Kurdish Democratic Party - Definition and Overview

The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) is a Kurdish political party led by Massoud Barzani. It is primarily a tribally-based and military group, based near Iraq's northern border with Turkey.

Rebelling against the Iraqi government in the aftermath of the first Gulf War, the KDP became perhaps the single most influential Iraqi anti-Saddam group. Its peshmerga, or militia fighters, were able to operate with relative impunity in the no-fly zone of northern Iraq.

The KDP has jointly administered northern Iraq (which the Kurds call the free Kurdistan, because of its semi-independent status). The KDP became the leading party in the Kurdistan Regional Government in Erbil. The other main Iraqi Kurdish party, the leftist Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, split with the KDP and established a de facto government of their own in the city of Suleymaniya.

Accepting the assistance of the Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein, the KDP fought a civil war against its rivals, the PUK, who in turn accepted the assistance of Iran.

Both Kurdish groups fought alongside the so-called Coalition of the Willing to topple Hussein's regime in 2003. More recently, the KDP and PUK have united to form a joint list, the Democratic Patriotic Alliance of Kurdistan, under which to contest the 2005 Iraqi elections.

See also: Ahmed Ibrahim