PUK co-chair Lahur Talabany commemorated the historic pleading of President Mam Jalal in the meeting of the Iraqi Governing Council on February 9, 2004.

On the anniversary of President Mam Jalal's historic pleading, Lahur Talabany wrote in his Facebook account:

"Today, 17 years have passed since the day of Mam Jalal's great appeal in the Iraqi council of governance, in which, with historic evidence and a great map of the Ottoman era, he proved the Kurdistani identity of Kirkuk for all sides and relayed that the borders of Iraq have never exceeded the Mountain of Hamreen, therefore the borders of Kurdistan begin from the Hamreen Mountain. On this great historic day for Kurds, we reiterate that the key to solving the problems can only be through dialogue and returning to the Iraqi constitution. We pledge to be on the side of the people and communities of Kurdistan."

On February 9 of 17 years, and in his historic speech during a meeting of the Governing Council of Iraq, late President Jalal Talabani, Secretary-General of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and a member of the governing body of the Governing Council, called for the return of the Kurds and Turkmen who were expelled by Saddam Hussein's dictator regime from the city of Kirkuk and hold a referendum to determine its identity.

President Talabani proved through documents and maps that the city of Kirkuk is a Kurdish city and is part of the Kurdistan Region, but he stressed nevertheless that he does not demand its annexation to the Kurdistan Region right away, but in a way that preserves the brotherhood between its components and does justice to history and the legitimate rights of the Kurds.

Edited by: PUKmedia/PUKNOW