Euro-Asian Jewish Congress PR Department Head Roman Spector has participated in a conference titled “Kurds in the Arabic Spring,” which took place in the Carnegie Moscow Center and which was a part of the “Religion, Society and Security” program. The conference was hosted by Co-Chairman of the “Religion, Society and Security” program Alexey Malashenko and the Chairman of the International Union of Kurd Public Associations, Vice President of the Union of Diasporas of Russia Merab Shamoyev. Among the participants of the conference were leading experts, politologists and journalists specializing in international affairs.

The special guests of the conference – representatives of social and political orgainzations from Syria and Turkey – made reports on the status of Kurds in different Near Eastern countries and articulated the distinctive characteristics of the current situation in the context of the Arabic spring. Their reports provoked a lively discussion, in which Roman Spector participated. Spector characterized the current situation as “hopeful,” and stressed to the journalists that, “we should not be speaking of 'the Kurdish question,' but of two Kurdish responses, firstly of the high self-organization of Kurds in Ira, and second, of their peaceful neutrality in Syria's military confrontation. These two responses provide the necessary grounds for creating an international conference on the problems of the divided Kurd people. This kind of conference paved the way for the freedom of Jewish immigration from the Soviet Union, and one could conceive of the light shining at the end of the all-too-lengthy tunnel for the Kurds, as well.”