Kirkuk

Friday, 28 December 2012

Deadly car bomb attacks in Kirkuk - no comment

Hêza Piştîwanî Peshmerge gihişte Kerkûkê (Kirkuk 24.11.2012)

Kirkuk city of Kurdistan. the place that we fight for it. un seen. new 2012.

euronews reporter - Kirkuk: financing the future

Kirkuk Night in Toronto 10-03-2012 part 1

Peshmerga Kurdistan Kirkuk پێشمهرگه 2012

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Afaq District
Afaq District is a district of the Al Muthanna Governorate, Iraq.

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Ain Sifni
Ain Sifni (Classical Syriac: ܥܝܢ ܣܦܢܐ‎, Arabic: عين سفني‎) is an Iraqi town and capital of Shekhan District in the Nineveh plains area of the Ninewah governorate in Iraq.
It's mainly populated by Yazidis and Assyrians.
Shekhan District
Coordinates: 36°41′39″N 43°21′00″E / 36.694204°N 43.350134°E / 36.694204; 43.350134

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Al Anbar Governorate
Anbar Province (Arabic: الأنبار‎; al-’Anbār) (or Al Anbar Governorate) is the largest province in Iraq geographically. Encompassing much of the country's western territory, it shares borders with Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. The provincial capital is Ramadi, other important cities include Fallujah and Haditha.
Before 1976 the province was known as Ramadi; before 1962, it was known as Dulaim. in 1976 it was renamed Al Anbar Province.
All the inhabitants of the province are Sunni Muslims and mostly from the Dulaim tribe.
The name of the province is from the Arabic انبار, ’Anbār, which means "granaries," in Arabic as this region was the primary entrepot on the western borders of Lakhmid Kingdom.
Geographically, Anbar province consider part of the Arabian Peninsula. The region's geography is a combination of steppe and true desert, characterised by a desert climate, low rainfall and a large variation in temperature between day and night. Summer temperatures rise to 42 degrees Celsius, whilst in the winter average lows reach 9 degrees Celsius. The northwesterly and southwesterly winds are sometimes to a maximum speed of 21 m / sec. Average rainfall in winter to 115mm.^{[citation needed]}

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Al Istiqlal District
Al Istiqlal District is a district of the Baghdad Governorate, Iraq.

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Al Tarmia District
Al Tarmia District is a district of the Baghdad Governorate, Iraq.

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Amadiya
Amadiya (also spelled "Amediyah", "Amadia", "Amedi", "al-Amadiyah" or other variations), is a small Assyrian and Kurdish town along a tributary to the Great Zab in the Dahuk Governorate of Iraqi Kurdistan. The town is perched on a mountain, formerly only accessible by a narrow stairway cut into the rock. The history of this city goes back to 3000 years B.C. to the time of ancient Assyria, since it has always been a strategic place as it is built on the flat top of a mountain. For several centuries, after the expulsion of the caliphs from Baghdad, it was ruled by a pasha, a prince who was from the royal Abbas family, reputed to be one of the richest rulers in the region.
The region in which the city rests is also believed to have been the home of the Magi or priests of Ancient Persia. Amedia is believed to be the home of some of the most significant Magi priests, the Biblical Magi or the "Three Wise Men", who made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to see Jesus Christ shortly after his birth.
There are also ruins from the Assyrian era and ruins of a synagogue and a church in the small town. At the turn of the 19th century, the population already numbered 6,000, of whom 2,500 were Kurds, 1,900 Jews and 1,600 Assyrians.

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Amara District
Amara District is a district of the Maysan Governorate, Iraq.

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Amarah
Amarah (Arabic: العمارة‎; BGN: Al ‘Amārah; also spelled Amara), is a city in southeastern Iraq, located on a low ridge next to the Tigris River waterway south of Baghdad about 50 km from the border with Iran. It lies at the northern tip of the marshlands between the Tigris and Euphrates.
Predominantly Shia Muslim, it had a population of about 340,000 as of 2002 and about 420,000 as of 2005. It is the administrative capital of the Maysan province. A major trading center for the surrounding agricultural area, it is known for woven goods and silverware.
The city was founded in the 1860s as an Ottoman military outpost from which the empire tried to control the warring Banu Lam and Al Bu Muhammad tribes.
In 1915 Amarah was captured by the British. Before the revolution in 1958 Amarah was known for its feudal system with local estate-holders maintaining private militias.
During the eight year Iran–Iraq War, Amarah and the surrounding province became the sight of several battles, notably Operation Before the Dawn launched by Iran. Since the Baghdad-Basra highway cut through the province, Iran targeted the area due to its strategic significance to the Iraqis.

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Anah
Anah, or Ana, is an Iraqi town on the Euphrates river, approximately mid-way between the Gulf of Alexandretta and the Persian Gulf.
It is called Hanat in a Babylonian letter, (about 2200 BC), a-na-at by the scribes of Tukulti-Ninurta (885 BC), and An-at by the scribe of Assur-nasir-pal (879 B.C.), Anatho (Isidore Charax), Anatha (Ammianus Marcellinus) by Greek and Latin writers in the early Christian centuries, Ana (sometimes, as if plural, Anat) by Arabic writers. The name has been connected with that of the deity Anat. Descendants with origins from Anah are commonly referred to as "Alanie", literally meaning "the one from Anah" in Arabic.
Whilst Anah has thus retained its name for forty-two centuries the site is variously described. Most early writers concur in placing it on an island; so Tukulti-Ninurta II, Assur-nasir-pal, Isidore, Ammianus Marcellinus, Ibn Serapion, al-Istakri, Abulfeda and al-Karamani. Ammianus calls it a munimentum, Theophylactus Simocattato 'Anathon frourion, Zosimus a frourion, opp. Fathusai, which may be the Beth(th) ina of Ptolemy (v. 19).Leonhart Rauwolff, in AD 1574, found it "divided ... into two towns," the one "Turkish," "so surrounded by the river, that you cannot go into it but by boats," the other, much larger, on the Arabian side of the river.

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Anah District
Anah is a district in Al Anbar Governorate, Iraq. It is centred around the town of Anah.

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Aqrah
Aqrah (Kurdish Akrê, ئاکرێ; Syriac: ܥܩܪܐ ʻaqra) is a city and district in Iraq which is located in the Ninawa Governorate. The total area of the district is (6418) km2. It was formed in 1877 by the Ottoman Empire and the city of Aqrah became the center of the district.
The population is mainly Kurds, but with an Assyrian minority. Defend International President Widad Akrawi, the Kurdish film director, Hiner Saleem, and the Iraqi Ambassador to Vienna, Tariq Aqrawi, were born in this city.
Coordinates: 36°44′29″N 43°53′36″E / 36.74139°N 43.89333°E / 36.74139; 43.89333

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Aqrah District
Akre District is a district of the Ninawa Governorate, Iraq.

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Ar Rutba District
Ar Rutba is a district in Al Anbar Governorate, Iraq. It is centred around the town of Ar Rutba.

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Babil Governorate
Babylon Province (Arabic: بابل Bābil‎) (or Babil Governorate) is a province in central Iraq. It has an area of 5,603 square kilometres (2,163 sq mi), with an estimated population of 1,385,783 people in 2003. The provincial capital is the city of Hillah, which lies opposite the ancient city of Babylon (بابل), on the Euphrates river.
The ancient city of Babylon in present-day Babylon Province was the capital of ancient Babylonia, situated on the Euphrates river south of Baghdad, Iraq.
The city was occupied from the 3rd millennium BC but became important early in the 2nd millennium under the kings of the First Dynasty of Babylon. The sixth king of this dynasty was Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC) who made Babylon the capital of a vast empire and is best remembered for his code of laws.
The city achieved pre-eminence when Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562 BC) extended the Babylonian Empire over most of Western Asia.

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Badra District
Badra District is a district of the Wasit Governorate, Iraq.

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Baghdad
Baghdad (Arabic: بغداد‎, Baġdād, IPA: [bæɣˈdæːd]) is the capital of Republic of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Province. The population of Baghdad as of 2011 is approximately 7,216,040, making it the largest city in Iraq, the second largest city in the Arab World (after Cairo, Egypt), and the second largest city in Western Asia (after Tehran, Iran).
Located along the Tigris River, the city was founded in the 8th century and became the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate. Within a short time of its inception, Baghdad evolved into a significant cultural, commercial, and intellectual center for the Islamic World. This in addition to housing several key academic institutions (e.g. House of Wisdom) garnered the city a worldwide reputation as the "Center of Learning". Throughout the High Middle Ages, Baghdad was considered to be the largest city in the world with an estimated population of 1,200,000 people. The city was largely destroyed at the hands of the Mongol Empire in 1258, resulting in a decline that would linger through many centuries due to frequent plagues and multiple successive empires. With the recognition of Iraq as an independent state (formerly the British Mandate of Mesopotamia) in 1938, Baghdad gradually regained some of its former prominence as a significant center of Arabic culture.

