Talabani makes bold pitch for power

Talabani, known as "Mum (Uncle) Jalal" in Kurdistan, is a fierce nationalist, who has crusaded for his people’s rights for decades.

"I am the candidate for the Kurdish democratic list for one of the two posts of responsibility," Talabani said after a meeting with his erstwhile rival, Massud Barzani, in the mountain resort of Salaheddin.

The announcement was sure to antagonise Iraq’s Sunni population, bitter rivals since 1961 when Kurdish statesman Mullah Mustapha Barzani, Massud’s father, began a revolt against the Baghdad government seeking autonomy.

But Talabani, a barrell-chested giant of a man, has never lacked for brio if it came to getting what he wanted, even if he lost allies along the way. A man of passion and conviction, he did what he thought was right, damned the consequences.

Born in 1933, Talabani was inspired by Massud’s father, a legend among Kurds for his fighting prowess.

The young Talabani joined the Barzanis’ Kurdistan Democratic Partyand was a loyal member, until he joined a KDP splinter faction in 1964, marking the start of a long and costly internecine feud among Iraqi Kurds.

Talabani and his future father-in-law, Ahmed Ibrahim, fled to Iran that year after they opposed a decision by Barzani to call a halt to fighting with the Iraqi government.

A final split came in 1975 when Talabani established his own Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), after the crushing defeat of the Kurds at the hands of Saddam Hussein. The battles cost many lives and forced many of fighters into exile in Iran.

Talabani founded the PUK as an alternative to the KDP, which he described as grounded in tribalism. The PUK was based on socialist ideals and enjoyed popularity in urban areas.

Inevitably, Talabani’s party found itself dogged by the same allegations.

The rival movements have dominated Kurdish life for four decades and witnessed some of the lowest moments in their people’s history.

The Kurds suffered greatly during Saddam’s 1988 Anfal campaign when the dictator ordered villages razed and the gassing of thousands of people.

In addition, since Saddam’s Baath party rose to power in the 1960s, tens of thousands of Kurds have been expelled from the oil rich city of Kirkuk and villages around the northern provinces of Nineveh, Diyala and Salaheddin.

Today, Talabani and Barzani both want to reclaim Kirkuk as the capital of a Kurdish federal region. The aggressive Kurdish stance has set off shock waves in neighboring Turkey, which has warned it will not tolerate Kurdish domination of Kirkuk.

Before the fall of Saddam in April 2003, Iraqi Kurds enjoyed 12 years of autonomy in their northern enclave thanks to the protection of a US-British imposed no-fly zone.

The post-Saddam years have seen Barzani and Talabani put aside years of quarrels as they look to guard their hard-won gains in post-war Iraq.

Barzani, who has been tapped to head the new Kurdish federal zone, controls northwest Kurdistan, comprising the two governorates of Dohuk and Erbil.

Talabani controls the domain between Greater Zab and the Iranian border and is based out of Sulaimaniya.

Fighting broke out between the KDP and PUK in 1993, fueled by a dispute over Barzani’s control of revenues from oil smuggling routes into neighbouring Turkey. The conflict raged on through 1996, when the two groups declared a ceasefire under the auspices of the United States.

A formal treaty was signed in 1998, but a true rapprochement between the PUK and KDP only came in 2002, when it became clear US President George W. Bush intended to topple Saddam and endanger the self-rule they had enjoyed since the US and Britain imposed their no-fly zone after the 1991 Gulf War.

http://kurdmedia.com/news.asp?id=6196