10-01-2010
Rudaw - The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Goran Movement will stop negative media campaign against each other starting today, according to Xandan news agency. The two factions will issue a joint statement today, the news agency reported. Massoud Barzani, president of Iraqi Kurdistan, presided a meeting with political parties this morning to discuss the political process and the recent tensions between the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and Goran Movement, Xandan news agency reported. The Kurdish political groups decided to provide more security to Gorran members and to end the media attacks. The Kurdish politicians are afraid this could damage the stability of Iraqi Kurdistan
Ahmed Warti, a representative from the Kurdistan Islamic Movement, said that they discussed the tensions between PUK and Goran and the necessity of putting an end to them, "a decision was made to stop all media campaign (from PUK and Goran) against each other staring tomorrow," he said. In recent months, the two factions have launched an aggressive negative media campaign each other since July 25 when the region held parliamentary elections. In the Gorran- and PUK-dominated media, there were personal attacks between the PUK-leader and Iraqi president Jalal Talabani and Gorran leader Nawshirwan Mustafa. Some members within both parties were dissatisfied, afraid it could hurt the image of both parties. The initiative was taken by the Kurdish Islamic Group leader Mohammed Ali Bapir who spoke with Nawshirwan Mustafa, went to Baghdad and took a letter of Talabani, to talk with the Kurdish president Barzani about this issue.
© Rudaw