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Baghdad Governorate
Baghdad Province (Arabic: محافظة بغداد‎ Muḥāfaẓät Baġdād) (or Baghdad Governorate) is the capital province of Iraq. It includes the City of Baghdad, as well as the surrounding metropolitan area, which includes Al-Mada'in (Seleucia-Ctesiphon), Taji, Mahmudiya District and Abu Ghraib District. The province has a total area of 4,071 square kilometres (1,572 sq mi), the smallest of the 18 provinces of Iraq but the most populous.
Baghdad Province is one of the most developed parts of Iraq, with a better infrastructure than much of Iraq, though heavily damaged from the invasion in 2003 and continuing violence today. It also has one of the highest rates for terrorism in the world with bombs, suicide attackers, and hit squads operating in the city.
Baghdad has at least 12 bridges spanning the Tigris river - joining the east and west of the city. The Sadr City district of the capital is the most densely populated area in Iraq.
Baghdad is governed by the Baghdad Provincial Council. Representatives to the Baghdad Provincial Council were elected by their peers from the lower councils of the administrative districts in Baghdad in numbers proportional to the population of the various districts that were represented.

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Baiji District
Baiji District is a district of the Salah ad Din Governorate, Iraq.

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Bakhdida
Bakhdida (Classical Syriac: ܒܓܕܝܕܐ‎, Arabic:بخديدا) IPA: [bɑχdɛːdə], also known as Baghdeda, Qaraqosh, Karakosh or Al-Hamdaniya, is an Assyrian town in the northern Iraq Ninawa Governorate, located about 32 km southeast of the city of Mosul amid agricultural lands, close to the ruins of the ancient Assyrian cities Nimrud and Nineveh. It is connected to the main city of Mosul by two main roads. The first runs through the towns of Bartella and Karamles which connects to the city of Arbil as well. The second which was gravel until the 1990s when it was paved, is direct to Mosul.
The name Bakhdida (Syriac: ܒܝܬ ܟܘܕܝܕܐ; Beth Khdeda), is of uncertain origin and when translated from the Syriac language it has two components Beth which means "land" or "town", and Khodida which could either mean "Youths" in Aramaic or "God's gift" in Old Persian. Some also believe that Bakhdida comes from the Aramaic Beth Deta, meaning "Land of the Kite". During the Ottoman Turks rule, the Turkish name Qara Qoş (Turkish for black bird) came into use. Finally, and as part of the Arabization policy in the 1970s, the Iraqi Ba'ath government changed the village name to Hamdaniyya, naming it after the Arab tribe of "Banu Hamdan", who ruled Mosul in the middle ages.

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Balad District
Balad District is a district of the Salah ad Din Governorate, Iraq.

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Baladrooz District
Baladrooz District is a district of the Diyala Governorate, Iraq.

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Basrah District
Basrah District is a district of the Basra Governorate, Iraq.

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Ceyhan
Ceyhan (pronounced [dʒeːˈhan]) is a city in southeast Turkey and with 105,000 (2010) inhabitants (150,000 in the metropolitan area) it is the second largest city of Adana Province after the capital Adana. Ceyhan is the transportation hub for Middle Eastern, Central Asian and Russian oil and natural gas. It is situated on the Ceyhan River, from which it takes its name, in central Çukurova, 43 km (27 mi) east of Adana. The Ceyhan River is dammed at Aslantas to provide flood control and irrigation for the lower river basin around Ceyhan.
Ceyhan's marine transport terminal is the Mediterranean terminus of the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan pipeline (the "BTC") which brings crude oil from the landlocked Caspian Sea across Azerbaijan and Georgia, and entering Turkey in the northeast. The pipeline was completed in May 2005. The terminal contains seven storage tanks, a jetty capable of loading two tankers of up to 300,000 metric tons deadweight (DWT) simultaneously, metering facilities, a waste water treatment plant and vapor incineration ("burn-off") facilities.

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Chamchamal
Chamchamal (Arabic جمجمال, Kurdish: Çemçemall چه‌مچه‌ماڵ) is a Kurdish city located to the east of Kirkuk and west of Sulaymaniyah in Iraqi Kurdistan.
The city's population of 200,000 is relatively young.
Chamchamal is the most ancient place where there is a record of wheat being grown. Traces of wheat production, dating from 700.000 years ago, have been discovered in Charmoo, a village near Chamchamal.^{[citation needed]}
Coordinates: 35°32′N 44°50′E / 35.533°N 44.833°E / 35.533; 44.833

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Chamchamal District
Chamchamal District is a district of the Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Iraq.

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Daquq
Daquq or Daquqa, Dakuk, Daqooq, Tavuk or Tawuq (Arabic,داقوق) is a historic town in Iraq south of Kirkuk. It is the capital of Daquq District, one of the four Districts of Kirkuk Governorate. It lies just south of Taza.
Daquq is sometimes referred to as the earliest Turkmen settlement in Iraq.
Abul-Fath Mohammad bin Annaz, founder of the Annazid dynasty, temporarily seized Daquq from Banu Oqayl in 998 AD.
Up to the end of the 14th century AD, Daquq was for the most part administratively and economically superior to neighbouring Kirkuk.
The majority of the 50,000 inhabitants are Turkmen Shia. The town is known for its tea and famous mosque. It is situated on the Daquq river, of which the floodwaters in spring are said to join the Tigris.

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Daquq District
Daquq District is a district of the Kirkuk Governorate, Iraq.

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Darbandokeh District
Darbandokeh District is a district of the Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Iraq.

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Diwaniya District
Diwaniya District is a district of the Al Muthanna Governorate, Iraq.

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Dohuk Governorate
Dohuk Province (Arabic: دهوك Dahūk‎, Kurdish: Dihok) (or Duhok Governorate) is one of the provinces of Iraq. It is in the north of the country in the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan. Its capital is the city of Duhok. It also includes the city of Zakho, which has at various times served as a checkpoint for the border with Turkey. Prior to 1976 it was part of Ninawa Governorate, which was called Mosul Province.
Duhok was divided into four Districts and has now 7 districts:

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Dokan District
Dokan District is a district of the Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Iraq.

wn.com/Dokan_District
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain (Welsh: Prydain Fawr, Scottish Gaelic: Breatainn Mhòr, Cornish: Breten Veur) is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, the largest European island, and the largest of the British Isles. With a population of about 60.0 million people in mid-2009, it is the third most populous island in the world, after Java and Honshū. Great Britain is surrounded by over 1,000 smaller islands and islets. The island of Ireland lies to its west. Politically, Great Britain may also refer to the island itself together with a number of surrounding islands which comprise the territory of England, Scotland and Wales.
All of the island is territory of the sovereign state of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and most of the United Kingdom's territory is in Great Britain. Most of England, Scotland, and Wales are on the island of Great Britain, as are their respective capital cities: London, Edinburgh, and Cardiff.

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Haditha District
Haditha is a district in Al Anbar Governorate, Iraq. It is centred around the city of Haditha.

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Halabja
Halabja (Kurdish: هه‌ڵه‌بجه‎ Helebce), is a Kurdish town in Northern Iraq, located about 150 miles (240 km) north-east of Baghdad and 8–10 miles from the Iranian border.
The town lies at the base of what is often referred to as the greater Hewraman region stretching across the Iran-Iraq border. The Kurds in the city of Halabja generally speak only the Sorani dialect of Kurdish, but some residents of the surrounding villages speak the Hewrami dialect.
Halabja has a long history. The cemetery includes the tombs of several historical figures, such as Ahmed Mukhtar Jaf, Tayar Bag Jaf and Adila Khanim. In August 2009, three 17th century tombs were discovered in the Ababile district of the town.
This suggests that the town is somewhat older than indicated by some sources, which claim that it was built by the Ottoman Empire circa 1850. However, modern developments date from the early 20th century. The post office opened in 1924 and the first school opened the following year. The Qaysari Pasha and Hamid Bag bazaars were built in 1932. Electricity did not reach the city until 1940.

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Halabja District
Halabja District is a district of the Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Iraq.

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Hamza District
Hamza District is a district of the Al Muthanna Governorate, Iraq.

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Hashimiya District
Hashimiya District is a district of the Babil Governorate, Iraq.

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Hatra
Coordinates: 35°35′17″N 42°43′06″E / 35.58806°N 42.71833°E / 35.58806; 42.71833
Hatra (Arabic: الحضر‎ al-Ḥaḍr) is an ancient city in the Ninawa Governorate and al-Jazira region of Iraq. It is currently known as al-Hadr, a name which appears once in ancient inscriptions, and it was in the ancient Iranian province of Khvarvaran. The city lies 290 km (180 mi) northwest of Baghdad and 110 km (68 mi) southwest of Mosul.
Hatra was founded by Ancient Arab tribes some time in the 3rd century BCE. A religious and trading centre under the Parthian empire of Iran, it flourished during the 1st and 2nd centuries BCE. Later on, the city became the capital of possibly the first Arab Kingdom in the chain of Arab cities running from Hatra, in the northeast, via Palmyra, Baalbek and Petra, in the southwest. The region controlled from Hatra was the Kingdom of Araba, a semi-autonomous buffer kingdom on the western limits of the Parthian Empire of Iran, governed by Arabian princes.
Hatra became an important fortified frontier city and withstood repeated attacks by the Roman Empire, and played an important role in the Second Parthian War. It repulsed the sieges of both Trajan (116/117) and Septimius Severus (198/199). Hatra defeated the Iranians at the battle of Shahrazoor in 238, but fell to the Iranian Sassanid Empire of Shapur I in 241 and was destroyed. The traditional stories of the fall of Hatra tell of an-Nadira, daughter of the King of Araba, who betrayed the city into the hands of Shapur. The story tells of how Shapur killed the king and married an-Nadira, but later had her killed also.

