ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iraqi authorities have approved the renaming of Sulaymaniyah International Airport to Jalal Talabani International Airport, honoring the late Kurdish leader and former president of Iraq.
The Ministry of Transport confirmed the change in a letter dated September 8, signed by Hussein Ali Hussein Jaber, director of the Iraqi Airports Authority. The decision follows a formal request from the Jalal Talabani Foundation (PJTF), a non-governmental organization dedicated to preserving Talabani’s legacy and supporting development initiatives across Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.
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Ambassador Dr. Mohammed Sabir, president of the PJTF, said the foundation had worked on the proposal for more than four years. “This decision ensures that Mam Jalal’s name will live on, just as airports in many countries bear the names of their presidents and national leaders,” he stated.
Sulaymaniyah International Airport, which spans 13.5 square kilometers, began construction in 2003 and was inaugurated in July 2005 by Talabani himself. Once the remaining legal steps are completed, the airport will officially operate under the new name, Jalal Talabani International Airport. A ceremony is expected to mark the change.
Jalal Talabani, known affectionately as Mam Jalal (Uncle Jalal), spent his life in the Kurdish struggle, beginning as a Peshmerga fighter in the 1960s before co-founding the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in 1975. He became Iraq’s first Kurdish president in 2005, serving during years of sectarian violence and working to ease divisions between Iraq’s political and ethnic groups.
Respected across the country’s communities, Talabani is remembered as both a negotiator and a unifying figure. He died in Berlin on October 3, 2017, five years after suffering a stroke.
The renaming of Sulaymaniyah International Airport to Jalal Talabani International Airport coincides with the eighth anniversary of his passing and serves as a lasting tribute to his leadership and service.
