old expression, “We have no other friends but the mountains.” The Kurds have been remarkable allies of the United States against ISIS. They were there, many time without any US or foreign backup, killing and dying ISIS members in order to defeat the Islamic States. When Mark Sykes and Charles Georges Picot prepared a draft agreement after World War I, preparing borders for new states, there was no attention given to minority groups, such as the Kurds. When the war against ISIS was fully waging, EMET worked very closely with the Kurdish people, from 2016 on, representing the Syrian Democratic Forces or the noble and courageous Peshmerga.
Today, we are looking at a new Syria, where a former member of the Sunni jihadist group, Hay ‘at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) is ruling the country. Ahmad al-Sharaa, or Mahammed al-Julani is determined to set an authoritarian, Sunni Islamist regime in all of Syria, with the assistance of Turkey. . What does this mean for the beleaguered Kurdish forces, as well as the Druzes and Alawites and the Christians. What does this tell us abut the price of US alliance and friendship?
Diliman Abdulkader is the Director of the American Friends of Kurdistan. He will answer why our envoy, Thomas Barrack and President Donald Trump have “turned a blind eye” to Ahmad al-Sharaa’s swift takeover of the Kurdish controlled region of northwestern Syria, and what is portend for the future of minorities throughout the Middle East, as well as of the cost of being loyal to the United States.
About our speaker: Diliman Abdulkader is the founder of American Friends of Kurdistan (AFK), an advocacy and education organization established to strengthen, protect, and promote U.S.-Kurdish relations. AFK supports policies that advance the national security and prosperity of Americans, Kurds, and our other allies. Diliman comes from a foreign policy and national security background, where he invests his time on Capitol Hill educating lawmakers and staffers about the plight of the Kurds. Diliman received his M.A. in International Peace and Conflict Resolution from American University in Washington, D.C.
