Jalal Talabani

When in September 1961, the Kurdish uprising for the rights of the Kurds in northern Iraq was declared against the Baghdad government of Abdul Karim Qassem, Talabani took charge of the Kirkuk and Silemani battlefronts and organized and led separatist movements in Mawat, Rezan and the Karadagh regions.[10] In March 1962, he led a coordinated offensive that brought about the liberation of the district of Sharbazher from Iraqi government forces.[11] When not engaged in fighting in the early and mid-1960s, Talabani undertook numerous diplomatic missions, representing the Kurdish leadership at meetings in Europe and the Middle East.[10]

The Kurdish separatist movement collapsed in March 1975, after Iran ended their support in exchange for a border agreement with Iraq.[12] This agreement was the 1975 Algiers Agreement, where Iraq gave up claims to the Shatt al-Arab (Arvand Rūd) waterway and Khuzestan, which later became the basis for the Iran–Iraq War.[10] Believing it was time to give a new direction to the Kurdish separatists and to the Kurdish society, Talabani, with a group of Kurdish intellectuals and activists, founded the Kurdish Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (Yekiaiti Nishtimani Kurdistan).[7]

In 1976, he began organizing an armed campaign for Kurdish independence inside Iraqi Kurdistan.[13] During the 1980s, Talabani sided with Iran and led a Kurdish struggle from bases inside Iraq until the crackdown against Kurdish separatists from 1987 to 1988.[13]

In 1991, he helped inspire a renewed effort for Kurdish independence.[7] He negotiated a ceasefire with the Iraqi Ba'athist government that saved the lives of many Kurds and worked closely with the United States, United Kingdom, France and other countries to set up the safe haven in Iraqi Kurdistan.[14] In 1992 the Kurdistan Regional Government was founded.[15]

Talabani pursued a negotiated settlement to the Iraqi Kurdish Civil War, as well as the larger issue of Kurdish rights in the current regional context.[14] He worked closely with other Kurdish politicians as well as the rest of the Iraqi opposition factions.[15] In close coordination with Masoud Barzani, Talabani and the Kurds played a key role as a partner of the U.S. led Coalition in the invasion of Iraq.[14]

Talabani was a member of the Iraqi Governing Council which negotiated the Transitional Administrative Law (TAL), Iraq's interim constitution.[11] The TAL governed all politics in Iraq and the process of writing and adopting the final constitution.[13]

Jalal Talabani with U.S. President Barack Obama during a visit to Camp Victory, Iraq, 7 April 2009.

Talabani between U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki, 2011

Talabani was elected President of Iraq on April 6, 2005, by the Iraqi National Assembly and sworn into office the following day.[16]

On 22 April 2006, Talabani began his second term as President of Iraq, becoming the first President elected under the country's new constitution.[11] His office was part of the Presidency Council of Iraq.[7] Nawshirwan Mustafa was Talabani's deputy until Mustafa resigned in 2006 and formed an opposition party called Gorran.[11]

He supported Barzani's extended presidency of the Kurdistan Region post-2013.[5]