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Hatra District
Hatra District is a district of the Ninawa Governorate, Iraq.

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Hīt
Hīt (Arabic: هيت‎) is an Iraqi city in Al-Anbar province. Hīt lies northwest of Ramadi, the provincial capital.
On the Euphrates River, Hīt is a small walled town built on two mounds on the site of the ancient city of Is; bitumen wells in the vicinity have been utilized for at least 3,000 years and were used in the building of Babylon. Hīt is a marketplace for agricultural produce and oil pipelines to the Mediterranean Sea cross the Euphrates there. It was regarded as the head of navigation on the river before the decline in river traffic.

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Hīt District
Hīt is a district in Al Anbar Governorate, Iraq. It is centred around the city of Hīt, this district It has between 400,000 and 500,000 inhabitants.

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Iraq
Iraq (/ɪˈræk/ or ⁱ/ɪˈrɑːk/; Arabic: العراق‎ al-‘Irāq); officially the Republic of Iraq (Arabic: جمهورية العراق (help·info) Jumhūriyyat al-‘Irāq), is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.
Iraq borders Syria to the northwest, Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, Jordan to the southwest and Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to the south. Iraq has a narrow section of coastline measuring 58 km (36 mi) on the northern Persian Gulf. The capital city, Baghdad is in the center-east of the country.
Two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run through the center of Iraq, flowing from northwest to southeast. These provide Iraq with agriculturally capable land and contrast with the steppe and desert landscape that covers most of Western Asia.
Historically, Iraq was the center of the Abbasid Arabic Islamic Empire. Iraq has been known to the west by the Greek toponym 'Mesopotamia' (Land between the rivers) and has been home to continuous successive civilizations since the 6th millennium BC. The region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers is often referred to as the cradle of civilization and the birthplace of writing, law and the wheel. At different periods in its history, Iraq was the center of the indigenous Akkadian, Sumerian, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Abbasid empires. It was also part of the Achaemenid, Hellenistic, Parthian, Sassanid, Roman, Rashidun, Umayyad, Mongol, Safavid, Afsharid, and Ottoman empires, and under British control as a League of Nations mandate.

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Iraqi Kurdistan
Iraqi Kurdistan or Kurdistan Region (Kurdish: هه‌رێمی کوردستان‎‎, Herêmî Kurdistan; Arabic: إقليم كردستان العراق‎ Iqlīm Kurdistān al-‘Irāq) is an autonomous region of Iraq. It borders Iran to the east, Turkey to the north, Syria to the west and the rest of Iraq to the south. The regional capital is Arbil, known in Kurdish as Hewlêr. The region is officially governed by the Kurdistan Regional Government.
The establishment of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq dates back to the March 1970 autonomy agreement between the Kurdish opposition and the Iraqi government after years of heavy fighting. The Iran-Iraq war during the 1980s and the Anfal genocide campaign of the Iraqi army devastated the population and nature of Iraqi Kurdistan. Following the 1991 uprising of the Iraqi people against Saddam Hussein, many Kurds were forced to flee the country to become refugees in bordering regions of Iran and Turkey. A northern no-fly zone was established following the First Gulf War in 1991 to facilitate the return of Kurdish refugees. As Kurds continued to fight government troops, Iraqi forces finally left Kurdistan in October 1991, leaving the region to function de facto independently; however, neither of the two major Kurdish parties had at any time declared independence and Iraqi Kurdistan continues to view itself as an integral part of a united Iraq but one in which it administers its own affairs. The 2003 invasion of Iraq and the subsequent political changes led to the ratification of a new Constitution of Iraq in 2005. The new Iraqi constitution defines Iraqi Kurdistan as a federal entity of Iraq, and establishes Arabic and Kurdish as Iraq's joint official languages.

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Jarmo
Jarmo (Qal'at Jarmo) is an archeological site located in northern Iraq on the foothills of Zagros Mountains east of Kirkuk city. It is known as the oldest agricultural community in the world, dating back to 7000 BCE. Jarmo is broadly contemporary with such other important Neolithic sites such as Jericho in the southern Levant and Çatal Hüyük in Anatolia. The site of Jarmo is approximately three to four acres (12,000 to 16,000 m²) in size and lies at an altitude of 800 meters above sea level in a belt of oak and pistachio woodlands.
The site was originally discovered by the Iraqi Directorate of Antiquities in 1940, and later became known to the archaeologist Robert Braidwood (1907-2003), from the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, who was looking for suitable places to research the origins of the Neolithic Revolution. Braidwood worked as part of the Iraq-Jarmo programme for three seasons, those of 1948, 1950-51 and 1954-55; a fourth campaign, to be carried out in 1958-59 did not come about because of the 14 July Revolution. During the excavations in Jarmo in 1954-5, Braidwood used a multidisciplinary approach for the first time, in an attempt to refine the research methods and clarify the origin of the domestication of plants and animals. Among his team were a geologist, Herbert Wright, a palaeo-botanist, Hans Helbaek, an expert in pottery and radio-carbon dating, Frederic Mason, and a zoologist, Charles Reed, as well as a number of archaeologists. The interdisciplinary method was subsequently used in all serious field work in archaeology. When Braidwood later tried to resume his research plan in the Fertile Crescent, the difficulties he encountered in Iran, where he was digging in Tepe Asyab, took him to Turkey in 1963.

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Kalar District
Kalar District is a district of the Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Iraq.

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Karkh
Karkh or Al-Karkh (Arabic: الكرخ) is historically the name of the western half of Baghdad, Iraq, or alternatively, the western shore of the river Tigris as it ran through Baghdad. The eastern shore is known as Al-Rasafa.
Its name is derived from the Syriac (ܟܪܟܐ) Karkha; citadel.
Today, it is also a neighborhood between the international zone and the Tigris. Karkh is one of nine administrative districts in Baghdad.
Coordinates: 33°19′N 44°24′E / 33.317°N 44.4°E / 33.317; 44.4

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Kerbala District
Kerbala District is a district of the Karbala Governorate, Iraq.

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Khanaqin
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.
The majority of people of the city of Khanaqin are Kurds (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).
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.

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Khasa River
The Khasa River (Arabic: نهر خاصة‎, Kurdish: ڕووباری خاسە) is a winterbourne river which runs through the city of Kirkuk in northern Iraq. It dries up completely in the summer but turns into a raging river in the winter, flooding its banks at times as happened in the 1950s. The river has symbolic value to the city's inhabitants. It is one of the tributaries of the Tigris River. [1]
Coordinates: 34°55′N 44°05′E / 34.917°N 44.083°E / 34.917; 44.083

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Kifri
Kifri is a town in Iraq and a seat of Kifri District. The district population was estimated at 42,010 in 2003 (source: 2003 - NGO Coordination Committee in Iraq). Kurds form the majority of the population both in this town and in the District, which is currently part of Diyala Governorate. A referendum on whether the district should be restored to Kirkuk Governorate (of which it was formerly part) was scheduled to be held in November 2007, but was initially postponed for up to six months and is still awaited.
Until the 1970s, many inhabitants of the town of Kifri and the villages west to the city was Turkmens. The population in the eastern villages were almost completely Kurdish. However, after 1980 enforced Arabisation changed this situation, and after 2003 a Kurdisation policy - accompanied by large-scale emigration of the Turkmen (mainly to Baghdad and Kirkuk) - changed the demography of the city. The oldest districts - namely Ismaik Beg, Dedeler and Sade - are the original districts mainly inhabited by Turkmen, whereas the newer ones such as Imam Muhammed and Awberi are Kurdish. The arched old bazar with its hans are typical of Ottoman architecture. Unfortunately due to neglect this interesting heritage is being nullified.

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Kirkuk
Kirkuk (also spelled Karkuk or Kerkuk, Arabic: كركوك‎ karkūk, Kurdish: Kerkûk/که‌رکووک, Syriac: ܟܪܟ ܣܠܘܟ karḵ sluḵ, Turkish: Kerkük) is a city in Iraq and the capital of Kirkuk Governorate.
It is located in the Iraqi governorate of Kirkuk, 236 kilometres (147 mi) north of the capital, Baghdad. Kirkuk city lies 83 km south of Arbil, 149 km southeast of Mosul, 97 km west of Sulaymaniyah, and 116 km northeast Tikrit
It stands on the site of the ancient Assyrian capital of Arrapha, which sits near the Khasa River on the ruins of a 5,000-year-old settlement (Kirkuk Citadel). Arrapha reached great importance under the Assyrians in the 10th and 11th centuries BC. Because of the strategic geographical location of the city, Kirkuk was the battle ground for three empires—the Neo Assyrian Empire, Babylonia, and Media—which controlled the city at various times.
Kirkuk lies in a wide zone with an ethnically mixed population, which has moreover experienced dramatic demographic changes in the course of the twentieth century. Kurds, Turkmen and Arabs lay conflicting claims to this zone, and all have their historical accounts and memories to buttress their claims.

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Kirkuk District
Kirkuk District is a district of the Kirkuk Governorate, Iraq.

