Bio

Sherkoh Abbas was born in Qamishli, located in the Kurdistan Region of Syria, and is a prominent
leader of the Kurdish Dorkian tribe; he came to America in the 1980s for his education, and he
currently resides near Washington, D.C. Prominent among his activities is his role as President of
the Kurdistan National Assembly of Syria (Kurdnas), through which he has simultaneously tried to
forge solidarity within Kurdish organizations and to maximize the efficacy of outreach efforts.

He is a veteran Kurdish-American Human Rights activist with extensive experience in political
organizing among Syrian Kurdish parties during the past three decades, and he has successfully
forged coalitions among them, particularly regarding the need to promote their integration
within Syrian civil society. He has developed good relationships with most of the Kurdish political,
civic leaders, and other Syrian Arab and non-Arab opposition groups and, as a result, he has
unified the Syrian Kurdish movement, empowering Syrian opposition groups (Kurdish and Arab)
that strive to promote freedom and democracy in Syria.

He supports Kurdish self-determination, manifest as a completely independent Kurdistan in Iraq
and, tentatively, a Federated Kurdistan in Syria; he is anti-Sharia and, thus, opposes radical
Islamist groups such as the Islamic State.

He organized a March 12-13, 2006 conference in Washington, D.C. under the auspices of Sen.
Carl Levin (D-Michigan) and then-Senator Robert Voinovich (R-Ohio); this bipartisan event
attracted all the oppositions groups in Syria, including Sunni-Arabs, Kurds, Christians, and Druze.
He has testified before the U.S. Congress on behalf of stateless-Kurds in Syria, and he organized a
conference at the European Parliament to address the issue of Kurdish human and national rights
within Syria. He has advised Refugees International and Open Society Justice Initiative, having
briefed both the White House and members of Congress regarding events in Syria; also, he
briefed a Joint-Session on Terrorism conducted by the European Union Parliament and the
United States Congress session.

He is a founding member of the Syrian Democracy Council (SDC), of the Kurdish National
Congress, of the America-Kurdistan Friendship League, and of the Center for Democracy in the
Middle East (which he also serves as director). He has served as President of the Kurdish-
American Committee for Democracy in Syria.

The Syrian Democracy Council (SDC), a Syrian opposition group, is composed of diverse ethnic
and religious groups, including Alawi, Sunni Arabs, Kurds, Aramaic Christians, Druze, and
Assyrians. The SDCs vision is to bring freedom, democracy, and peace to Syria through peaceful
demonstrations and civil disobedience; it advocates establishment of a modern Constitution for
Syria, and it seeks the assistance of the international community while pursuing these goals.

As the world community and America increasingly recognized (and then condemned) the Syrian
regime's use of violence against its people, Mr. Abbasworking with Kurdish activistshas
sought to unite the Syrian Kurdish movement under the Kurdistan National Assembly of Syria and
to work with non-Kurd Syrians to bring freedom, democracy, and federalism to Syria.