LL.M. candidate Bedar Fars Aziz, 23, is on scholarship from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), a federal region inside Iraq. Kurdistan is the ancestral homeland of the Kurds now partitioned among the states of the Middle East, Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. He would like to help the Kurdish people develop an independent country.
Aziz earned a bachelor’s degree in law, summa cum laude, from Salahaddin University in 2010, and is pursuing LL.M. He said he chose the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law because the customized LL.M. gave him the opportunity to tailor his degree and concentrate on what interested him.
“Pursuing an LL.M. is a step in pursing my dreams and the dreams of my people,” Aziz said. “The Kurdish people have long desired an independent country and one of my goals is to help make this a reality. It is really painful for us that we are one of the largest nations (as an ethnic group) in the world without a free country; yet, we have all the qualifications and skills to be an independent country.”
Aziz said the law school welcomed him warmly.
“The professors are very amazing and friendly,” Aziz said. “And Sandra Erickson, the director of graduate law programs, provided me with a great deal of help and support. I can’t think of something that she didn’t help me with.”
Aziz said that, after he graduates, he will return to Kurdistan.
“I have an offer to work as a law professor at Salahaddin University’s law school,” Aziz said. “I will try to educate my students and other people in order to support the Kurdistan government so it will be able to further our claims to get all four parts of Kurdistan together and become a free country.”