ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The body of former Kirkuk Governor Najmaldin Karim was received at Erbil International Airport late Friday by several top Kurdistan Region officials before being buried in Pirmam, Erbil province. 

Karim died on Saturday in a USA hospital after suffering a stroke. He had said in his will that he wanted to be temporarily buried in the Kurdistan Region, then moved to his hometown of Kirkuk whenever the city falls under the control of Kurdish Peshmerga.

His corpse was received by top government and political officials as well as friends and family members at the Erbil International Airport before being taken to Pirmam. 

Born in Kirkuk in 1949, Karim moved to Mosul as a young man to study medicine. He joined the Kurdish Peshmerga forces in 1972 and became the personal physician of famed Kurdish leader Mullah Mustafa Barzani. Karim accompanied Barzani to the United States for medical treatment, where the leader died. 

Karim stayed in the US until 2009 when he returned to the Kurdistan Region. Three years later, he became governor of Kirkuk on the ticket of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).

Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani described him on Friday as a “brave and courageous man.”

“He tried to gain as much support as possible for the rights of the Kurdistan Region. When he stayed in the US, he really made a lot of friends for Kurds,” the president said at Erbil airport. 
 
Karim raised the Kurdistan flag in the disputed city of Kirkuk, championed the 2017 Kurdistan independence referendum, and supported Kirkuk taking part in the vote. A month later, in October 2017, Iraqi troops and Iranian-backed paramilitary forces drove the Peshmerga out of Kirkuk and other disputed areas. Karim was removed from his post by Baghdad and a warrant was issued for his arrest, leading him to flee to Erbil. 

Photos: Bilind T.Abdullah/Rudaw