Jalal Talabani

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Lore & Background

Talabani was born in 1933 in Kelkan village. His father was Sheikh Husameddin Nurullah, from the Talabani branch of the Zangana tribe, and his mother was from the Mangur tribe. He belonged to the Koy Sanjaq branch of the Talabani family. He received his elementary and intermediate education in Koy Sanjaq and his high school education in Erbil and Kirkuk. In his teens, peers began calling him 'Mam' Jalal, with 'mam' meaning 'paternal uncle' in Kurdish. He began studying law at Baghdad University in 1953 but fled into exile in Syria in 1956 to avoid arrest for involvement in the Kurdish Students Union. In Damascus, he helped establish the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Syria (KDPS). He returned to Iraq and gained his degree in 1959. After completing his studies, he entered the Iraqi Army, serving briefly as a tank unit commander. In the early 1960s, he became head of the Politburo of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). When the Kurdish uprising was declared in September 1961, Talabani took charge of the Kirkuk and Silemani battlefronts and organized separatist movements in Mawat, Rezan, and the Qaradagh regions. In March 1962, he led a coordinated Peshmerga offensive that liberated the district of Sharbazher from Iraqi government forces. After a dispute with the Barzani family over the direction of the KDP, he left Iraq and settled in Iran in 1964, where he purchased weapons without the Barzanis' knowledge and was expelled from the KDP in summer 1964. After the March 1970 agreement, he returned to Iraqi Kurdistan and rejoined the KDP, though he held no office. The Kurdish separatist movement collapsed in March 1975 after Iran ended support in exchange for the 1975 Algiers Agreement. Believing it was time for a new direction, Talabani, with a group of Kurdish intellectuals and activists, founded the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in 1975. In 1976, he began organizing an armed campaign for Kurdish independence inside Iraqi Kurdistan. From 1977, he established PUK bases in Iranian Kurdistan at Nawkhan and in Iraqi Kurdistan at Qandil. During the 1980s, he sided with Iran and led a Kurdish struggle from bases inside Iraq until the crackdown from 1987 to 1988. After Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, he traveled to the United States to offer his services and troops to the U.S. and raise support for the PUK, though his attempts did not bear the success he expected. In 1991, he helped inspire a renewed effort for Kurdish independence, negotiated a ceasefire with the Iraqi Ba'athist government that saved many Kurds, and worked with the U.S., UK, and France to set up the safe haven in Iraqi Kurdistan. In 1992, the Kurdistan Regional Government was founded. He supported peace negotiations between the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and Turkey, and was present when Abdullah Öcalan announced the PKK ceasefire on 17 March 1993, prolonged indefinitely on 16 April 1993. Turkish president Turgut Özal gave him a Turkish passport in 1992 to help him travel freely; he returned it in 2003. Talabani pursued a negotiated settlement to the Iraqi Kurdish Civil War and worked closely with Masoud Barzani and other Iraqi opposition factions. He was a member of the Iraqi Governing Council that negotiated the Transitional Administrative Law (TAL), Iraq's interim constitution.

Reader's Guide

Talabani was elected President of Iraq on 6 April 2005 by the Iraqi National Assembly and sworn in the following day. On 22 April 2006, he began his second term, becoming the first president elected under Iraq's new constitution. His office was part of the Presidency Council of Iraq. Nawshirwan Mustafa was his deputy until Mustafa resigned in 2006 and formed the opposition party Gorran. Talabani supported Masoud Barzani's extended presidency of the Kurdistan Region post-2013. On 18 December 2012, Talabani suffered a stroke and was in intensive care in Baghdad; his condition eventually stabilized after reports of a coma. A statement on his official website said he was being treated for blocked arteries. On 20 December, his condition improved enough to allow travel to Germany for treatment. The head of his medical team in Iraq was Governor Najmiddin Karim. On 19 July 2014, Talabani returned to Iraq after more than 18 months of medical treatment. Due to his absence from politics from his illness, the PUK became consumed by a succession crisis. Talabani died on 3 October 2017 at age 83 in Berlin, Germany, of a cerebral hemorrhage due to complications from the stroke he suffered in 2012. He died a few days after the referendum on the independence of Iraqi Kurdistan was approved by voters. Masoud Barzani, President of the Kurdistan Regional Government and for years his Kurdish rival, announced seven days of mourning in Iraqi Kurdistan. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced three days of mourning in the country. His state funeral was held on 6 October 2017, with millions turning out across cities and memorials held across the globe.

Did You Know?

• Talabani was known as 'Mam' Jalal from his teens, with 'mam' meaning 'paternal uncle' in Kurdish.
• He served briefly as a tank unit commander in the Iraqi Army after earning his law degree in 1959.
• In March 1962, he led a Peshmerga offensive that liberated the district of Sharbazher from Iraqi government forces.
• Turkish president Turgut Özal gave Talabani a Turkish passport in 1992 to help him travel freely; he returned it in 2003.
• Talabani died a few days after the 2017 referendum on the independence of Iraqi Kurdistan was approved by voters.