On November 5, 2007, Senior Program Officers Jonathan Morgenstein, Keith Bowen, and Noor Kirdar concluded the third of three workshops in USIP's 2007 Kirkuk Reconciliation Program.
On November 5, 2007, Senior Program Officers Jonathan Morgenstein, Keith Bowen, and Noor Kirdar concluded the third of three workshops in USIP's 2007 Kirkuk Reconciliation Program. USIP brought together community leaders from the city's major ethnic groups (Arabs, Assyrian, Kurds, and Turkmen), spanning six professional sectors (business, civilian political/tribal leaders, civil society, journalism, religious leaders, and security sector) to help them bridge inter-communal differences. These leaders met in Amman, Jordan in April; Sarajevo, Bosnia in August and Dokan, Iraq in November. Between the workshops the participants worked together in inter-ethnic groups to identify, confront and develop action plans to solve local cross-communal problems. In the end, the participants committed themselves to continue meeting on a regular basis in the hopes of serving to resolve the deeper conflicts of Kirkuk.