Barham Salih

Doctor Barham Salih MP
2nd Prime Minister of Iraqi Kurdistan
In office 28 October 2009 – 5 April 2012
President	Massoud Barzani
Deputy	Imad Ahmad Sayfour
Preceded by	Nechervan Idris Barzani
Succeeded by	Nechervan Idris Barzani
Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq
In office 22 April 2006 – 20 August 2009[1]
President	Jalal Talebani
Prime Minister	Nouri al-Maliki
Preceded by	Rowsch Shaways
Succeeded by	Rowsch Shaways
Interim Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq
In office 28 June 2004 – 3 May 2005
President	Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer
Prime Minister	Iyad Allawi
Preceded by	Coalition Provisional Authority
Succeeded by	Rowsch Shaways
3rd Prime Minister of PUK-controlled Kurdistan
In office 21 January 2001 – 4 July 2004
President	Jalal Talebani
Preceded by	Kosrat Rasul Ali
Succeeded by	Omar Fattah Hussein (acting)
Personal details
Born	(1960-09-12) 12 September 1960 Sulaymaniyah, Iraq
Nationality	Kurdish
Political party	Patriotic Union of Kurdistan
Spouse(s)	Dr. Sarbagh Salih (women’s rights activist)[2]
Residence	Erbil
Alma mater	Cardiff University University of Liverpool
Religion	Sunni Islam
Website	www.barhamsalih.net

Barham Ahmed Salih (Kurdish: به‌رهه‌م ئه‌حمه‌د ساڵح or Berhem Salih; Arabic: برهم أحمد صالح‎; born 1960) is an Iraqi Kurdish politician. He is the former prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraqi Kurdistan and a former deputy prime minister of the Federal government of Iraq. He is married and has a daughter who attended Princeton University and a son who graduated from King's Academy in Madaba, Jordan and who currently attends Columbia.

Early life

Dr. Barham Salih was born in 1960 in the city of Sulaymaniyah in Iraqi Kurdistan. He was arrested in 1979 by the Baathist regime twice on charges of involvement in the Kurdish national movement by taking some photos of protestors in Sulaimaniya city and spent 43 days in detention in a Special Investigation Commission prison in Kirkuk where he was tortured.^[3] Once release he finished high school honors and was ranked the first in Kurdistan and the third in Iraq with a grade of 96.5%. He left Iraq for the United Kingdom because of continuous persecution.

Deputy Secretary General of Patriotic Union of Kurdistan

Dr. Barham Salih joined the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in late 1976 where he became a member of the PUK department of Europe, and was in charge of PUK foreign relations in London. In addition to the political struggle, he finished his university studies and received a Bachelors degree in Civil Engineering and Construction from the Cardiff University in 1983. He continued to study and obtained a Doctorate degree in Statistics and Computer Applications in Engineering from the University of Liverpool in 1987.

He was elected a member of the PUK leadership at the first party conference when Iraqi Kurdistan was liberated from the Ba'ath Party following the first Gulf War. He was assigned the task of heading the PUK Office in the United States.

After the fall of the Baathist regime, he became Deputy Prime Minister in the Interim Iraqi Government (in mid-2004), Minister of Planning in the Transitional Government (in 2005), and Deputy Prime Minister in the elected Iraqi Government (Nouri al-Maliki’s Cabinet) in charge of the economic portfolio and Head of the Economic Committee. Representing the Iraqi Government, he launched the International Compact with Iraq – an initiative of mutual commitment between Iraq and the international community to help Iraq in meeting its obligations of “building a prosperous, democratic and federal country, in peace with itself and with the region and the world”.

Salih appeared on The Colbert Report on June 10, 2009, broadcast from Baghdad, and was interviewed by the host. He praised the U.S. military for freeing Iraq, and acknowledged that many Kurds desire independence.

Prime Minister: Kurdistan Regional Government

Barham Salih spearheaded the Kurdistani List in the Iraqi Kurdistan legislative election, 2009. The list won 59 of 111 seats. He succeeded Nechervan Idris Barzani as the Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government. His term was marked by a turbulence time with the rise of an opposition(Movement for Change) to challenge the government while his own party was scrambling to stay together after losing the stronghold city of Sulaymaniyah. He survived the first motion of no confidence in Iraqi Kurdistan following the 2011 Kurdish protests in Iraq. He signed the first mayor oil contract with Exxon Mobil after drafting and amending a new oil law.^[4] He relinquished the post of Prime Minister to Nechervan Idris Barzani on the 17 January 2012 as part of a political agreement between the ruling KDP-PUK coalition^[5]

References

External links

• Dr. Barham Salih's official website
• Dr. Barham Salih on Facebook
• Dr. Barham Salih on Twitter
• Dr. Barham Salih on YouTube