Who is Jalal Talabani?

Hi there!I wrote this piece a few days after the death of Jalal Talabani, former President of Iraq.I hope you like it!

Jalal Talabani, who is also known as Mam Jalal (uncle Jalal), was the first non-Arab president of Iraq.

After the overthrowing of Saddam Hussein by US-led forces, he was elected as president in 2006. He acted as a mediator between Iraq’s various sectarian and ethnic groups.

Jalal Talabani was born in the Sulaymaniyah province, on 12 November 1933. Talabani received his education in Koya, Erbil, and Kirkuk. He studied at the faculty of Law at Baghdad University where his political career started. In his final year, he was dismissed from school for being active in politics.

He was one of the important members of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) as was the leader Mustafa Barzani. He had some differing opinion with Barzani too. Causing Talabani to established the PUK, the Kurdish Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.  

After the Iran-Iraq war ended in 1988, Saddam Hussain’s government used chemical weapons in Halabja against Kurds and effectively the PUK, killing between 3,200 and 5,000 people and injuring 7,000 to 10,000 more.

Because of this, during the 1991 Gulf War, Talabani stood against Saddam. Throughout the war, Kurdish forces advanced 145km towards Baghdad. The same year, Massoud Barzani, the leader of KDP, and Talabani decided to declare a ceasefire. They went to Baghdad to negotiate with the Iraqi leader, Saddam. But nothing came of it.

In 1992, the KDP and PUK held elections. In 1994, the conflict between the two parties caused a civil war which ended with an agreement in Washington between Talabani and Massoud Barzani in 1998.

Before the US invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the two parties decided to establish the leadership of Talabani and Barzani. Both sides said that they were aiming for the autonomy of Kurds inside Iraq.

In 9 April 2003, US forces went into Baghdad and declared the that was Saddam overthrown. We can recognise this date as a milestone in Talabani’s political life.

In 22^nd April 2006, under Iraq’s new constitution, Talabani was appointed as Iraq’s president.

Following some health problems, Talabani had heart surgery and later on suffered a stroke. After spending some time in Germany for treatment, he returned to Iraq in 2014. Jalal Talabani died in Germany. He was 83 years old at the time of his death.