Kurdistan's Interior Minister, Karim Zingari, who belongs to the ruling coalition between the Kurdish Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), insisted that international observers saw to it that the process went smoothly.

VOA: standard.2009.07.26

Mr.Talabani,who is an ethnic Kurd, and whose Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party (PUK) is the smaller of Kurdistan's two major parties, has been mediating between other Kurdish leaders to put an end to the terror activities of the Kurdish Worker's Party (PKK), which have long angered Ankara.

VOA: standard.2009.03.23

Goldberg interviewed several prisoners held by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of two rival Kurdish factions in the north.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Freedom Flame 2013

But the old spoils system, run by the KDP and the Talabanis' Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), may be starting to break down.

ECONOMIST: Iraq��s Kurdish election

The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party have been in control in much of northern Iraq since the end of that war.

CNN: Iraqi Kurds want to keep semi-autonomy, leader says