Dr Wali M. Hamad the president of Koya University made a speech on the event of MoU signing between Koya University and the University of Arkansas on 8th of June. Please read the full text of his speach below

Good morning ladies and gentlemen, 

It is a great honor for me to address this meeting today, on behalf of an academic delegation from Iraqi Kurdistan to one of the outstanding universities in the United States of America. 

At the very beginning, I would like to express my gratitude from the bottom of my heart for all of your warm welcoming to us. 

You are certainly aware that the Kurdistan Region of Iraq is fighting a full-fledged war against ISIS which is a very brutal terrorist group. However, the resistance of the Kurdistan people in general, and the bravery of Peshmarga in particular as well as the continuous military support from the USA and the other coalition forces will definitely lead to defeat ISIS and confront their ideology. Moreover, our meeting, today, is the best sign for our victory, because even in the time of war, instability, and economic crises, we are here to talking about, science, life, cooperation, development, and technology.

Distinguished attendances, 

University of Koya is among new established universities in Iraqi Kurdistan. It is a 12 years old university. However, the location of Koya University and the general atmosphere there were, and still are helpful to have a rapid and constant progress. As a consequence, Koya University is ranked fourth among fourteen public universities in Kurdistan Region. Koya University beholds four colleges and a school for General Medicine. The number of students is about (5000) undergraduate students as well as having a considerable number of post-graduate students. Moreover, Koya University has a No. of scientific research centers.
 
The purpose behind our visit is to establish a good academic relationship with your outstanding university in terms of academy and researching. We are significantly in need of your cooperation, and we also look forward to enhancing academic relationship between the two universities, especially in terms of:

Encouraging the researchers from both universities to conduct co-authored studies.  
Encouraging co-supervision programs for both PhD and Postdoctoral programs which enable supervisors from both universities to get benefit from each others'  experience. 
Running possible training courses for the Koya University teaching staff. 
Encouraging research and scientific members of the university of Arkansas to be involved in peer reviewing of Article in the Aro scientific J. of koya university. 

On the other hand, if you have researchers at your university interested in Kurdish literature and/or in Kurdish history or any other scientific fields. we are ready for collaboration, especially through providing them with interesting information and sources in these respects.

Finally, I would like to say: we look forward to enhancing the relationship between these two universities.We are waiting for more cooperation and support from you. 
Once again, on behalf of the Koya University students, teaching staff, and the present delegates, I express my gratitude, and say thank you so much for your warm welcome. 

Assist.prof.Dr.Wali M.Hamad
President of koya university
8/6/2015