The Coronado Roundtable will feature a presentation on “Turkey and its Ongoing Kurdish Problem” on Friday, October 26th.
The Coronado Roundtable presents prominent speakers on a variety of topics at their monthly meetings on the fourth Friday of each month at 10 am in Winn Room at the Coronado Library. The meetings are open to the public. Come to the meeting at 9:45 AM and enjoy a cup of coffee.
To understand what is going on in the Middle East, one must have an appreciation of the Kurds, the majority of whom reside in Turkey. Turkey wants to assume a greater geopolitical role in the region and so is putting in place a containment strategy that looks beyond Turkey’s borders. Norman Leonard will discuss the complexities associated with ongoing military/political problems present in the Middle East and how the Kurds urge for a state of their own complicates domestic and foreign policies of not only Turkey but Syria, Iraq and Iran who have significant Kurdish populations as well.
A native San Diegan, Mr. Leonard is an Adjunct Professor in the Language Acquisition Resource Center at San Diego State University. He completed his triple-major undergraduate studies at the University of Pittsburgh in Education, French and Russian languages and literatures. After graduation he taught French and Russian in Pennsylvania and later in various high schools in San Diego Unified School District.
Later this year he plans to travel again to Iraq and Turkey. In Southern Iraq he is working with an American-based company to build eight power plants using Chinese technology and South Korean management teams. He has spent considerable time in Turkey, Kurdistan and Iraq. In Kurdistan he is helping to found a primary school. He is president of the Kurdish American Education Center based in Kuhok, Kurdistan, Iraq. He is also a member of the American Turkish Association of Southern California, San Diego chapter.