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Kufa
Kufa (Arabic,الكوفة al-Kūfah) is a city in Iraq, about 170 kilometres (110 mi) south of Baghdad, and 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) northeast of Najaf. It is located on the banks of the Euphrates River. The estimated population in 2003 was 110,000.
Along with Samarra, Karbala, Kadhimiya and Najaf, Kufa is one of five Iraqi cities that are of great importance to Shia Muslims. The city was the final capital of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, and was founded within the first hundred years of the 622 Hijra^{[citation needed]}.
The city contains the Great Mosque of Kufa, one of the earliest mosques in Islam, built in the 7th century.
File:Kufa masjid.pdf
See Ancient Mesopotamia.
Ruled by Sassanian Empire as part of Suristan province. See Middle Bih-Kavad.
The Arabs, led by Caliph ʻUmar ibn Khattāb, conquer Iraq and begin ruling Suristan around 637.
ʻUmar ibn Khattāb became the second caliph in 634. After the Arab victory against the East Roman Empire at Battle of Yarmouk in 636, Kūfah was founded and given its name in 637–638 CE, about the same time as Basra. The Companion of the Prophet Saʻd ibn Abī Waqqas founded it as an encampment adjacent to the Lakhmid Arab city of al-Hīrah, and incorporated it as a city of seven divisions. The city was alternately known to non-Arabs as Hīrah and Aqulah before the consolidations of ʻAbdu l-Mālik in 691.

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Kufa District
Kufa District is a district of the Najaf Governorate, Iraq.

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Kurdistan
Kurdistan ( (listen) (help·info) "Land of the Kurds"; also formerly spelled Curdistan; ancient name: Corduene) is a roughly defined geo-cultural region wherein the Kurds form a prominent majority population, and Kurdish culture, language, and national identity have historically been based.
Contemporary use of Kurdistan refers to parts of eastern Turkey (Turkish Kurdistan), northern Iraq (Iraqi Kurdistan), northwestern Iran (Iranian Kurdistan) and northern Syria inhabited mainly by Kurds. Kurdistan roughly encompasses the northwestern Zagros and the eastern Taurus mountain ranges, and covers small portions of Armenia.
Iraqi Kurdistan first gained autonomous status in 1970 agreement with the Iraqi government and its status was re-confirmed as an autonomous entity within the federal Iraqi republic in 2005. There is also a province by the name Kurdistan in Iran, although it does not enjoy self-rule.
Some Kurdish nationalist organizations seek to create an independent nation state of Kurdistan, consisting of some or all of the areas with Kurdish majority, while others campaign for greater Kurdish autonomy within the existing national boundaries.

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Kut
Al-Kūt (Arabic: الكوت‎; BGN: Al Kūt; also spelled Kut-Al-Imara or Kut El Amara, Kurdish: Kût) is a kurdish city in eastern Iraq, on the left bank of the Tigris River, about 160 kilometres (100 mi) south east of Baghdad. As of 2003^[update] the estimated population is about 374,000 people. It is the capital of the province long known as Al Kut, but since the 1960s renamed Wasit.
The old town of Kut is within a sharp "U" bend of the river, almost making it an island but for a narrow connection to the shore. For centuries Kut was a regional center of the carpet trade. The area around Kut is a fertile cereal grain growing region. The Kut Barrage was constructed in the city in the 1930s to provide irrigation water for the surrounding area. The Baghdad Nuclear Research Facility, looted following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, is located near Kut.
The Kut Barrage is a barrage on the Tigris river, located in the modern town of Kut in Wasit Governorate, Iraq. It is 516 metres (1,693 ft) long, 10.5 metres (34 ft) high and consists of 56 gates, each 6 metres (20 ft) wide. The maximum discharge of the barrage is 6,000 cubic metres (7,800 cu yd), but actual discharge has not exceeded 2,000 cubic metres (2,600 cu yd) in the last 10 years. The barrage supports a road and includes a lock for boats passing up and down the Tigris. Its purpose is to maintain a sufficiently high water level in the Tigris to provide water for the Gharraf irrigation canal, which branches off the Tigris just upstream from the Kut Barrage. Before the construction of the Kut Barrage, the Gharraf canal only received water during periods of flood in the Tigris. The water level in the canal is maintained by the Gharraf Head Regulator, which was constructed at the same time as the Kut Barrage.

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Kut District
Kut District is a district of the Wasit Governorate, Iraq.

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Mahmudiya District
Al-Mahmudiya (المحمودية) is a district in Babylon Governorate, Iraq.
Mahmudiya District has approximately 550,000 inhabitants, about 92 percent of them Sunni Arabs and the rest mostly Shias. Most of the inhabitants live in rural areas.
This region inhabit by 5 tribes: Al Janabi, Dulaim, Al Ubaid, Qarghoul and Al Jubour
Coordinates: 33°04′N 44°22′E / 33.067°N 44.367°E / 33.067; 44.367

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Makhmur District
Makhmur District is a district of the Kirkuk Governorate, Iraq.

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Medes
The Medes (/midz/) (from Old Persian Māda-) were an ancient Iranian people who lived in Iran in an area known as Media and spoke a northwestern Iranian language referred to as the Median language. Their arrival to the region is associated with the first wave of Iranian tribes in the late second millennium BCE (the Bronze Age collapse) through the beginning of the first millennium BCE.
In the 7th century BCE a unified Median state was formed which together with Babylonia, Lydia, and Egypt became one of the four major powers of the ancient Near East. An alliance with the Babylonians helped the Medes to capture Nineveh in 612 BCE which resulted in the collapse of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The Medes were subsequently able to establish their Median kingdom (with Ecbatana as their royal centre) beyond their original homeland (central-western Iran) and had eventually a territory stretching roughly from northeastern Iran to the Halys River in Anatolia. The Median kingdom was conquered in 550 BCE by Cyrus the Great who established the next Iranian dynasty—the Achaemenid Empire.

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Mosul
Coordinates: 36°20′N 43°08′E / 36.34°N 43.13°E / 36.34; 43.13
Mosul (Arabic: الموصل‎ al-Mawṣil; North Mesopotamian Arabic: el-Mōṣul; Syriac: ܢܝܢܘܐ Nînwe; Kurdish: Mûsil/Nînewe; Turkish: Musul), is a city in northern Iraq and the capital of the Nineveh Province, some 400 km (250 mi) northwest of Baghdad. The original city stands on the west bank of the Tigris River, opposite the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh on the east bank, but the metropolitan area has now grown to encompass substantial areas on both banks, with five bridges linking the two sides. The majority of its population is Arab (with Assyrians, Turcoman and Kurdish minorities). It is Iraq's third largest city after Baghdad and Basra.
The fabric Muslin, long manufactured here, is named after this city. Another historically important product of the area is Mosul marble.
In 1987, the city's population was 664,221 people; the 2002 population estimate was 1,740,000, and by 2008 was estimated to be 1,800,000. People from Mosul are called Maslawis.

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Mosul District
Mosul District is a district of the Ninawa Governorate, Iraq.

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Najaf
Najaf (Arabic: النجف‎; BGN: An Najaf) is a city in Iraq about 160 km (roughly 100 miles) south of Baghdad. Its estimated population in 2008 is 560,000 people. It is the capital of Najaf Governorate. It is widely considered the third holiest city of Shi'a Islam and the center of Shia political power in Iraq.
Najaf is renowned as the site of the tomb of Alī ibn Abī Tālib also known as "Imām Alī"the First Imam of Shia's , the cousin and son-in-law of the prophet Muhammad whom the Shia consider to be the righteous caliph . The city is now a great center of pilgrimage from throughout the Shi'a Islamic world. It is estimated that only Mecca and Medina receive more Muslim pilgrims. As the burial site of Shia Islam's second most important figure, the Imam Ali Mosque is considered by Shias as the third holiest Islamic site.
The Imam Ali Mosque is housed in a grand structure with a gold gilded dome and many precious objects in the walls. Nearby is the Wadi-us-Salaam cemetery, reputed to be the largest in the world. It contains the tombs of several prophets and many of the devout from around the world aspire to be buried here, to be raised from the dead with Imām Alī on Judgement Day. Over the centuries, numerous hospices, schools, libraries and Sufi convents were built around the shrine to make the city the centre of Shīʻa learning and theology.

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Najaf District
Najaf District is a district of the Najaf Governorate, Iraq.

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Nassriya District
Nassriya District is a district of the Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq.

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Neo Assyrian Empire
The Neo-Assyrian Empire was an empire in Mesopotamian history which began in 934 BC and ended in 605 BC. During this period, Assyria assumed a position as the most powerful nation on earth, successfully eclipsing Babylonia, Egypt, Urartu/Armenia and Elam for dominance of the Near East, Asia Minor, Caucasus, North Africa and east Mediterranean, though not until the reforms of Tiglath-Pileser III in the 8th century BC did it become a vast empire. Assyria was originally an Akkadian kingdom which evolved in the 25th to 24th Centuries BC. The earliest Assyrian kings such as Tudiya were relatively minor rulers, and after the founding of the Akkadian Empire, which lasted from 2334 BC to 2154 BC, these kings became subject to Sargon of Akkad, who united all the Akkadian and Sumerian speaking peoples of Mesopotamia under one rule.

