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Exactly today, 4 years ago

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On the 3rd, of October 2017

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Jalal Talabani,passed away in Berlin, Germany

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Where he was seeking health care in a hospital

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During his last years of life he suffered 
from the repercussions of a stroke

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but that didn’t hinder him to vote one last 
time in April 2014

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Mam Jalal (Mam means uncle in the Kurdish 
language) is born in 1933 in Kelkan, Erbil

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By the age of 13, he had formed a secret 
student organization

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aimed at fighting oppression of the Kurdish 
minority by the Iraqi government

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He was forced into hiding to avoid arrest

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In September 1961 Jalal Talabani was leading 
the Kurdish Revolution

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for the rights of the Kurds in Iraq

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was taking charge over Kirkuk and Slemani 
battle fronts and organized and led resistance

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In 1975 Mam Jalal formed the Patriotic Union 
of Kurdistan

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The PUK, one of the leading parties in Kurdistan 
Region

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And continued being the advocate for Kurdish 
rights and democracy

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in Iraq for more than 50 years

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After the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003

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the Americans entered Iraq and Talabani insisted 
that

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the Kurdish leadership was being realistic 
in settling for semi-autonomy

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within a new democratic Iraq

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2 years later Talabani was appointed as Iraq’s 
interim president

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after helping negotiating the transitional 
administrative law

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And the interim constitution of Iraq

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He was the first non-arab president of Iraq 
and stayed in that position for the next 
9 years