On October 3, 2017 (August 14, 2017 in the lunar calendar), Iraq's first Kurdish president, Jalal Talabani, passed away. Picture: Former Iraqi President Jalal Talabani On October 3, 2017, Iraqi state television reported that former Iraqi president and leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Jalal Talabani, died in a German hospital on the same day at the age of 84. Talabani was born in 1933 in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq. As one of the founders and important leaders of the Kurdish Patriotic Union, Talabani had long led the Kurdish resistance against Saddam's regime. After the 2003 Iraq war, according to the political tacit agreement reached by all parties, the head of government was the majority Shiite, the speaker of the National Assembly was a Sunni, and the president was a Kurd. Talabani was elected president of Iraq in April 2005, becoming the first Kurdish president in Iraqi history. In December 2012, Talabani suffered a stroke due to arteriosclerosis, and then went to Germany for treatment. He returned to Iraq in July 2014. That same year, Talabani officially stepped down as president.