ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Region’s Prime Minister Masrour Barzani described the late politician Rowsh Nouri Rowsch and his family as “remarkable” figures in Kurdistan’s freedom movement.

In a condolence statement released on Monday, Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said that the death of Shaways “deeply saddened me” as he was a “brave politician, Peshmerga, commander, and well-known struggler of Kurdistan.”

“Dr. Rowsch and his patriotic family played an important and remarkable role in the Kurdish freedom movement,” said premier Barzani, adding that Kurdistan “lost a big struggler and seasoned politician.”

The family of 74-year-old 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.

“In all the responsibilities he held in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq, he was always a strong defender of the Kurdish people’s rights and was an example of loyalty,” added Barzani.

The prime minister extended his condolences to the leading Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leader Masoud Barzani, party leadership, members, and the family of the dead Kurdish politician.

Earlier in the day, Masoud Barzani said that he “lost a brother, lifetime friend, close companion, and co-struggler,” in his condolence message.

The death of Shaways is a “big loss for the Kurdistan Region and KDP,” Masoud Barzani added.

Born in Sulaimani in 1947, Shaways earned a PhD in engineering in Germany before joining the Kurdish armed struggle against successive Iraqi regimes and serving in key leadership roles in the Kurdistan Region and Iraqi politics. 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.