ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—There will be no changes within the structure or leadership of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) as long as Jalal Talabani lives, said his spouse and head of the leading PUK faction, Hero Ibrahim Ahmed, responding to Thursday’s announcement from an opposing faction within the party declaring the establishment of a new decision-making body in an effort to wrest control of the party from the Talabani family.
“Nobody is allowed to talk about the post of secretary general of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, neither now nor in the future as long as Mam Jalal is alive,” Ahmed said, according to a source close to her. “God forbid, even if he dies, the post will not be handed over to anyone. This is Mam Jalal’s post.”
Only after the death of Talabani, “The structure and the name of the PUK leadership will be changed,” the source told Rudaw.
Talabani, 82, has been suffering from ill health since 2012.
Ahmed added that democratic processes must be respected when assigning posts and positions within the party. “No one will receive a post within the PUK by applause,” she said, according to Rudaw’s source.
Thursday evening, Lahur Jangi Talabani, head of the PUK’s intelligence agency, told Rudaw that the PUK members who had issued the statement declaring the formation of the decision-making body, Barham Salih and Kosrat Rasoul Ali, were appointed to their positions as deputies within the party, “They became deputy by applause. They have no legitimacy anymore as they were not elected.”
Ahmed reportedly warned that if all the party’s posts are distributed among the established leadership, then what can the new generations do to grow within the party. “If we divide the leadership through sharing, what can the new generations do who want to nominate themselves for the party’s leadership?”
She also objected to the tone of the language used in the declaration of Salih and Rasoul.
“The PUK only uses the ‘haval’ phrase [a form of address denoting respect] and it will remain as it is,” she reportedly said. “Using the ‘janab’ phrase [a disrespectful form of address used in the declaration] is not something used in the PUK’s literature.”
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