Jalal Talabani Quotes

Wishful thinking is one thing, and reality another.

We must acknowledge that for scores of years the Iraqis have offered martyrs and victims but have not been able to change the regime.

Military confrontation is not a suitable alternative in confronting terror and current security threats.

All I wanted was to be a university teacher.

I believe the democratic transformation in Iraq will lead to change in Middle East.

I shall stand for freedom of thought and expression in a place where it has been trampled and penalized.

Justice for the major perpetrators cannot be separated from the vindication of the rights of the individual victim.

A military coup needs a sacrifice and courage that you can’t find in an army without morale.

The justice of our cause must be reflected in the manner in which we rectify the crimes of the past.

Self-determination could mean independence, confederacy, federal and autonomy.

Iraq is not occupied, but there are foreign forces on its soil, which is different.

The Kurdish people welcome the no-fly zone protection, contrary to the Iraqi regime that is against it.

Our gratitude to the American people is immense and we should never be embarrassed to express it.

I must tell you that I am committed, as the president of Iraq, to benchmarks and to do our best to achieve some progress forward for national reconciliation.

As president of Iraq, I shall strive to represent the diversity of a country that has too often in the past denied difference.

The Kurdish people have the right of self-determination like every other nation in the world.

Talabani and Al-Maliki want to keep their seats for ever. Talabani forgets that the side which brought him to power was the United States and it brought him by rigging the elections.

Democracies, unlike dictatorships, are forgiving and generous, but they cannot survive unless they fight.

We must provide all kinds of freedom, personal and economic, to all Iraqis. I will fight for that.

Every human must take responsibility for his actions.

Human rights and individual liberties, including religious freedom, will be at the heart of the new Iraq.

This will be Iraq for all without discrimination among Iraqi citizens, or ethnic or sectarian discrimination.

We need to make a distinction between misled Iraqis, those who believe that they are carrying weapons to liberate Iraq from what they call occupation, and criminal gangs that came from outside and wants to wage a deadly war on the Iraqi people, killing women and children in mosques and churches.