He was 83.In the 1980s, tensions mounted between Talabani and KDP leader Massoud Barzani, even as the PUK resisted fiercely against Hussein's regime. "I had been arrested several times, and even when I was in Kirkuk during my secondary education, I was arrested twice," he said. Now they had several coming to Kurdistan and shouldn't be in anyway ungrateful of that fact."Much of what happens today in Iraq and the KRG and the lack of any common ground for dialogue can be attributed to his absence in the past years," he told The New Arab.He once recalled Saddam Hussein's Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz cruelly telling him that the Kurdish people would only have the right to weep over their prized city of Kirkuk, from which Saddam was deporting Kurds and forcibly settling Arabs, as they passed through it.A joke about Talabani that was quite popular in Kurdistan in the mid-2000s concerned a man inviting Talabani, who he didn't know, for a drink. As the waiters brought plate after plate of delicious dishes, Talabani asked a photographer not to take any photos.A good-humored, portly man with a soft smile and a mustache, Talabani was nonetheless a pragmatic and savvy political operator who knew when to play down his fervent Kurdish nationalism. The death of Talabani throws up questions about the future of the PUK and the region’s politics. While this remains to be seen it would be a true testament to his legacy.Yerevan Saeed of the Middle East Research Institute echoed this, pointing out that Talabani's "departure from politics in 2012 because of his deteriorating health had a negative impact on Iraqi politics".Dana Nawazar Ali, a Kurdish affairs analyst and Chevening Scholar at Durham University, argues that, despite this absence, Talabani's "physical presence alone made a difference especially for the intra-PUK rivalries".Talabani's passing, coming as it does so close to the independence referendum, may well be the end of an era, given his championing of a successful unified Iraq, which is now very much in question.
Wife: Hero Ibrahim Ahmad (dau. Former Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, one of the country's most powerful and unifying leaders and a man who spent much of his life fighting for the cause of … The death of Talabani throws up questions about the future of the PUK and the region’s politics. Share: All News The … MOBILE VIEW Iraq's President Jalal Talabani arrives to address the 65th United Nations General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York, Sept. 23, 2010. Talabani, 83, was Iraq's president from 2005 to 2014 and a key figure in Iraqi Kurdistan, where voters last week overwhelmingly backed independence in a disputed referendum. He had been a frequent emissary to world capitals for the Kurdish people before and after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in the U.S.-led invasion of 2003.Sudarsan Raghavan, The Washington PostHe was popularly known as Mam Jalal, Kurdish for Uncle Jalal, a nickname ascribed to him in his youth because of his seriousness and that later reflected the affection of his supporters and even some political rivals.As a Kurd, Talabani was the first non-Arab president of an Arab nation.