Talabani Returns to
Kurdistan After Medical Treatment For Collapse
SULAIMANI, (Southern
Kurdistan) - President Jalal Talabani returned to his Kurdish hometown Wednesday
from a Jordanian hospital 17 days after collapsing in northern Iraq.
Talabani, 73, flew
directly to Sulaimani, where thousands of Kurds, some in traditional dress,
welcomed him home.
“You, heroic people of
Kurdistan, I greet you warmly and I thank you for your kind feelings,” Talabani
told supporters.
News of Talabani’s
arrival brought thousands of people to the streets. Motorists honked horns,
played loud music and plastered their cars with portraits of the president.
Many waved the flag of
Iraq’s Kurdish region, while others carried pictures of the former guerrilla
leader.
“I want to pledge anew
that I will always be the Peshmerga (Kurdish militiaman) you have known me to be
and to continue to struggle to achieve all your goals in a democratic, federal
and united Iraq,” he told the cheering crowd.
In a brief address in
Kurdish and Arabic, he thanked King Abdullah II of Jordan for what he said was
the excellent care he received in Amman.
A banner hoisted outside
the headquarters of Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, or PUK, said: “Your
return means new life to Kurdistan and a federal Iraq.”
Talabani, a Sunni Kurd,
collapsed on Feb. 25 in Sulaimani, 160 miles northeast of Baghdad. He was
unconscious as he was rushed to a local hospital, but recovered enough to be
flown to Jordan, where he was admitted to King Hussein Medical Center in Amman.
Doctors said he suffered
from exhaustion and dehydration caused by lung and sinus infections.
Earlier this month,
Talabani said his illness had perhaps been useful because it ensured that he
received a full medical checkup.
“I came for a simple
procedure but the brothers here carried out a complete checkup,” he told
Jordan’s official Petra news agency. He is to return to work later this week, he
said.