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Parthian Empire
The Parthian (pronounced /ˈpɑrθiən/) Empire (247 BC – 224 AD), also known as the Arsacid (/ˈɑrsəsɪd/) Empire (Modern Persian: اشکانیان Ashkāniān), was a major Iranian political and cultural power in ancient Persia. Its latter name comes from Arsaces I of Parthia who, as leader of the Parni tribe, founded it in the mid-3rd century BC when he conquered the Parthia region in Iran's northeast, then a satrapy (province) in rebellion against the Seleucid Empire. Mithridates I of Parthia (r. c. 171–138 BC) greatly expanded the empire by seizing Media and Mesopotamia from the Seleucids. At its height, the Parthian Empire stretched from the northern reaches of the Euphrates, in what is now south-eastern Turkey, to eastern Iran. The empire, located on the Silk Road trade route between the Roman Empire in the Mediterranean Basin and Han Empire of China, became a center of trade and commerce.
The Parthians largely adopted the art, architecture, religious beliefs, and royal insignia of their culturally heterogeneous empire, which encompassed Persian, Hellenistic, and regional cultures. For about the first half of its existence, the Arsacid court adopted elements of Greek culture, though it eventually saw a gradual revival of Iranian traditions. The Arsacid rulers were titled the "King of Kings", as a claim to be the heirs to the Achaemenid Empire; indeed, they accepted many local kings as vassals where the Achaemenids would have had centrally appointed, albeit largely autonomous, satraps. The court did appoint a small number of satraps, largely outside Iran, but these satrapies were smaller and less powerful than the Achaemenid potentates. With the expansion of Arsacid power, the seat of central government shifted from Nisa, Turkmenistan to Ctesiphon along the Tigris (south of modern Baghdad, Iraq), although several other sites also served as capitals.

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Penjwin District
Penjwin District is a district of the Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Iraq.

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Pshdar District
Pshdar District is a district of the Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Iraq.

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Ramadi
Ramadi (Arabic: الرمادي‎; BGN: Ar Ramādī) is a city in central Iraq, about 110 kilometers (68 mi) west of Baghdad. It is the capital of Al Anbar Governorate. The city outstretched to a distance of more than 60 kilometers on the Euphrates, the largest city in Al-Anbar.
Ramadi's population has been stated as 444,582 according to UN data from 2003. and 483,209 according to UN from 2004.
However, according to the former regime there are about 700,000 inhabitants. Although there was a large Jewish community into the twentieth century, in the 21st century all of the inhabitants of the city are Sunni Muslims from the Dulaim tribe.
Ramadi is located in a fertile, irrigated, alluvial plain, within Iraq's Sunni Triangle. It was founded in 1869 under the Ottoman Empire. The main purpose of the city was to give the Ottomans a focal point to communicate and control the Dulaim tribe of the region.
During the Mesopotamian Campaign of World War I, British forces under Lieutenant General Frederick Stanley Maude took Ramadi. In November 1917, British forces fought what was left of the Ottoman forces there. Sir Maude died soon after Ramadi was taken.

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Ramadi District
Ramadi is a district in Al Anbar Governorate, Iraq. It is centred around the city of Ramadi.

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Ranya
Ranya (رانیه; Ra:nya) is a town located in Southern Kurdistan, 130 kilometres (81 mi) north east of Sulaymaniyah. The population of this city was involved in the revolutionary movement of Kurdish people from the war against the British Empire invasion during Şêx Mehmud's government, the Eylûl revolution, and the uprising which broke out in this city on 5 March 1991.^{[clarification needed]} Consequently it acquired the name of 'the gate of uprising'. The city includes a number of tourist sites, notably the shore of the Derbendi, the area around the Reşemêrg spring, the Kwerakani spring which runs from the Central mosque through Ranyae's main bazaar Girdedême hill and Bêtwate, the villages in the Dola Raqa valley. Ranya is surrounded by three mountain ranges, the Kewarash, the Hajila and the Asos. Lake Dukan, created by the construction of a hydro-electric dam, is near the town. Ranya neighbourhoods include Qelat, Reşemêrg, Gilîincan, Sera, Rizgarî, Raperîn, Azadî 1, Azadî 2, Kêwereş, Qule،Mamostayan and Fermanberan. The first known newspaper published in Ranya appeared in 1942 under the name of Blêse (flame).

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Ranya District
Ranya District (رانیه; Ra:nya) is located in Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Iraqi Kurdistan, Iraq. Its capital is Ranya. The district has a population of 200,826. The district includes three towns, Çiwarqurne, Bêtwate and Hacî awa, and is the centre of the Bîtwên and Raperîn area. The region of Ranya has been inhabited since ancient times and is rich in archaeologic sites such as Tell Shemshara, Tell Bazmusian, Girdedême , Kameryan and Boskin hills and Ranya castle. Its history as a district dates from the Ottoman Empire period in (1789) when the first district commissioner was appointed. The main tribes in Ranya are the Jaff, Bilbas, Ako and Shawri. Agriculturally, the area is well–known for its fertile soil. The principle crops are sunflowers, tobacco, rice, wheat and barley.

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Rusafa
Al Rusafa (Arabic: الرصافة) or Rasafa is the east-bank settlement of Baghdad, Iraq, or the eastern shore of the river Tigris. It is also one of nine administrative districts in Baghdad. When referring to Al Rusafa as a district, it refers to the older area in the Rasafa side of Baghdad; its central commercial area, a center of markets considered one of the four old CBDs of Baghdad (Karkh, Rasafa, A'dhamyya and Kadhmyya).
The west side of the river is Al Karkh (الكرخ).
Coordinates: 33°19′54″N 44°24′55″E / 33.331604°N 44.415236°E / 33.331604; 44.415236

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Sadr City
Sadr City (Arabic: مدينة الصدر‎ - Madinat aṣ-Ṣadr) is a suburb district of the city of Baghdad, Iraq. It was built in 1959 by Prime Minister Abdul Karim Qassim and later unofficially renamed Sadr City after deceased Shia leader Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr.
Sadr City (or more accurately Thawra District — Arabic: حيّ الثورة‎ - ħayy ath-Thawra) is one of nine administrative districts in Baghdad. A public housing project neglected by Saddam Hussein, Sadr City holds more than 3 millions Shiite residents.
Sadr City was built in Iraq in 1959 by Prime Minister Abdul Karim Qassim in response to grave housing shortages in Baghdad. At the time named Revolution City (مدينة ألثورة "Al-Thawra"), it provided housing for Baghdad's urban poor, many of whom had come from the countryside and who had until then lived in appalling conditions. It quickly became a stronghold of the Iraqi Communist Party, and resistance to the Baathist-led coup of 1963 was strong there.
In 1982, following the Saddam Hussein coup, the district was renamed Saddam City, in honor of Saddam Hussein, the Baath Party leader. After the foreign occupation of Baghdad in April 2003, the district was unofficially renamed Sadr City after deceased shiite leader Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr.

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Samarra
Sāmarrā (Arabic: سامَرّاء‎) is a city in Iraq. It stands on the east bank of the Tigris in the Salah ad-Din Governorate, 125 kilometers (78 mi) north of Baghdad and, in 2003, had an estimated population of 348,700.
Medieval Islamic writers believed that the name “Samarra” is derived from the Arabic phrase “Sarra man ra’a” (Arabic: سر من رأى‎), which translates to “A joy for all who see”. Later when the city declined the name changed to “Sa'a man ra’a” (Arabic: ساء من رأى‎), which translates to “A sadness for all who see”. Eventually the two names merged to its current form Samarra' (Arabic: سامَرّاء‎).
In 2007, UNESCO named Samarra one of its World Heritage Sites.
The remains of ancient Samarra were first excavated between 1911 and 1914 by the German Archaeologist Ernst Herzfeld. Since 1946, the notebooks, letters, unpublished excavation reports and photographs have been in the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.
Though the present archaeological site covered by mudbrick ruins is vast, the site of Samarra was only lightly occupied in ancient times, apart from the Chalcolithic Samarran Culture (ca 5500–4800 BC) identified at the rich site of Tell Sawwan, where evidence of irrigation—including flax— establishes the presence of a prosperous settled culture with a highly organized social structure. The culture is primarily known by its finely-made pottery decorated against dark-fired backgrounds with stylized figures of animals and birds and geometric designs. This widely-exported type of pottery, one of the first widespread, relatively uniform pottery styles in the Ancient Near East, was first recognized at Samarra. The Samarran Culture was the precursor to the Mesopotamian culture of the Ubaid period.

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Samarra District
Samarra District is a district of the Salah ad Din Governorate, Iraq.

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Shekhan District
The Shekhan District is a district in the Ninewa Governorate of Iraq.
It is bordered by the Amadiya and Dahuk Districts of the Dahuk Governorate to the north, the Akre district to the east, Al-Hamdaniya District to the south, and the Tel Kaif District to the west.
After 1991 the Kurds controlled the northern part of the district. And although unified after 2003 the northern part is still under direct control of the Kurdish Regional Government
It is mainly populated by Yazidi Kurds and Assyrian Christian community, who retain Aramaic as a spoken language.

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Sinjar
Sinjar (Arabic:سنجار, Kurdish: Şengal ) is the name of a town and district in northwestern Iraq's Ninawa Governorate near the Syrian border. Its population at the time of the 2006 census was 39,875. The region is home to the native Yezidi and Shabak people.
A huge mound and wall in northeastern Syria known as Tell Hamoukar indicate an urban civilisation dating back at least 6,000 years. The Sinjar valley belonged to the Northern Ubaid culture. In the Sinjar plain, where Tell Hamoukar is located, civilizations are known to have existed many centuries earlier (Hassuna, Halaf, Ubaid). More than 200 sites are known.
Some sources mention the city as the birthplace of the Christian saint Abd-al-Masih (Abda).
Sinjar was also the site of the filming, and some of the plot, for the 1973 film The Exorcist.
Coordinates: 36°19′N 41°52′E / 36.32°N 41.86°E / 36.32; 41.86

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Sinjar District
Sinjar District is a district of the Ninawa Governorate, Iraq.

