The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the junior partner in the government of Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, announced on Nov. 5 that it was leaving the cabinet, six weeks after U.S.-led coalition forces withdrew from Iraq. In a televised address, PUK leader Bafel Talabani said “This government has failed” and declared that his party would not recognize the regional parliament “or anything that emerges from this.” He then threatened to set up rival institutions in the PUK’s stronghold of Sulaymaniyah. “If they appoint a Region president, we will appoint a Region president,” Talabani said, adding, “Whatever they do there, we will do here.”
The Kurdistan Region is a semi-autonomous region in Iraq’s northeast. Iraq’s 2005 constitution recognizes it as a federal region with its own parliament, government and armed forces, known as the Peshmerga. Two parties have dominated its politics for decades. The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), founded in 1946 by Mustafa Barzani and now led by his son Masoud Barzani, runs Erbil and Duhok and holds the region’s top posts.
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