please join me in welcoming fareed yasseen. [applause] >> the kurdish republic was in 1941. the regional government which is part of the federal government in iraq. this is a topic that is hard for me to talk about because i have lived it from afar and when you live a tragedy from afar you sometimes feel it even worse. i have reasons to feel it more than others because my mother is from mosul and i had members of my family there. i remember in 2008 eric schmidt came and asked us what is the worst thing that has happened so some of us answered it was -- and others said it was the uprising in 1991. i think the worst legacy of saddam was that we had a choice in these things. which one to choose? he if he had asked us that question 2014 or 2015 we would have one answer, what he did to the yazidis. this isn't the worst thing that's happened in the 21st century so far and i hope it will be one of the last such events of its nature. this is a sad thing because iraq is a place of minorities. there's a good documentary running around based on the letters. she gives a very vivid descr

yasseen. welcome, glad to have you here. both will have an opportunity to speak to you before the panel discussion. three years ago this month isis targeted many of iraq's minority groups christians have cds pokemon and others to this assault on northern iraq. isis also targeted arabs and kurds in many more areas. last year the secretary of state and the u.s. congress and just last week the administration labeled as genocide the attacks on the chaldeans syrians and other groups by isis so the last administration and this administration are in agreement and have