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Soran District
Soran (Kurdish: ﺱۆﺭاﻥ or Deverí Soran) is an area in Iraqi Kurdistan bordering Iran and Turkey. Its main city is also called Soran, although the town of Rawanduz is better known outside of the region . According to Kurdistan television, citing an official in the town of Soran, the population of the region is estimated to be over 400,000.
Kurdish settlement in the region dates back prior to the establishment of the Sassanid empire. King Ardashir I of Persia mentioned the region in 224 during his battle against the Median king Madig.
A major Kurdish dialect (Sorani) is named after the region.
One of the Kurdish principality named as the Soran lordship ruled, for some years, in the 19th century, one of the famous kings was Pasha Kora (\Blind king). They went to war with the Ottoman empire and also the Baban lordship.
Soran District is similar to a county, and the seat of government for Soran District is at the Town of Soran. Formerly it was at Diyana, however due to the growth of the population over the past fifteen years, it was moved.

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Sulaymaniya District
Sulaymaniya District is a district of the Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Iraq.

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Sulaymaniyah
Sulaymaniyah (Kurdish: سلێمانی / Silêmanî, Ar: السليمانية) is a city in Iraqi Kurdistan, Iraq. It is the capital of Sulaymaniyah Governorate. Sulaymaniyah is surrounded by the Azmar Range, Goizja Range and the Qaiwan Range in the north east, Baranan Mountain in the south and the Tasluje Hills in the west. The city has a semi-arid climate with very hot and dry summers and very cold winters. Sulaymaniyah served as the historic capital of the Kurdish principality of Baban from 1784 to 1850.
The modern city of Sulaymaniyah was founded on 14 November 1784 by the Kurdish prince Ibrahim Pasha Baban who named it after his father Sulaiman Pasha. Because it was founded as the capital of a powerful Kurdish principality, Sulaymaniyah has developed into a large city with a population of about 1.041.490 people. It is the cultural center of the Sorani-speaking Kurds and an important economic center for Iraqi Kurdistan.
The region of Sulaymaniyah was known as Zamwa prior to the foundation of the modern city in 1784. The capital of the Kurdish Baban principality (1649–1850), before Sulaymaniyah was a territory named "Qalachwalan". At the time of the Babani's rule there were major conflicts between the Safavid dynasty and the Ottoman Empire. Qalachuwalan became a battle ground for the two rivals.

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Taji District
Taji District is a district of the Baghdad Governorate, Iraq.

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Tel Afar District
Tel Afar District is a district of the Ninawa Governorate, Iraq.

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Tel Keppe
Tel Keppe (also spelled Tel Keipeh) (Classical Syriac: ܬܠ ܟܐܦܐ‎ Tal Kepe, Arabic: تل كيف‎ Tal Kaif), is one of the largest historically Assyrian towns in Iraq. It is located in the Ninawa Governorate, less than 8 miles North East of Mosul (Nineveh) in northern Iraq.
The name, Tel Keppe, is of Aramaic origin and is made of two syllables; "Tel" which means "hill" and "Keppe" which means "stones" i.e. Hill of Stones. Her name comes from its location over a ruined suburb of Nineveh, capital of old Assyria.
Unfortunately, due to the presence of the only cemetery over the hill that make up Tel Keppe, it has been difficult to excavate the Assyrian ruins of this suburb of Nineveh. However, so far what had been able to be excavated is the water irrigation canals that were built by Assyrian King Sennacherib (705- 681 BC) to irrigate the land around Tel Keppe. Also, an excavation by the Iraqi Directorate of Antiquities succeeded in finding vases dating to 2000 years BC, and other items even much older and of a prehistoric time. In addition to that, several old ruins of churches and monasteries dating to early Christianity were found in Tel Keppe. Currently, Tel Keppe has 5 old churches, and a large new one.

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Tikrit
Tikrit (Arabic: تكريت‎, Tikrīt also transliterated as Takrit or Tekrit) is a town in Iraq, located 140 km northwest of Baghdad on the Tigris river (at 34.61°N, 43.68°E). The town, with an estimated population in 2002 of about 260,000 is the administrative center of the Salah ad Din Governorate.
As a fort along the Tigris (Akkadian: Idiqlat), the town is first mentioned in the Fall of Assyria Chronicle as being a refuge for the Babylonian king Nabopolassar during his attack on the city of Assur in 615 BC.
Tikrit is usually identified with the Hellenistic settlement Birtha. As Tagrit, it was the seat of the Maphrian of the Monophysites.
Over a thousand years ago, it possessed a fortress and a large Christian monastery. It was renowned as a centre for the production of woolen textiles. The Arab Uqaylid Dynasty took hold of Tikrit in 1036.
Around 1138, the legendary leader Saladin was born there; his many achievements include defending Egypt against the Christian Crusaders and recapturing Jerusalem in 1187. The modern province of which Tikrit is the capital is named after him.

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Tikrit District
Tikrit District is a district of the Salah ad Din Governorate, Iraq.

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Tooz District
Tooz District is a district of the Salah ad Din Governorate, Iraq.

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Turkey
Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye), known officially as the Republic of Turkey ( Türkiye Cumhuriyeti (help·info)), is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia (mostly in the Anatolian peninsula) and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe. Turkey is bordered by eight countries: Bulgaria to the northwest; Greece to the west; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Azerbaijan (the exclave of Nakhchivan) and Iran to the east; and Iraq and Syria to the southeast. The Mediterranean Sea and Cyprus are to the south; the Aegean Sea is to the west; and the Black Sea is to the north. The Sea of Marmara, the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles (which together form the Turkish Straits) demarcate the boundary between East Thrace and Anatolia; they also separate Europe and Asia.
Turkey is one of the six independent Turkic states. The vast majority of the population are Muslims. The country's official language is Turkish, whereas Kurdish and Zazaki languages are spoken by Kurds and Zazas, who constitute 18% of the population.

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United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK, or Britain) is a sovereign state located off the north-western coast of continental Europe. The country includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea.
The United Kingdom is a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system, with its seat of government in the capital city of London. It is a country in its own right and consists of four countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. There are three devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff, the capitals of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Associated with the UK, but not constitutionally part of it, are three Crown Dependencies. The United Kingdom has fourteen overseas territories. These are remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in 1922, encompassed almost a quarter of the world's land surface and was the largest empire in history. British influence can still be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former territories.

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United States
The United States of America (commonly abbreviated to the United States, the U.S., the USA, America, and the States) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west, across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Pacific and Caribbean.
At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km²) and with over 312 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and the third largest by both land area and population. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. The U.S. economy is the world's largest national economy, with an estimated 2011 GDP of $15.1 trillion (22% of nominal global GDP and over 19% of global GDP at purchasing-power parity). Per capita income is the world's sixth-highest.

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Zakho
Zakho (Kurdish: Zaxo, زاخو; Arabic: زاخو; Syriac-Aramaic: ܙܟܼܘ) is a district and a town in Northern Iraq located a few kilometers from the Iraqi-Turkish border.
Zakho is a province of the Dohuk Governorate. The city has 200,000 inhabitants. It may have originally begun on a small island in the Little Khabur which currently flows through the city. The Khabur River flows west of Zakho to form the border between Iraq and Turkey and flows into the Tigris. The most important rivers in the district of Zakho are: the Zeriza river, the Seerkotik river and the Little Khabur river.
There are several theories concerning the derivation of the name "Zakho". Some Aramaic sources maintain that the name comes from the Aramaic "Zakhota" (victory), after the battle fought between the Romans and the Persians near the city, which resulted in a Roman victory.
Another version maintains that the name comes from the Kurdish words "Zey- Khowin" ("river of blood"), possibly referring to the same battle.
A third opinion attributes the name to the Kurdish "Zey" (river) and "Khowak" (a curved place which blocks the water).

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Abdul Rahman Mustafa
Abdul Rahman Mustafa, The Kurdish mayor-governor of Kirkuk, was elected in 2003 by multiethnic Kirkuk City Council under supervision of Coalition Provisional Authority in Post-Saddam Hussein Iraq. Has a law degree from Baghdad University. Visited Dallas, Texas as part of partners for peace, an International Goodwill agreement with Dallas.
After years of an Arab dominated government under Saddam Hussein, many Kurds celebrated the election of a Kurdish political representative.Abdel Rahman Mustafa repeatedly denies allegation from Turkey and some Turkmen representative that any attempts have been made to change the demographic character of Kirkuk or to "re-kurdify" the city after Arabization program under the former Saddam Hussein regime.
In 2006, there was an unsuccessful assassination attempt aimed at Mustafa by a suicide bomber, but he managed to survive.

