1. Masoud Barzani is a Kurdish politician who has been leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party since 1979, and was President of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq from 2005 to 2017.
10 Facts About Masoud Barzani
1. 2.
Masoud Barzani has played a key role in the development of the Kurdistan Region polity since the Gulf War.
3.
Masoud Barzani became a member of the Iraqi Governing Council and was the president of the council in April 2004.
4.
Masoud Barzani was elected as the President of Iraqi Kurdistan by the Parliament of Iraqi Kurdistan in June 2005.
5.
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.
6.
On 7 June 2017, Masoud Barzani had announced that Kurdistan Region would hold an independence referendum on 25 September 2017.
7.
Masoud Barzani is still the president of the KDP and receives ambassadors.
8.
In July 2010 the opposition paper Rozhnama accused the Masoud Barzani-led KDP of pocketing large sums from illegal oil-smuggling.
9.
Masoud Barzani was charged with defamation and sentenced to thirty years' imprisonment.
10.
Masoud Barzani was released in 2006 following international pressure from Amnesty International, Reporters Without Borders, and the government of Austria.