The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan is a Kurdish political party in Iraqi Kurdistan. The PUK describes its goals as self-determination, human rights, and democracy and peace for the Kurdish people of Kurdistan and Iraq. The current Secretary General is Kosrat Rasul Ali. Fuad Masum, co-founder of the PUK, was the President of Iraq from 2014 to 2018. It was founded on 22 May 1975 in Iraqi Kurdistan by Adel Murad, Nawshirwan Mustafa, Ali Askari, Fuad Masum, Jalal Talabani and Abdul Razaq Feyli.
Mahmoud Ali Othman was a member of the Interim Iraq Governing Council created following the United States's 2003 invasion of Iraq. A Kurd and Sunni Muslim, Othman was a member of the Political Bureau Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). He then founded the Kurdish Socialist Party. He was also the Chief Negotiator in the 1970 agreement with the Baath Party. He is now a leading member of the Iraqi National Assembly.
Mustafa Barzani also known as Mullah Mustafa, was a Kurdish nationalist leader, and one of the most prominent political figures in modern Kurdish politics. In 1946, he was chosen as the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) to lead the Kurdish revolution against Iraqi regimes, although at times he also allied himself to the Iranian government. Barzani was the primary political and military leader of the Kurdish revolution until his death in March 1979. He led campaigns of armed struggle against both the Iraqi and Iranian governments.
Peshmerga are the military forces of the federal region of Iraqi Kurdistan. Because the Iraqi Army is forbidden by Iraqi law to enter Iraqi Kurdistan, the Peshmerga, along with their security subsidiaries, are responsible for the security of the regions in Iraqi Kurdistan. These subsidiaries include Asayish, Parastin u Zanyarî and the Zeravani. It has been argued that peshmerge itself predates Iraq, starting out as a strictly tribal pseudo-military border guard under the Ottomans and Safavids to a well-trained, disciplined guerrilla force in the 19th century.
Barham Ahmed Salih is the 10th and current President of Iraq. He is the former prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraqi Kurdistan and a former deputy prime minister of the Iraqi federal government. He was elected and assumed office as the President of Iraq on 2 October 2018.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is the official ruling body of the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region.
Kurdistan Islamic Union ; Arabic: الاتحاد الاسلامي الكوردستاني, romanized: al-Ittiḥād al-islāmī al-kūrdistānī), colloquially referred to as Yekgirtû, is an Islamist party in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Rowsch Nuri Shaways is a Kurdish politician who served as the first Prime Minister of the KDP-controlled part of Kurdistan. After the invasion of Iraq that overthrew the Saddam Hussein regime, he served as one of Iraq's two vice presidents in the interim government established in 2004. Subsequently, he was a Deputy Prime Minister in the government headed by Ibrahim al-Jaafari and later held the same post under Nouri al-Maliki. He also served as Depty Prime Minister under Haider Al-Abadi from 8 September 2014 to 9 August 2015. Previously, he served as speaker of the Kurdistan National Assembly in the Kurdish autonomous region and is a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party.
Masoud Barzani is a Kurdish politician who was President of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region from 2005 to 2017. However, Barzani’s post sparked controversy, as his mandate expired 19 August 2015. He is also leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) since 1979.
Babaker Baderkhan Shawkat Zebari is former Kurdish KDP politician and retired General in the Iraqi Army. Zebari was chief of staff of the Iraqi army from 2004 till 2015.
The Iraqi Kurdish Civil War was a military conflict that took place between rival Kurdish factions in Iraqi Kurdistan during the mid-1990s, most notably between the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party. Over the course of the conflict, Kurdish factions from Iranian and Turkish Kurdistan, as well as Iranian, Iraqi and Turkish state forces, were drawn into the fighting, with additional involvement from American forces. Between 3,000 and 5,000 fighters and civilians were killed.
Masrour Barzani is a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party leadership, son of Kurdistan Region President Masoud Barzani, and is the Chancellor of the Kurdistan Region Security Council in Iraqi Kurdistan. The KDP is one of the three main Kurdish parties in Iraq, and is a member of the current coalition government.
Assyrian politics in Iraq have been taking many different turns since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. Today, there are many different Assyrian political parties in Iraq. The main Assyrian party that came out from the 2005 elections was the Assyrian Democratic Movement. However, Sarkis Aghajan began to challenge its power beginning in 2006 with the opening of Ishtar TV and the KDP-affiliated Chaldean Syriac Assyrian Popular Council.
Jawhar Namiq Salm, was a political leader and first president of the Kurdistan National Assembly.
Chaldean Syriac Assyrian Popular Council popularly known as Motwa is a political party in Iraq that was founded by Sarkis Aghajan, a high-ranking KDP, in 2007. The Party runs Ishtar TV and publishes several different monthly magazines.
The Kurdistan List, also known as the Kurdistan Alliance or the Brotherhood List, is the name of the electoral coalition that ran in the Kurdistan Regional Government parliamentary elections in Iraqi Kurdistan in July 2009. The Kurdistan List represented a coalition of the two main ruling parties in Iraqi Kurdistan, namely the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. It is the successor of the Democratic Patriotic Alliance of Kurdistan.
The Prime Minister of Iraqi Kurdistan is the head of the Kurdistan Regional Government, governing an autonomous region in northern Iraq. The government is elected as part of the Iraqi Kurdistan Parliament.
The Kurdistan Democratic Party of Syria, commonly known as KDPS or PDK-S, is a Kurdish Syrian political party founded in 1957 by Kurdish nationalists in northern Syria. The party is based in Hamburg, Germany and has various branches in France, United Kingdom, Sweden and the United States of America.
Fuad Mohammed Hussein is an Iraqi politician from the Kurdistan Democratic Party who is the current Finance Minister in the Government of Adil Abdul-Mahdi. He was approved by the Council of Representatives on 24 October 2018.
