Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK)

views updated

PATRIOTIC UNION OF KURDISTAN (PUK)

kurdish political party.

Established in 1977, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) advocated the self-determination of Iraqi Kurds through armed struggle. Led by Jalal Talabani, the PUK claims to be more leftist than the rival Democratic Party of Kurdistan (DPK). In 1987 the PUK put an end to ten years of internecine fighting and joined the Kurdistan Front of Iraq with the KDP and six other smaller organizations. After the Gulf War (1991) the PUK shared power with Masʿud Barzani's DPK inside the Kurdish Autonomous Zone, in the parliament elected in May 1992, and in the Kurdish Regional Government formed in Irbil in July 1992. In May 1994 internecine fighting resumed and continued until the Washington Agreement of September 1998. The PUK formed its own government in Sulaymaniyya, and the Kurdish Autonomous Zone was de facto split into two regions. It took four more years to implement the Washington Agreement (1998) and to convene the Kurdish Parliament, which met again for the first time in full session on 4 October 2002. Both the DPK and the PUK approved a draft of Federal Constitution for the future Iraq.

see also democratic party of kurdistan (iraq); kurdish autonomous zone; talabani, jalal.


Bibliography


McDowall, David. A Modern History of the Kurds. London: I. B. Tauris, 1996.

chris kutschera

More From encyclopedia.com