Factionalism Within the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan
Abstract
Institutional conflicts within the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) have existed ever since the party’s founding in 1975 as a result of a merger of three different factions. The conflicts were successfully managed in a way that did not hurt the party’s overall functioning until the Gorran movement, led by Nawshirwan Mustafa, split off in 2009. However, it was the withdrawal of party leader Jalal Talabani from political and public life due to a stroke suffered in 2012 that most damaged the party’s ability to function, and widened factional cracks within the organization. The absence of Talabani led to the emergence of intense competition between various groups within the PUK for influence and positions. Consequently, PUK policies on a number of important issues in Iraqi Kurdistan have been indecisive and weak since approximately 2013. This research will discuss the PUK’s inconsistent policies and their negative implications for the Kurdistan Region. Furthermore, it will argue that the PUK’s internal conflicts emboldened its rival, the Kurdistan Democratic Party, between the years 2014 and 2018.
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Biographies
Hawre Hasan Hama, lecturer at University of Sulaimani, College of Political Science, and visiting lecturer at Ishik University. He has several journal article in well known global journals.
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Article first published online: June 9, 2019
Issue published: November 2019
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This article was published in Journal of Asian and African Studies.
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