Iraqi Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani dies

Erbil (Iraq), Oct 3 (IANS/AKI) Veteran Kurdish leader and former Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has died in Germany aged 83, the media reported on Tuesday.

Talabani, a veteran leader of the Kurdish struggle for self-determination, passed away after he slipped into a coma, broadcaster Kurdistan 24 reported, citing officials from his Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) party.

Talbani's death was also reported by Iraqi state television and by Kurdish broadcaster Rudaw.

Talabani had flown to Germany on September 11 for medical tests, Kurdistan 24 said. His health deteriorated after he suffered a stroke in December 2012.

He spent a year and a half in Germany receiving treatment and withdrew from public life, stepping down as President in July 2014 after his return to Iraq.

At a rally in Sulaimani, heartland of the PUK, before Kurdistan's disputed independence referendum last month, Kurdistan Region President Masoud Barzani said the quest for independence would have been easier if Talabani was in better health.

The PUK, Iraqi Kurdistan's third largest party, has faced internal political turmoil and disunity since Talabani's ill health.

Talabani, who was born in November 1933 near Erbil, now the seat of the Kurdistan regional government in northern Iraq, served as the first non-Arab president of Iraq.

He was first elected to the post in 2005, two years after the US-led invasion that ousted late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

He won a second term as President the following year and was re-elected in 2010.

Talabani was active in politics from an early age and joined the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in 1947, aged 14. In 1975, he left the KDP and founded the PUK under the motto: 'Peace, democracy, human rights and self-determination'.

He graduated with a law degree from Baghdad University in 1959.

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