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ARBIL:
Iraq’s three autonomous Kurdish provinces were
preparing yesterday for the swearing-in of Massoud
Barzani as the region’s president, with his former
rival Jalal Talabani already national president.
Ahead of today’s ceremony, a festive atmosphere
reigned on Arbil’s streets that were bedecked with
the green, white and red flags of Kurdistan,
emblazoned with a yellow sun.
The ceremony for Barzani, son of the father of
Kurdish nationalism Mullah Mustafa Barzani, will be
attended by dignitaries from home and abroad.
“This ceremony marks the end of a long struggle for
Kurdish rights,” senior PUK member Kousrat Rassoul
said after a Thursday meeting between Barzani’s
Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Talabani’s
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
The two Kurdish parties are determined to give the
day a flavour of unity, despite their previous
acrimony.
Following the 1991 Gulf War, the two rivals fell out
over power-sharing and tax revenues in the region
and thousands died in ensuing fighting, with Barzani
even calling in former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussain’s
forces to fight the PUK on his behalf.
The two sides then formed an alliance following
Saddam’s fall in April 2003, agreeing to defend
their right to autonomy within a federal Iraq.
But it took the KDP and PUK four months after
January’s elections to reach agreement on who would
hold the regional presidency, a decision that saw
the 111-member Kurdish regional parliament finally
opened in the city of Arbil, 350km north of Baghdad
on June 4.
Barzani managed to obtain PUK support for his
four-year regional tenure after his party helped
Talabani become Iraq’s first ever Kurdish president
on April 7.
Party officials throughout the three Kurdish
provinces of Sulaimaniyah, Arbil and Dohuk are under
strict instructions only to show Kurdish flags and
symbols and not those of their respective factions
ahead of the unification of their two
administrations.
Currently, the KDP controls Arbil while the PUK runs
Sulaimaniyah.
“The Kurdish people are proud of Barzani’s
presidency,” read one of many banners hung from
public buildings.
One trader, Khaled Jamil, said he had sold half a
million small Kurdish flags in recent days, while
officials said festivities would be laid on in all
government offices.
“This is an historic occasion, not only for Iraqi
Kurds, but for all Kurds” in Turkey, Syria and Iran,
said inhabitant Kamel Salar, 40, set to celebrate
the event with family and neighbours.
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