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Khanaqin Hanekin
a view of Khanaqin a view of Khanaqin
Khanaqin Khanaqin's location inside Iraq
Coordinates: 34°20′N 45°23′E / 34.333°N 45.383°E / 34.333; 45.383Coordinates: 34°20′N 45°23′E / 34.333°N 45.383°E / 34.333; 45.383
Country	Iraq
Governorate	Diyala Governorate
Elevation	602 ft (183 m)
Population (1990)
• Total	60,800
	[1]

Khanaqin (Kurdish خانه قين,Xaneqîn Arabic خانقين, also transliterated as Khanakin, Xanaqin) is a city in Iraq. It is located at 34.3°N, 45.4°E in the Diyala Governorate, near the Iranian border on a tributary of the Diyala River. Khanaqin is the administrative capital of the Khanaqin District, which comprises several cities, such as As-Sadiyah and Jalula, as well as hundreds of villages. The city is divided into two parts by the Alwand River, this river has played a significant role in land cultivation and in establishment of a strong rural society in the area. The river is considered by the people of Khanaqin as a symbol for their unity and Kurdish identity.

People[link]

The majority of people of the city of Khanaqin are Kurds ^[2] (although the province of Diyala has an Arab majority). They speak mainly the Kalhuri branch of southern Kurdish dialects which is Indo-European. These dialects are closely related to each other and called Feyli or Xanaqini by the locals (see southern Kurdish).

Climate[link]

History[link]

Khanaqin's original name was Du-Khanag and was a part of the Kurdistan for centuries. The name Du-Khānaqa (دو خانقا) means "Two Sufi Houses" in Kurdish. After the Arabic invasion of Kurdistan, the occupiers Arabized many of the local names and also omitted the word du (two) from this name and attached the Arabic suffix of dualis after the name, hence Du-khānaqa became Khānaq-ayn and Khanaqin.

During the Arabization policy of the Iraqi Ba'th regime Sunni Arabs were settled in the city and at least 9,000 feyli were killed and a larger number were forcibly removed and sent to southern Iraq or the Kurdish controlled north.^[4] The Iraqi Property Claims Commission has an office in Khanaqin to deal with the land disputes this policy generated now that feyli have been allowed to return to their homes.

In 9/6/2006 all the members of the city council of Khanaqin demanded that the city be separated from the control of the Diyala governorate and be allowed to join the Autonomous Kurdistan region. In December 2007 a referendum was scheduled to be held about adding the city and its district to the Kurdish controlled north. However, this referendum has been postponed for up to six months, and then indefinitely.

Oil fields[link]

The Naft Khana oil field is capable of producing up to 16,000 barrels per day (2,500 m³/d) of sweet light crude from an oil reserve that is also being tapped by Iran. Repairs to the oil plant were completed in March 2006 which restored it to its pre-war condition. The main elements affected were the gas-oil separation facility and the wet crude facility (which separates oil from water). Trucks currently transport oil to the Al Daura refinery in Baghdad. A 20,000-barrel-per-day (3,200 m³/d) oil refinery has been approved for construction in Khanaqin and oil from Naft Khana will be sent there when it is complete. During the seventies of the last century the intensive Arabization- and Deportation-policy of the Iraqi regime Arabs were settled in this oil-rich city and all Kurdish refinery Workers and their only Kurdish Engineer (Mr. Sheik Kader Sheik Rahem Talabani) were deported to West of Iraq.

Iraqi elections 2009[link]

In the Iraqi governorate elections, 2009 the Kurdistan Alliance Bloc won more than 55,000 votes, leaving the rest of the opposition parties with less than 1,000 together. This was probably because many Kurdish parties had invested heavily in the entire Diyala province and promised even more wealth as well as taking care of issues related to the feyli.^[5]

Famous people from Khaneqin[link]

• Leyla Qasim (among the first female peshmerga murdered by Baath regime).
• Jabar Farman (PUK politician).
• Mela Baxtiar (major PUK politician).
• Emad Ahmed Saifoor (minister in the Kurdistan regional government).
• Abbas Mahmood Mohammed Writer and journalist Editor in Chief and the concessionaire (BANAN) its first newspaper popular in Khanaqin.
• Azad Khaneqini (Kurdish singer).
• Sheikh Abdul-Wahab Talabani
• Sheikh Mustafa Talabani
• Ali Beg Issa
• Sheikh Rahim Talabani
• Abdul- Rahman Beg Jaff
• Saleh Rustem Khan
• Aziz Pishtiwan
• Ismail Rashid Dalawy
• Ali Khan
• Karim Mamakhan (Karim Asmar)
• Salam Abdulla Ibrahim (writer and journalist)
• Adnan Aziz (politician)
• Aziz Mela Hassan (PUK politician)
• Said Talib Hassan (President of the Municipal Council of Dyala Governorate)

Dr Khalid A Ahmed. Director of Khanaqin general hospital.

References[link]

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