‘I lost a brother, lifetime friend’, KDP President Barzani says of Shaways’s death
The death of Rowsch Nouri Shaways is a “big loss for the Kurdistan Region and KDP,” said Barzani, adding, “for me, I lost a brother, lifetime friend, close companion, and co-struggler.”
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The president of the leading Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), Masoud Barzani, said on Monday that he had lost a “brother and lifetime friend” following the death of a prominent member of his party.
The death of Rowsch Nouri Shaways is a “big loss for the Kurdistan Region and KDP,” said Barzani, adding, “for me, I lost a brother, lifetime friend, close companion, and co-struggler.”
The family of Rowsch Shaways announced his death on Monday, saying the politician had died of an unspecified illness at a hospital in the Kurdistan Region’s capital Erbil.
“Dr. Rowch spent his life for the sake of just cause of Kurdish people and achieving the superior goals of the nation and defending its land and people,” Barzani said of the politician, who played significant roles in Kurdish and Iraqi politics.
Shaways was the prime minister of the KRG during the 1990s. In Baghdad, he held the post of deputy prime minister under three Iraqi premiers: Ibrahim Jaffari (2005-2006), Nouri al-Maliki (2006-2014), and Haider al-Abbadi (2014-2018). He had been the vice president of the country after the toppling of former dictator Saddam Hussein.
Barzani extended his condolences to Shaways’s family and fellow members of the KDP, according to the statement.
Born in Sulaimani in 1947, Shaways earned a PhD in engineering in Germany before joining the Kurdish armed struggle against successive Iraqi regimes.
He came from a family with a strong political background; his father Nouri Shaways was instrumental in the Kurdish resistance movement as well as the KDP.
Following the announcement of his death, both Kurdish and Iraqi political parties extended condolences to Shaways’s family.
“Rowch Nouri Shaways was a seasoned struggler and politician,” the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) wrote in a statement. Iraqi Parliament Speaker Mohammad Halbousi and his deputy likewise expressed their sadness over the loss of Shaways.
Editing by Joanne Stocker-Kelly
