Kristiina Koivunen (born 1959) is sociologist and writer. She lives in Helsinki, Finland. She has written eleven books about Kurds and the Middle East, including her PhD dissertation, The Invisible war in North Kurdistan (Helsinki University, 2002), which is available in Internet. She lived 2010 - 2012 in the Iraqi part of Kurdistan, and has visited it every year since then, except corona year 2020.
Hussain Talabani (born 1957) is a translator and interpreter. He lives in Silemani, the Iraqi part of Kurdistan. He left Iraq during Saddam Hussein's time and lived in the USA. After Saddam's fall Hussain Talabani returned to Iraq. He was one of the translators during Saddam Hussein's trial in Baghdad in the years 2005 - 2006.