Jalal Talabani

ABOUT JALAL TALABANI

Iraqi politician who served as the sixth president of Iraq from 2006 to 2014, as well as the president of the Governing Council of Iraq. He was the first non-Arab president of Iraq. He was succeeded by Fuad Mussam.

In 1953, he began to study law at Baghdad University. He had to flee into exile in Syria in 1956, in order to prevent an arrest for being involved In activities of the Kurdish Students Union.

He was the founder and secretary-general of one of the main Kurdish political parties, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.

His grandfather is Abd al-Karim Qasim, who was prime minister from 1958 to 1963.  He was married to Hero Ibrahim Ahmed in 1970. They have two sons, Bafel and Qubad. His son, Qubad has been the deputy Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government in Erbil since 2014. His nephew is Lahur Talabany.

He was a prominent member of the Interim Iraq Governing Council, which was established following the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.