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Adnan Karim
Adnan Karim (Kurdish: عه‌دنان كه‌ریم) (born 1963) is a prominent Kurdish singer from Kirkuk, Iraq.
He was born in 1963 in Kirkuk, an ancient and oil rich city in Kurdistan, with a significant Kurdish minority. Although coming from a financially challenged family, he received a high level of education. The first Iraq war and the rise of sectarian violence forced the family to flee Kirkuk and settle in Sulaimani in the heartland of today's Kurdish autonomous area within Iraq.
Adnan continued his educational path in Sulaimani and graduated as an artist. He grew up with his family in an environment rich with culture. During his early teenage years he was exposed to Kurdish traditional music and story telling. Over the years, famous Kurdish musicians influenced him when developing his musical talent.
Adnan Karim's first public performance as a musical artist was as early as 1979. The authenticity of Adnan's style is admired especially by Kurdish people due to the purity of his traditional melodies and the absence of particularly modern elements. The genuine sound of his compositions is rounded up by the harmony between lyrics, sound, and the choice of musical instruments. Audiences get a genuine feeling of the deep and melancholic message delivered by the songs. His soft, deep voice is accompanied by oriental instruments which are deep rooted in Kurdish music.

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Alexander the Great
Alexander III of Macedon (20/21 July 356 – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great (Greek: Ἀλέξανδρος ὁ Μέγας, Aléxandros ho Mégas from the Greek αλέξω alexo "to defend, help" + ανήρ aner "man"), was a king of Macedon, a state in northern ancient Greece. Born in Pella in 356 BC, Alexander was tutored by Aristotle until the age of 16. By the age of thirty, he had created one of the largest empires of the ancient world, stretching from the Ionian Sea to the Himalayas. He was undefeated in battle and is considered one of history's most successful commanders.
Alexander succeeded his father, Philip II of Macedon, to the throne in 336 BC after Philip was assassinated. Upon Philip's death, Alexander inherited a strong kingdom and an experienced army. He was awarded the generalship of Greece and used this authority to launch his father's military expansion plans. In 334 BC, he invaded Persian-ruled Asia Minor and began a series of campaigns that lasted ten years. Alexander broke the power of Persia in a series of decisive battles, most notably the battles of Issus and Gaugamela. He subsequently overthrew the Persian King Darius III and conquered the entirety of the Persian Empire. At that point, his empire stretched from the Adriatic Sea to the Indus River.

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Ali Askari
Ali Askari (1936 – 1978) was an Iraqi politician. His political party was Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. He was a Kurdish politician.
He was born in 1936 in the village of Goptapa in Iraq. The family is originally from Sargalo but his great-grandfather moved to Askar. In early 1916 Ali Askari's father built a village which today is called Goptapa. He was the youngest among seven brothers and three sisters. Since there were no schools in Goptapa, he had to move to Askar to study at the age of 7. He stayed in Askar till 3rd grade, then moved to Agjalal to study 4th and 5th grade for his last year in middle school. At the same time he moved to Kirkuk to his uncle Sheik Raza, who was leading the Naqshbandi branch. He was a Kurdish politician.
The family had started out as a Naqshbandi believers branch but created a new branch, Haqa, in the early 1900s. The English were opposed to the Haqa branch during the Iraq occupation. They also captured the branch's leaders twice. The first time they captured Sheik Abdul Karim (Ali Askari's uncle) in the 1930s. Haqa managed to release Sheik Abdul Karim in Kirkuk with the help of 20,000 of Haqa's followers. Ali Askari's other uncle Raza, based in Kalkasmag, was captured in the 1940s by the Iraqi Government under pressure of the British but again the Haqa branch succeeded in releasing another of their leaders with help by some 30,000 to 35,000 followers.

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Arab people
Arab people, also known as Arabs (Arabic: عرب‎, ʿarab), are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing an important part of Arab identity.
The word "Arab" has had several different, but overlapping, meanings over the centuries (and sometimes even today). In addition to including all Arabized people of the world (with language tending to be the acid test), it has also at times been used exclusively for bedouin (Arab nomads [although a related word, "`a-RAB," with the Arabic letter "alif" in the second syllable, once was sometimes used when this specific meaning was intended] and their now almost entirely settled descendants). It is sometimes used that way colloquially even today in some places. Townspeople once were sometimes called "sons of the Arabs." As in the case of other ethnicities or nations, people identify themselves (or are identified by others) as "Arabs" to varying degrees. This may not be one's primary identity (it tends to compete with country, religion, sect, etc.), and whether it is emphasized may depend upon one's audience.

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Assyrian people
The Assyrian people, most commonly known as Assyrians and other later names, such as: Chaldeans, Syrians, Syriacs (see names of Syriac Christians), are a distinct ethnic group whose origins lie in ancient Mesopotamia. They are Eastern Aramaic speaking Semites who trace their ancestry back to the Sumero-Akkadian civilisation that emerged in Mesopotamia circa 4000- 3500 BC, and in particular to the northern region of the Akkadian lands, which would become known as Assyria by the 24th Century BC. The Assyrian nation existed as an independent state, and often a powerful empire, from the 24th century BC until the end of the 7th century BC.
Today that ancient territory is part of several nations; Assyria remained a Geo-political entity after its fall, and was ruled as an occupied province under the rule of various empires from the late 7th century BC until the mid 7th century AD when it was dissolved, and the Assyrian people have gradually become a minority in their homelands since that time. They are indigenous to, and have traditionally lived all over what is now Iraq, north east Syria, north west Iran, and Southeastern Turkey. They are predominantly Christian.

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Bakr Sidqi
Bakr Sidqi (Arabic: بكر صدقي‎), an Iraqi nationalist and general of Kurdish origin, but not a Kurdish nationalist, was born 1890 in Kirkuk and assassinated on August 12, 1937, at Mosul.
Bakr Sidqi was born to Kurdish family in ‘Askar, a Kurdish village or in Baghdad. He had purposefully exploited his birthplace according to political necessities. Like many ambitious men who lived in the Ottoman Empire, Sidqi joined the Ottoman army as a young man. At a young age he was sympathetic to already an Arab nationalism favoring freeing the Arab lands from Ottoman domination, he nonetheless spent formative years in what was essentially the colonial army. Having studied at the Military College in Istanbul and graduated as a second lieutenant, he fought in the Balkan Wars and joined the Staff College in Istanbul, graduating in 1915.
During World War I with the outbreak of the Arab Revolt, Sidqi joined Faisal's army in Syria and served in Aleppo with a number of other Sharifian officers. From 1919 to 1920 he served as an intelligence agent of the British military forces and was later recommended by the British General Staff in 1921 to an officer rank in the Iraqi army after the collapse of Faisal's kingdom in Syria. His plan was to one day be the Chief of the General Staff but was met with opposition by some Iraqi’s who accused him of pushing for a “pro-Kurdish policy”. In response, Sidqi highlighted his half-Arab origins, linking himself with familial ties with Ja’far al-Askari. He later attended the British Staff College and was considered one of Iraq's most competent officers. He lectured in the military school and achieved the rank of colonel in 1928 and brigadier general in 1933.

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Chopy Fatah
Chopy Fatah [Kurdish:Çopî Fetah / چۆپی فەتاح] more commonly known as Chopy is a contemporary Kurdish singer. She was born in Kirkuk, Iraq in 1983 and her family emigrated to The Netherlands in 1988. She released her first album titled Çît Naw Binêm in 2003
After emigrating to the Netherlands, she joined a choir school in 1990 and also attended a music school in 1996 where she focused on singing under the supervision of her teachers. In 1999, she attended the Kurdish Music Academy in Germany where she studied under the supervision of the Kurdish music teacher Mr.Wirya Ahmad. She performed on stage for the first time in The Hague, The Netherlands in 2000. She also participated for the first time in a TV-program titled Shanisheen on MedyaTV. Her first CD (Çît Naw Binêm) was released under supervision of Mr.Burhan Mofti in 2003. In 2007, she released her second CD titled Nawit Denem Zino and in 2010 she released her third CD titled Crystal. Her last CD with the name Şara was released in 2011 and was named after her mother.

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Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice ( /ˌkɒndəˈliːzə/; born November 14, 1954) is an American political scientist and diplomat. She served as the 66th United States Secretary of State, and was the second person to hold that office in the administration of President George W. Bush. Rice was the first female African-American secretary of state, as well as the second African American (after Colin Powell), and the second woman (after Madeleine Albright). Rice was President Bush's National Security Advisor during his first term, making her the first woman to serve in that position. Before joining the Bush administration, she was a professor of political science at Stanford University where she served as Provost from 1993 to 1999. Rice also served on the National Security Council as the Soviet and East European Affairs Advisor to President George H.W. Bush during the dissolution of the Soviet Union and German reunification.
Following her confirmation as Secretary of State, Rice pioneered the policy of Transformational Diplomacy, with a focus on democracy in the Greater Middle East. Her emphasis on supporting democratically elected governments faced challenges as Hamas captured a popular majority in Palestinian elections, and influential countries including Saudi Arabia and Egypt maintained authoritarian systems with U.S. support. While Secretary of State, she chaired the Millennium Challenge Corporation's board of directors.

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Darius III
Darius III (the Great) (c. 380 – 330 BC), also known by his given name of Codomannus, was the last king of the Achaemenid Empire of Persia from 336 BC to 330 BC.
After Artaxerxes III of Persia and all of his sons were killed by the vizier Bagoas, the vizier installed a cousin of Artaxerxes III, Codomannus, to the Persian throne as Darius III. When Darius tried to act independently of the vizier, Bagoas tried to poison him, but Darius was warned and forced Bagoas to drink the poison himself. The new king found himself in control of an unstable empire, large portions of which were governed by jealous and unreliable satraps and inhabited by disaffected and rebellious subjects. However, he lacked the skills and experience to deal with these problems.
In 334 BC, Alexander the Great began his invasion of the Persian Empire and subsequently defeated the Persians in a number of battles before looting and destroying the capital Persepolis, by fire, in 331 BC. With the Persian Empire now effectively under Alexander's control, Alexander then decided to pursue Darius, but Darius was killed by a satrap Bessus before Alexander reached him.

