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Yerevan Saeed (1980) (یه‌ریڤان ئه‌دهه‌م سه‌عید) is a Research Associate at Middle East Research Institute and a Ph.D. Candidate at the The Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, George Mason. He previously served as White House Correspondent for Kurdish Rudaw TV and has worked for news agencies including the New York Times, NPR, the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, the BBC, and the Guardian as a journalist and translator. Saeed has extensively written on political affairs of Kurds, Iraq, and Turkey.

Early life
Yerevan Saeed grew up in Halabja until he was 7. His family fled to Iran in 1987, due to Saddam Hussein's persecution after Iraq attacked his town and destroyed a large neighborhood of Halabja known as Kani Ashqan. Worrying about his education, his father smuggled Yerevan and his younger brother Nawshirwan into Iraq to continue their education. They were left with their grandparents in Iraq. In 1988, his family returned to Halabja after paying the Iraqi government to avoid prosecution. But they fled again to Iran on March 16, 1988, due to Halabja chemical attack, killing five thousand civilians and wounding over ten thousands more. In 1989, his family returned to Iraq after former Iraqi dictator made a general amnesty to Kurds left Iraq. Upon their return, his father was drafted for the Iraqi Army and the family along hundreds of others were put in a flat plain surrounded by the Iraqi Army. Yerevan was denied education by Iraq under the justification that his family had fled to Iran.

Yerevan has a BA at Government from the University of Texas-Austin, Master's of Law and Diplomacy from Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University with focus on International Negotiations and Middle Eastern Studies. He received his Ph.D. at Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, George Mason University.

Published works
Kurdistan’s Gas Exports: Reality or Mirage? https://agsiw.org/kurdistans-gas-exports-reality-or-mirage/

Oct 17, 2022

The KRG's anti-corruption effort must start from its oil sector:

How the Kurdish opposition parties missed a historical opportunity to challenge KDP and PUK? 14 Aug 2018

Iraq Faces its Next Crisis: Water

July 19, 2018

Kurdish Opposition Parties Lost in May 12 Election: Does Fraud Explain it?

May 23, 2018

Thirty years after the Halabja Genocide: Iraq Still Punishes the Kurds

March 16, 2018

The Kurdish Security Dilemma, Explained

November 7, 2017

Is Kurdistan Independence Inevitable?

15 Sep 2017

Firing Up Kurdish Nationalism in Iraq

April 26, 2017

The Ottoman Experience in Mosul, Then and Now

October 31, 2016

Why Did Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Go to Iraq?

March 1, 2017

Iraqi-Iranian Maritime Exercises Send Message to Gulf Arab States

December 23, 2016

The Future of Kurdistan, Between Unity and Balkanization

July 1, 2016

Arab Gulf States Wary of Iran's Role in the Battle for Mosul

October 18, 2018

Who to Blame for the Absence of a Kurdish State after Sykes Picot?

June 1, 2016

Kurdish independence: reality or mirage?

March 4, 2016

Kurdistan's Energy Resources Could be Defining Point of Turkey's Foreign Policy

July 24, 2014

Honours, decorations, awards, and distinctions
Scholarship from ExxonMobil for BA. 2007, Scholarship from GMU, Ph.D. 2016