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Patriotic Union of Kurdistan Yekêtîy Nîştimanîy Kurdistan یەکێتیی نيشتمانیی کوردستان الاتحاد الوطني الكردستاني | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Leader | Bafel Talabani |
| President | Bafel Talabani |
| Founder | Ibrahim Ahmad Omar Shekhmus Adel Murad Jalal Talabani Ali Askari Fuad Masum Abdul Razaq Feyli |
| Founded | 1 June 1975; 50 years ago (1975-06-01) |
| Headquarters | Sulaymaniyah,Kurdistan Region, Iraq |
| Ideology | Kurdish nationalism Reformism Secularism Social democracy |
| Political position | Centre-left |
| National affiliation | Kurdistani Coalition |
| International affiliation | Socialist International Progressive Alliance |
| Colours | Medium sea green |
| Council of Representatives of Iraq[a] | 17 / 329 |
| Kurdistan Parliament[b] | 23 / 100 |
| Party flag | |
 | |
| Website | |
| pukmedia.com | |
| PUK Peshmerga | |
|---|---|
| پێشمەرگەی یەکێتی | |
 Flag of Kurdistan, commonly used by Kurdish forces | |
| Active | 1975–present |
| Country | Kurdistan Region,Iraq |
| Allegiance | Patriotic Union of Kurdistan |
| Branch | Peshmerga |
| Type | Infantry |
| Role | Ground warfare, regional defense |
| Size | Estimated 110,000+ (2025) |
| Part of | Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs (nominally) |
| Garrison/HQ | Sulaymaniyah |
| Nickname | Green Peshmerga |
| Colors | Green |
| Engagements | |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders | |
ThePatriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK;Kurdish:یەکێتیی نیشتمانیی کوردستان,romanized: Yekêtîy Nîştimanîy Kurdistan) is a political party active inKurdistan Region and thedisputed territories inIraq.[1] The PUK describes its goals asself-determination,human rights, democracy and peace for theKurdish people ofKurdistan andIraq. The PUK is currently under the leadership ofBafel Talabani.[2] The PUK was founded in 1975 byAdel Murad,Jalal Talabani,Nawshirwan Mustafa,Fuad Masum,Ali Askari and Abdul Razaq Feyli Dawood Mohammed Ali. All presidents of Iraq under the 2005 constitution have been from this party.
The PUK traces its political heritage toSulaymaniyah nativeIbrahim Ahmad. After the collapse of the Soviet-backed KurdishMahabad Republic inIran in early 1947,Ibrahim Ahmad, previously the Sulaymaniyah representative of the Iranian KDP (KDP-I), joined the newly formed IraqiKDP. Ahmad was a highly influential leftist intellectual, who by 1951 had succeeded in rallying most of the Iraqi Kurdish leftist-nationalists to the new Iraqi KDP, which, in turn, took the opportunity to convene a second Party Congress and duly elect Ahmad as secretary-general (effectively acting Chairman).[3]
However, from the very beginning in Iran, Ibrahim Ahmad's leftist politics, "intellectualism", and support forQazi Muhammad put him at odds with the faction of the KDP loyal toMustafa Barzani and his traditionalist-conservative tribal support base. It was "well-known in nationalist circles that the relations between the two men Mustafa and Qazi were not easy".[4] Ibrahim Ahmad was soon joined by up-and-coming intellectual and socialistJalal Talabani. Barzani and Ahmad were known to dislike each other. But while each wanted to reduce the others' influence in the KDP, each also knew that the other was indispensable in securing the loyalty of their respective support-bases.
