Speaker, Kurdistan Parliament

Dr Kamal Kirkuki is Speaker of the Kurdistan Parliament and a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) political bureau.

Born in Kirkuk in 1954, he was a member of the high school students’ union and soon after joined the KDP. He was imprisoned in Baghdad for six months at the age of 18 for his political activities.

He worked for the KDP in Haji Umran (1972) and entered medical school before he abandoned his studies to return to the Kurdish national movement (1973). After the 1975 Algiers Accord between Iraq and Iran and the collapse of the Kurdish resistance, he was involved in the reorganisation of the resistance and was in charge of Peshmerga affairs in Erbil, Suleimaniah and Kirkuk. He was twice seriously injured (1976 and 1979).

Dr Kirkuki was later head of the KDP’s 1st Branch in Dohuk (1989) and Deputy Minister for Humanitarian Affairs in the KRG (1992-1993). In 1992 he was in the electoral commission for the Bahdinan area during the first parliamentary elections.

He has also represented the KDP in France (1996-1998), the US and Canada (1998-2000), and the UK (2001-2002).

He was involved in the planning for the liberation of Kirkuk with the coalition in 2002-2003, and was a member of the first and second Kirkuk provincial councils (2003-2004). From 2005 to 2009, he was Deputy Speaker of the Kurdistan Parliament (previously called the Kurdistan National Assembly up to 2009) and became Speaker following parliamentary elections in July 2009.