Chair: Theo Ellis
Director: Eleni Azarias
Background Guide: Background Guide [UPDATED]
Addendum: Download Here [XLS]
Commitee Positions: Download Here [DOC]
In light of the recent Iraqi elections that have formally organized the Kurds in the new Iraqi government, PICSim 2006 has since replaced its Kurdistan Alliance Committee with the Syrian Arab Republic. Our Staff would like to emphasize that this decision was not taken lightly. We know that delegates have made considerable efforts researching the Kurdistan Alliance and its relation to the greater Middle East; however, the Kurdistan Alliance as an independent committee no longer makes sense given the current political situation. Our hope is that this slight inconvenience prior to the conference will be outweighed by the greater relevance of a Syrian simulation
The following is our rationale for the decision:
If the Kurdistan Alliance committee was kept as is—the overlap between the Iraqi committee, the Turkish committee and the Kurdish Alliance itself would negatively impact all three committees. We apologize again for this inconvenience, but our error was not due to myopia because the election results were only finalized as of February 10, 2006. Prior to the Iraqi elections, the Kurdistan Alliance would have acted as the de facto Kurdish presence in the Middle East but given that the Kurds now control 53 seats in the Iraqi parliament, the Kurdish presence has a legitimate outlet in our Iraqi committee.
PICSim is now stronger due to this change and because the role of Syria will be handled by an independent committee.
Once again, we apologize for the inconvenience. Please feel free to contact us with any further questions. We look forward to seeing you next week.