When the firstBa'ath Party government was deposed in a coup led byAbdul Salam Arif, Mustafa developed a close relationship with Arif. Mulla Mustafa signed an agreement with Arif in his personal capacity, rather than as president of the KDP. This infuriated Ahmad and Jalal Talabani as the agreement omitted any mention of self-administration, let alone autonomy—the whole point for which the Kurds had been fighting a long-term guerrilla war. Arif threatened force against any Kurdish opponent of Mustafa, while Mustafa declared that any resistance to Baghdad would constitute a declaration of war against himself and the Barzanis.[5]
Ibrahim Ahmad and Jalal Talabani decried this complicity, and as they saw it, submission, to Baghdad. Mulla Mustafa rallied the conservatives and tribal leaders to his side. Furious debates and campaigning followed, but Ahmad's and Talabani's arguments could not dislodge Mulla Mustafa's position as the popular figurehead of the Kurdish people. Mulla Mustafa would accept no dissent, and, fearing for their lives, Ahmad and his followers slipped away at night from a heated discussion with Mulla Mustafa, and retreated back to their stronghold inMawat, Iraq.[6]
At the Sixth Party Congress of the KDP in July 1964, representatives from the Ahmad-Talabani faction were arrested upon arrival. A few days later Mulla Mustafa sent his son,Idris Barzani with a large force to drive Ahmad, Talabani, and their 4,000 or so followers into exile in Iran. With this, Mulla Mustafa had finally achieved undisputed control of the KDP.[6]
After the defeat of the Kurds in the1974–1975 Revolt, on 22 May 1975, Talabani met in a coffee shop called Gligla, inAum Rmana,Damascus, withAdel Murad, Fuad Mausm, and Abdul Razaq Faily. That day, the PUK announced its formation via Syrian and Lebanese media. The day after, Talabani visited Berlin in West Germany and met three other co-founders, Nawshirwan Mustafa, Omar Shekhmus, and Kamal Fuad, and some other activists. On 1 June 1975, the PUK was announced again in Berlin, and thus it was decided that 1 June is the anniversary date of the founding of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
The PUK was a coalition of at least five separate political entities, the most significant of which were Talabani and his closest followers,Nawshirwan Mustafa's clandestineMarxist-Leninist groupKomala, and the Kurdistan Socialist Movement (KSM), formed as a result of a series of meetings within the cadres of the Aylul Revolution who took refuge in Iran in 1975, including Omer Dababa,Ali Askari, Dr. Khalid, Ali Hazhar, Kardo Galali,Ibrahim Ahmad, Jamal Agha, Rasul Mamand, Mala Nasih, Abdulrahman Gomashini, Milazm Tahir, Ali Wali and Kamal Mihedeen. The PUK served as an umbrella organization unifying various trends within theKurdish political movement inIraq.
The PUK received grassroots support from the urban intellectual classes ofIraqi Kurdistan upon its establishment, partly due to five of its seven founding members being Ph.D. holders and academics. In the early 1980s, the PUK evolved and broadened its appeal to all sections ofIraqi Kurdish society, especially the rural classes.
In 1992, the constituent groups within the PUK merged into a unified political movement that affirmed itssocial-democratic identity and affiliation. Their communique ascribed the collapse of the revolt to "the inability of the feudalist, tribalist, bourgeois rightist and capitulationist Kurdish leadership".
The PUK's support lies predominantly in the southern part of theKurdistan Region.
During theIran-Iraq war, the PUK entered into hostilities with the Iranian KurdishSipay Rizgari, opposing them due to Sipay Rizgari's close ties to the Iraqi authorities that the PUK was fighting. The PUK harassed Sipay Rizgari's troops and, to a large extent, cut off their supply lines.[7]
Since the firstGulf War, the PUK has jointly administeredKurdistan Region with theKurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). However, in 1994 the parties engaged in a three-year conflict, known as theIraqi Kurdish Civil War. The conflict ended with US mediation, and reconciliation was eventually achieved.
