He is married to the daughter of Mala Bakhiyar, who is considered the brain of PUK: Who is Bafel Talabani?
Control of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), based in Sulaymaniyah in the Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government, passed to BafelTalabani, who was experienced in military and intelligence terms and was educated in the West.
Bafel Jalal Husamuddin Talabani was born in Baghdad in 1973. Kubad Talabani, the brother of Bafel, the first son of Jalal Talabani and Hero Ibrahim Ahmed, also serves as the Vice President of the KRG.
According to his official biography on the KYB website, Bafel Talabani spent his childhood and early youth in England, in the house of his grandfather Ibrahim Ahmed.
Bafel Jalal Talabani (born 1 January 1973), is an Iraqi Kurdish politician and current leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). He is the older son of former PUK leader Jalal Talabani.
He served as secretary to President Talabani while he was alive. He participated in a military training program in France in 1996. He attended Special Forces training in the UK in 1998 and in the USA in 2000. He has conducted research on political strategy in both the US and the UK. Then, he took on the task of supervising counter-terrorism efforts in KRG with the anti-terrorism agency he founded. Following the death of Chairman Mam Jalal, he became prominent in efforts to reunify the PUK and sought to reconcile disparate voices within and beyond the party.
He is the son of Celal Talabani, Secretary General of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Kahraman İbrahim Ahmed. He is the older brother of Kubad Talabani and the cousin of Lahur Talabani. He is married to the daughter of Mala Bakhiyar, who is considered the mastermind of PUK.
Bafel Talabani did not assume a leading position in the party before the 4th PUK Congress, other than the roles he played in the election process of the Iraqi Presidents. At the 4th Congress on February 18, 2020, he was appointed PUK chairman with the support of the majority of the Leadership Council members. On August 28, 2022, he took office as the sole chairman of the PUK with the votes of the majority of the Leadership Council.
Bafel Celal Talabani was appointed president for the second time at the PUK Fifth Congress.