Quotes from Jalal Talabani

My door will always be open to those who genuinely renounce violence and seek peaceful accommodation into our nascent democracy.

The Western governments will be encouraged and persuaded to deal with the real representatives and listen to the real voice of the Kurdish people.

It is the American air protection, which safeguards the freedom enjoyed by the Kurdish region. It guarantees the cultural, health and civilizational progress made in Iraqi Kurdistan.

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

Our plan is to struggle against terrorism and have security for the country and help draft a democratic constitution as soon as possible.

Wishful thinking is one thing, and reality another.

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

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.

Trust is for lovers. In politics there are only converging interests.

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

Rather, it is through conciliation and compromise that we are building a fair Iraq, a just state for all its peoples.

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

We believe that an Iraqi founding national assembly, freely elected, must decide the future of Iraq.

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

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

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

All I wanted was to be a university teacher.

Conciliation is not capitulation, nor is compromise to be deemed equivalent to imbalanced concession.

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

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

Every human must take responsibility for his actions.

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

All I wanted was to be a university teacher.