By Mufid Abdulla: It is possible that the PUK will have to brace itself in the next few weeks for bad news, with the realisation that its leader cannot live forever. Kurdistan needs a new breed of leadership. When Barzani senior passed away in 1979, the Kurdish nationalist movement placed its hopes in the new…
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Category Archives: PUK
Post Talabani
By Kamal Chomani: President Jalal Talabani’s uncertain health is suggestive of some crucial changes ahead in the political landscape of both Iraq and the Kurdistan Region. ‘Post Talabani’ is a very sensitive issue within the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). It affects the PUK’s policies and its relations towards other Kurdish political forces – in particular,…
Kadir Hamajan wants to distort truth about death of ex-mayor of Suli
KT News and Comment: For the last two weeks the trial of those accused of land corruption in the area in Qualraisi has been underway. Last week Kadir Hamajan – director of the Sulaymani security office and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) politburo member – gave his evidence to the court. This has provoked an…
Relatives of Kurdistan civil war’s missing victims demand the truth
KT News and Comment: The fall-out from the 1990s civil war between the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) – waged, on opposite sides, by the current presidents of the Kurdistan Region and Iraq – continues to add salt to the victims’ wounds. Although the exact number of the casualties…
PUK must not under-estimate the impact of Talabani’s ill-health
By Mufid Abdulla: Talibani has been absent from Iraq since 16th June when he left for a knee operation that took place on 20th June. An orthopaedic consultant, who preferred to stay anonymous, has told the media that, while Talabani’s age would inevitably mean a longer recovery time, there was “nothing abnormal about his treatment,…
Majority voice or the voice of oppressor?
By Diyar Aziz Shareef: Is majority rule a function of democracy, a technique to promote the public interest or, on the contrary, is it a tool to fulfill the interests of a political minority? Can the Kurdistan parliament be able to live up to its name (as the ‘people’s council’) if it is permanently dominated…
Kurdistan’s ‘$265 million’ National Security Council: Nepotism not good governance
By Michael Rubin: While Kurdish officials often describe the Iraqi Kurdistan region as a democracy, both the region’s reputation and its democratic trajectory took a huge leap backwards last week with President Barzani’s creation by fiat of the National Security Council. Bookmark on Delicious Recommend on Facebook Share on Linkedin Tweet about it Subscribe to…
Opposition calls for dissolution of KRG National Security Council
News from KT: The three main opposition parties in the Kurdistan Region have called for the dissolution of the National Security Council set up this weekend by the governing Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). The opposition has called on the ruling parties to bring the matter before the Kurdistan parliament….
Kurdistan heads towards a totalitarian regime
By Kamal Chomani: Announcing the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) National Security Council was the last nail in the coffin of Kurdistan’s democracy and claims of reform. Alas, what the hell is going on in Kurdistan politics? The danger of any totalitarian regimes is that they shape rules and state institutions to legalize their undemocratic plans…
Is Nawshirwan Mustafa full of anger?
By Hamma Mirwaisi: A Kurdish politician from South Kurdistan wanted, as one of its founders, to reform his political party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). However, he was forced out by the warlord Jalal Talabani and then formed his own party – Gorran, the Change Movement – like many other Kurdish politicians, all forming…
Nawshirwan Mustafa’s first regional visit
By Kamal Chomani: Nawshirwan Mustafa’s first official regional visit, choosing Iran as his first destination, underlines a critical period in Kurdish and Iraqi politics. Although the Change Movement had already revealed the agenda of this visit, it can be considered as the beginning of change to some political formulas inside Iraq. The red-carpet treatment given…
Iraq waiting for Talabani to recover
News and Comment by The Kurdistan Tribune: Lvinpress on Friday carried a report on the death of Iraq president and PUK leader Jalal Talabani, who was flown to a hospital in Germany last week suffering from severe heart and other health problems. This report was immediately denied by a PUK spokesman who said that Talabani is…
PUK blames Gorran for obstructing the KRG budget
News and Comment by The Kurdistan Tribune: For the last two months, Iraq’s turmoil has developed into deadlock. Talabani has told reporters that he has not received enough signatures to withdraw confidence from the Maliki government. He has also indirectly told Kurdistan president Barzani that, as president of Iraq, he must stay neutral and cannot…
The inheritance of power in Kurdistan…From ancestors to offspring
By Kamal Chomani: In this society, if you are not born into a family of Kurdish leaders, you will not have any chance at all to get into high positions in political and government fields, no matter how skillful and knowledgeable you are. In Southern Kurdistan, Kurdish democracy has not forgotten about tribal customs. Although…