In September 2001, the Islamist groupJund al-Islam (the Army of Islam) massacred 43 PUK members.[8]
Originally a centre-left party opposing the conservative tribalism of theKurdistan Democratic Party, the PUK developed into a similarly tribalistic vehicle for the political ambitions ofJalal Talabani and his family. In 2009, influential PUK politicianNawshirwan Mustafa left the party, frustrated by widespread tribalism and corruption within the party. He proceeded to found theGorran Movement, which in turn presented itself as an alternative to the corrupt politics of PUK and KDP.[9]
After the founder and leader of the PUK,Jalal Talabani, died in 2017, a struggle for the leadership of the party ignited between Jalal's sonBafel Talabani and the then co-presidentLahur Sheikh Jangi. On the PUK's fourth congress in December 2019, Sheikh Jangi received the most votes for the General Leadership Council. In a compromise, he and Bafel were proclaimed co-presidents. In July 2021, Bafel shut down a media outlet close to Sheikh Jangi and ousted several important commanders from the counter-terrorism and intelligence units of the PUK, who were seen as affiliates of him. Shortly after, Bafel was declared the sole leader of the party. In November,Lahur Sheikh Jangi was expelled from the PUK along a few others and Bafel took full control over the party's finances. Sheikh Jangi filed a lawsuit against the expulsion. In February 2023, a court inErbil ruled, that the ouster from the co-presidency was contradicted PUK's internal regulation and reinstated him. A day after however, on 21 February, the judicial authority on Iraqi elections inBaghdad declaredBafel Talabani the sole leader of the PUK.[10]
After that,Sheikh Jangi proceeded to work on founding his own party.[11] His new party, thePeople's Front received its license from the interior ministry on 17 January 2024[12] and was joined by several former PUK-members from Lahur's wing.[11]
A Co-Presidents are elected by the General Leadership Council.[13] The PUK has 36 branches throughoutIraqi Kurdistan and draws membership from a broad cross-section ofKurdish society. The membership of the PUK, based on statistics compiled in September 1998, stands at 800,280 members and associates. The PUK contested the 1992 elections for theKurdistan National Assembly, and the party list acquired 423,682 votes of the total of 957,469 valid votes cast - giving the PUK commanding majority in three ofKurdistan Region's four provinces. The PUK is a member of theSocialist International.[14] Kosrat Rasul Ali was elected as the leader of the Supreme Political Council at the party congress in December 2019 and Lahur Talabany and Bafel Talabany were elected as Co-Presidents in February 2020 to lead the party.
The PUK's structure consists of 8 bureaus:
Parliamentary election
| Election | Leader | Vote | Seats | +/- | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Barham Salih | 851,326 | 21 / 328 | New | 6.07% |
| 2018 | Kosrat Rasul Ali | 616,232 | 18 / 329 |  3 | 5.93% |
| 2021 | Member of theKurdistani Coalition | 368,226 | 17 / 329 | 1 | 4.16% |
| 2025 | Bafel Talabani | 548,928 | 15 / 329 | 2 | 4.89% |
Parliamentary election
| Election | Leader | Vote | Seats | +/- | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Jalal Talabani | 423,833 | 49 / 100 | New | 43.8% |
| 2005 | – | 38 / 111 | 11 | – | |
| 2009 | Barham Salih | – | 25 / 111 | 13 | – |
| 2013 | 350,500 | 24 / 111 | 1 | 24.21% | |
| 2018 | Kosrat Rasul Ali | 319,219 | 21 / 111 | 3 | 20.5% |
| 2024 | Bafel Talabani | 409,548 | 23 / 100 |  2 | 21.77% |
| # | Photo | President | Election(s) | Presidency start date | Presidency end date | Time in office |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | .jpg) | Jalal Talabaniجلال طالباني جەلال تاڵەبانی(1933–2017) | 2005 20062010 | 7 April 2005 | 24 July 2014 | 9 years, 108 days |
| 7 |  | Fuad Masumفؤاد معصوم فواد مەعسووم(born 1938) | 2014 | 24 July 2014 | 2 October 2018 | 4 years, 70 days |
| 8 | .jpg) | Barham Salihبرهم صالح بەرهەم ساڵح(born 1960) | 2018 | 2 October 2018 | 17 October 2022 | 4 years, 15 days |
| 9 | .jpg) | Abdul Latif Rashidلطيف رشيد لەتیف رەشید(born 1944) | 2022 | 17 October 2022 | Incumbent (Term expires October 2025) | 3 years, 38 days |
In the Iraqi part of Hawraman, which the shaykh's men used as a basis from which to launch patrols into Iran, they ran into trouble with an organization of Iraqi Kurds, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). The PUK was in armed rebellion against the Baghdad government, and it resented the shaykh's collaboration with that same regime. (...) The PUK harassed the shaykh's men and largely cut off their supply lines.
| Major political parties | |
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| Minor political parties | |
| Reserved Christian seats (5) |
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| Reserved minority seats (3) |
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| Unrepresented in parliament | |
| Banned |
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| International | |
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| National | |
| Other | |
