A major result of
Saddam Hussein's defeat in the
Gulf War (1991) and
Operation Provide Comfort was the ultimate establishment of Kurdish control over northern Iraq in 1992, he was given a
Turkish passport by the then-president
Turgut Özal in order to help Barzani travel freely. Just a few months after the creation of the autonomous zone,
free elections (a first in Iraq) were held in 1992. The two main Kurdish parties, namely Barzani's KDP and the
Jalal Talabani-led
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), split the vote, and subsequently split the government ministries evenly. In May 1994, however,
fighting broke out between the
Peshmerga of the PUK and of the KDP. On 31 August 1996 Barzani called on the assistance of
Saddam Hussein's regime to help him combat the PUK, which was receiving Iranian assistance. With the aid of the Iraqi army, the KDP drove the PUK from Iraqi Kurdistan's major cities. The PUK eventually regrouped and retook
Suleimani and parts of
Hawler province. An end to the civil war was brokered in 1998 in the Washington Peace Accords, leaving the Kurdish zone divided between the KDP in the Northwest and PUK in the Southeast. After the
invasion of Iraq in 2003, the KDP and PUK gradually established a unified regional government. Barzani became a member of the
Iraqi Governing Council and was the president of the council in April 2004. He was elected as the President of Iraqi Kurdistan by the
Parliament of Iraqi Kurdistan in June 2005. talks to reporters as he welcomes Masoud Barzani to the
Oval Office at the
White House, Tuesday, 25 October 2005 As President of the
Kurdistan Region, Barzani has made official visits to several countries and met dignitaries of the likes of US President
George W. Bush, UK Prime Minister
Tony Blair, the
Pope at
the Vatican, the Italian
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in
Rome and
King Abdullah of
Saudi Arabia in
Riyadh. In July 2009, in the
first direct elections for the presidency of the autonomous Kurdistan Region, Masoud Barzani was reelected as president by a popular ballot, receiving 69.6% of the votes. The elections were closely monitored by international observers and the Iraqi Electoral Commission. In August 2013, after the expiration of his 8-year term, the
parliament extended his presidency for another two years, and he continued in the role even beyond this extension. Masoud Barzani was one of the eight candidates shortlisted in the
Time magazine's 2014
Person of the Year, for his efforts to push for
Kurdish independence with the ongoing fight against the
Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
2017 independence referendum in January 2019 On 7 June 2017, Barzani had announced that
Kurdistan Region would hold an
independence referendum on 25 September 2017. On the day following the
referendum, 26 September 2017, he announced that the referendum had been a success in seeking independence, and called on neighboring countries to be open to future dialogue. The Iraqi government rejected the results of the referendum. On 15 October, units of the Iraqi security forces and
Popular Mobilization Forces,
entered the Kurdish-held city of
Kirkuk, forcing a withdrawal of the Peshmerga and prompting similar withdrawals across other contested cities in northern Iraq. Following the failure of the referendum and the Peshmerga's
territorial losses, Barzani announced on 29 October that he would step down as the President of the Kurdistan Region. He is still the president of the KDP and, , was still receiving ambassadors. ==Criticism==