Dear President Obama,

Like the sudden fall of Berlin Wall you showed up unannounced in my life.

Like most Americans, I was not prepared for your spectacular entrance- exploding upon the national scene as the star-studded keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention in 2004.  I watched in amazement at the mesmerizing power of your stunning rhetoric, catapulting convention delegates to their feet, some in tears, many in awe, all in enthusiastic applause, and the whole scene inspiring even former Soviet Chairman Mikhail Gorbachev to offer his heartfelt congratulations.

Studying the trajectory of your life, however, I can't believe your good luck.  Call me simpleminded if you will, but I am beginning to see you not a person-or even the president-but as "transformational" agent whose likes come around once in a thousand years.  I am thinking, If Ralph Waldo Emerson were alive, he would revise his observation about "events are in the saddle and ride mankind," to "Barack Hussein Obama is in the saddle and rides humanity."

The triumphant, Caesar-like depiction of you by a rather sympathetic press obviously is not news to you.  Graciously, you have even joked about it.  In fact, there is so much material out there that it was really hard for me to work a bit of originality into this letter of mine.  But your late father and I have at least one thing in common.  We were both goat herders at one time in our lives.  Maybe this little detail is my ticket to your attention!  By the way, I like how you honored your Old Man with the title of your first book, Dreams From My Father.

Translator's note: On August 22, 2012, the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) and the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan issued a "Memorandum of Agreement for Cooperation and Coordination." This memorandum was written by working groups from both parties and was agreed upon by delegations headed by Abdullah Mohtadi, General Secretary of Komala and Mustafa Hijri, the General Secretary of PDKI. Translated excerpts follow.

Translated by :Frieda Afary 

  A Joint Statement

Memorandum of Agreement for Cooperation and Coordination [1]

Date: August 22, 2012

Introduction

The liberation movement of the Kurdish people in Iranian Kurdistan, has traversed different stages of tortuous struggle over the course of many years. The following is an undeniable fact: National resistance, self-sacrifice and the martyrdom of thousands of its children for the purpose of confirming the identity and political rights of the Kurdish nation, the most important of which is the right to self-determination.

At the present time, various global changes, recent developments in the Middle East, and also a new balance of forces among the superpowers have created the basis for presenting the national demands of the Kurdish people and further emphasizing Kurdish rights on the global scale.

"Kurdistan in the new world system for the Middle East and Iran"

May 21st, 2012

I would like to thank and express my pleasure and gratitude for the 24th Kurdish National Congress's meeting for inviting me and my organization. I hope that this meeting will translate into another successful effort at increasing the understanding of the issues in Kurdistan and the solution to these issues.

First I will introduce the background and reasons for the "issue of Kurdistan", then delving into the democratic crisis in the Middle East as well as the ways in which this crisis can be overcome in this most crucial geopolitical area in the world.

As you may be aware of, there are currently many issues and crises of great importance in the Middle East and this topic needs to be analysed through a new viewpoint with a historical aspect. The reason for this historical aspect is that the majority of the new crises we encounter in this region are linked to previous events and the same political plans.