Former Iraqi president Jalal Talabani dies
Iraqi state TV announced that Iraq's first non-Arab president Jalal Talabani died in Germany.
Iraq's President Jalal Talabani gestures as he speaks during a joint news conference with Bulgaria's Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev after their meeting in Baghdad December 12, 2006.
Jalal Talabani, a former president of Iraq and a Kurdish political leader, passed away on Tuesday at the age of 83, according to family members.
Speaking exclusively to Anadolu Agency, family members said Talabani had died on Tuesday in a hospital in the German capital Berlin following a long struggle with illness.
Talabani was born on November 12, 1933 in the northern Iraqi city of Sulaymaniyah.
He was elected president of post-invasion Iraq in 2005 and was re-elected for a second term in 2010.
Talabani is also the founder of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) party, in which he had served as secretary-general.
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