SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region – Thousands of members and supporters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) flooded the city’s iconic Salim Street on Saturday to celebrate the 38th anniversary of the party’s foundation.
'I am happy to see so many people support the party today,” said Kamaran, a 50-year-old Peshmarga.
Many had traveled from far and near to the city center to emphasize their support for the founder and secretary general of the PUK, Jalal Talabani, they said.
“Mr. Talabani is the best thing that happened to Iraq in many years. He is good to us [Peshmargas], and for Kurdistan and Iraq. I hope he recovers soon,” said Kamaran.
Talabani, elected president of Iraq in 2005, suffered a stroke last December and he is currently recuperating in a German hospital.
Iraq’s first lady, Hero Ibrahim Ahmad conveyed a message from Talabani to his supporters.
“Talabani told me to say hello to all of you, especially the PUK members,” Ahamd told the crowd. “He says, ‘Do not worry about me. I will soon be back among you in a better health,’”
PUK’s main office in Sulaimani was covered in the party’s green flag and posters of Talabani. The crowd chanted and listened to their party anthem through loudspeakers that filled the street.
Jamal, 26, said that he and his friends had joined the crowd to say that they stood by the president in these hard times.
Earlier in May, PUK officials released pictures that showed Talabani sitting around a table and conversing with his doctors in Germany.
The pictures triggered a night of celebrations throughout Sulaimani province where more than a dozen people were injured as a result of celebratory gunfire.
A police officer, told Rudaw on condition of anonymity that he had been assigned to watch the jubilant crowd and that he had strict orders to prevent celebratory gunfire.
“We are glad the people support the president, but firing guns in the air is not going to help him get better,” said the police officer.
Despite their undying backing for the PUK however, some young members said that the leader may not recover from his illness and that it was time the party focused on the future.
“He [Talabani] is very sick, and he won't recover from one day to the next as some people expect,” said Sama, a PUK member in her early twenties. “The PUK needs to focus on finding a strong, solid successor to carry on his legacy.
The PUK is Kurdistan Region’s second largest party and it currently runs the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in an alliance with the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).
