PUK President Visits Sulaymaniyah Teachers Who Went on Hunger Strike

PUK President's Media

PUK President Bafel Jalal Talabani among the striking teachers.

Bafel Jalal Talabani, President of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), visited the teachers who went on a hunger strike against over a decade of late and unpaid salaries.

According to a statement by the PUK Political Bureau, President Bafel cut short his trip to the United States of America in order to closely pressure the regional and Baghdad governments to find a long-term solution to the salary issue.

A number of teachers have camped in front of a United Nations (UN) office in Sulaymaniyah and have been on a hunger strike for over a week, demanding a resolution to the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) decade-long inconsistent salary payments, with many months over the years still unpaid. 

The KRG's civil servants are yet to receive salaries of last December.

The striking teachers demand nationalisation (Tawtin) of their salaries, which is the Iraqi Government's  initiative that aims to pay the salaries of Iraq and the Kurdistan Region’s civil servants through bank accounts. 

The PUK's Political Bureau reaffirmed support to the striking teachers, stating that the PUK genuinely supports all of the rightful demands made by Kurdistan's teachers and all the other segments, regardless of their class or sector, who are fighting for salaries and a decent life for themselves. 

It also emphasised that the civil struggle and demands of the teachers are Kurdistani and Iraqi demands, and their resolution must also be nationwide, as well as accompanied by a joint concern from the regional and federal governments, because it is not legitimate to hold  the people as hostages of the anxiety from worrying about the arrival or non-arrival of an ordinary citizen entitlement.



PUKMEDIA