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Fadhil Al Azzawi
Fadhil Al Azzawi (born 1940 in Kirkuk, Iraq) is an Iraqi writer and highly respected in the Arab world, as he has published seven volumes of poetry, six novels, three books of criticism and memoir, and several translations of German literary works. He has participated in Iraq's avant-garde Sixties Generation, and his early controversial work was critiqued and lauded with great enthusiasm.
He holds a BA in English Literature from Baghdad University, however Fadhil soon left Iraq in 1976, as the Baathist-controlled regime was becoming increasingly powerful. He later earned a doctorate in communications studies from Leipzig University. He has worked as a freelance journalist and translator for Arab newspapers and cultural reviews. He also founded the poetry magazine Shi’r 69.
He currently resides in Berlin, as a full-time writer.

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Ferhad Shakely
Ferhad Shakely (born 1951) is a prominent Kurdish writer, poet and researcher. He is one of the founders of modern Kurdish poetry in the post-Goran period. He was born in 1951 in the province of Kirkuk in Iraq. He began publishing poetry in 1968. In the early 1970s he studied in the Kurdish department of the Baghdad University. He joined the Kurdish national movement under the leadership of Mustafa Barzany in 1974 and went to Syria in 1975. He lived in Germany from Autumn 1977 to Summer 1978. Finally he settled in Sweden in the same year. In 1981, after studying for one year at the University of Stockholm, he went to Uppsala University where he studied Iranian languages. He is now teaching in the same university. He published a Swedish-Kurdish Journal between 1985 and 1989 called Svensk-Kurdisk Journal. Moreover he published a literary Kurdish magazine, Mamosta-y Kurd (31 issues) between 1985 and 1996. In 1992, he published Kurdish nationalism in Mam and Zin of Ahmad Khani, a literary history that was translated into Swedish, Turkish and Arabic. Many of his poems have been translated into Persian, Arabic, Norwegian, Swedish, English, French, Italian, Icelandic and Danish.

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Hijri Dede
Hijri Dede was a poet from Kirkuk, Iraq. His poems were written mainly in the Turkmen language but he also composed works in Persian and Kurdish. He was believed to belong to the kurdish Gurani community in Kirkuk.
The poet's ethnicity and religious beliefs are still a source of controversy, reflecting the ethnic nature of Kirkuk city. He may have been a Kurd who simply wrote in the Turkmen language, but some Turkmen nationalists consider him as one of their own.^{[citation needed]} The poet, as almost all of the other Gurani, was usually quite secretive about his religious beliefs and practices: when asked by outsiders, he would often claim to be Orthodox Sunni or, sometimes, Twelver Shi'a. According to some sources, Hijri Dede died in December 1952. [1] [2]

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Ibtisam Abdallah
Ibtisam Abdallah is a noted Iraqi novelist, short-story writer and literary translator.
She was born in Kirkuk but has lived mostly in Baghdad. As of 2001, she had published four novels and one collection of short stories. The best known of her novels is Mesopotamia, published in Baghdad in 2001. The same year, she became the editor-in-chief of Al-Thaqafa Al-Ajnabiyya (Foreign Culture), a quarterly journal devoted to foreign literature and culture, the only one of its kind in Iraq. (The magazine ceased publishing in the aftermath of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.)
Abdallah has translated several Western literary works into Arabic, notably JM Coetzee's award-winning novel Waiting for the Barbarians. She has also translated the memoirs of Mikis Theodorakis and Angela Davis. Abdallah's writing is known for its juxtaposition of feminist themes with contemporary social and political issues. Some of her short stories have appeared in English translation. She is also well-known in Iraq as a journalist and a television figure.

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Iraqi Turkmens
The Iraqi Turkmens (also spelled Turcomans, Turkomens, and Iraqi Turkmans), Iraqi Turks, or Turks of Iraq (Turkish: Irak Türkmenleri/Irak Türkleri) are the third largest ethnic group in Iraq who are the ethnic kin of the Turks. They mainly reside in northern Iraq and share close cultural and linguistic ties with Turkey.
The Iraqi Turkmen are the descendants of various waves of Turkic migration to Mesopotamia dating from the 7th century until Ottoman rule. The first wave of migration dates back to the 7th century when some 1,000 Turkmen soldiers were recruited in the Muslim armies of Ubayd-Allah ibn Ziyad; however, most of today's descendants of these first migrants have been assimilated into the local Arab population. The second wave of migrants were the Turks of the Great Seljuq Empire; finally, the third wave, and largest number of Turkmen migrants into Iraq arose during the Ottoman Empire. With the conquest of Iraq by Suleiman the Magnificent in 1534, followed by Sultan Murad IV's capture of Baghdad in 1638, a large influx of Turks settled down in the region. Thus, most of today's Iraqi Turkmen are the descendants of the Ottoman soldiers, traders and civil servants who were brought into Iraq during the rule of the Ottoman Empire.

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Kevork Hovnanian
Kevork S. Hovnanian (1923 – September 24, 2009) was an Iraqi-born Armenian-American businessman and home builder, who founded Hovnanian Enterprises in 1959. He remained the president and chief executive officer of Hovnanian Enterprises until his retirement in 1997. Despite some recent financial difficulties due to the 2008-2009 recession and financial crisis, Hovnanian Enterprises remains the sixth largest American homebuilder and the largest homebuilder in New Jersey, as of September 2009.
Kevork Hovnanian was born in Kirkuk, present-day Iraq, in 1923. He was the oldest of four sons born to Stepan K. Hovnanian, a refugee from Armenia who had settled in Iraq. Stepan Hovnanian operated a construction business in Kirkuk which held contracts with oil companies in the region.
Hovnanian took over the family's construction business after his father became ill. The company eventually employed more than 12,000 people in Iraq. However, Hovnanian fled to the United States in the aftermath of the 1958 Iraqi Revolution, which overthrew the monarchy of Faisal II of Iraq. Most of his family also moved to the United States.

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Kurdish people
The Kurdish people, or Kurds (Kurdish: کورد Kurd), are an Iranic people native to the Middle East, mostly inhabiting a region known as Kurdistan, which includes adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. They speak the Kurdish language, which is a member of the Iranian branch of Indo-European languages. The Kurds number about 30 million, the majority living in the Middle East, with significant Kurdish diaspora communities in the cities of western Turkey, in Armenia, Georgia, Israel, Azerbaijan, Russia, Lebanon and, in recent decades, some European countries and the United States. The Kurds are an indigenous ethnic minority in countries where the Kurdistan region is located, although they have enjoyed partial autonomy in Iraqi Kurdistan since 1991. An irredentist movement pushes for the creation of a Kurdish nation state.
The exact origins of the name, "Kurd", are unclear. Reynolds believes that the term Kurd is most likely related to the ancient term Qardu. The common root of Kurd and Qardu is first mentioned in a Sumerian tablet from the third millennium B.C. as the "land of Kar-da." Qardu is etymologically related to the Assyrian term Urartu corresponding to Ararat. According to Asatrian, the most reasonable explanation of this ethnonym is its possible connections with the Cyrtii (Cyrtaei)

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Medes
The Medes (/midz/) (from Old Persian Māda-) were an ancient Iranian people who lived in Iran in an area known as Media and spoke a northwestern Iranian language referred to as the Median language. Their arrival to the region is associated with the first wave of Iranian tribes in the late second millennium BCE (the Bronze Age collapse) through the beginning of the first millennium BCE.
In the 7th century BCE a unified Median state was formed which together with Babylonia, Lydia, and Egypt became one of the four major powers of the ancient Near East. An alliance with the Babylonians helped the Medes to capture Nineveh in 612 BCE which resulted in the collapse of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The Medes were subsequently able to establish their Median kingdom (with Ecbatana as their royal centre) beyond their original homeland (central-western Iran) and had eventually a territory stretching roughly from northeastern Iran to the Halys River in Anatolia. The Median kingdom was conquered in 550 BCE by Cyrus the Great who established the next Iranian dynasty—the Achaemenid Empire.

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Mehmet Türkmehmet
Mehmet Türkmehmet (born 18 October 1980 in Kirkuk, Iraq) is an Iraqi Turkmen professional football midfielder.
He currently plays for Sanliurfaspor in the TFF Second League.

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Mohsen Abdel Hamid
Mohsen Abdel Hamid (* 1937 Arabic: محسن عبد الحميد‎) is an Iraqi politician and Islamic scholar who was a member of the Interim Iraq Governing Council (president, February 2004), created following the United States's 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Abdel Hamid was born in 1937 in Kirkuk and is of Kurdish background. He studied Islamic Law in Cairo and returned to Iraq in 1986 to work as a professor at Baghdad University. Abdel Hamid has written over 30 books on interpretation of the Qur'an. He was arrested in 1996 by the government of Saddam Hussein but opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Until 2004 he was the secretary general of the Iraqi Islamic Party, the largest Sunni party in Iraq, and as a result was appointed to the Iraqi Governing Council.
On May 30, 2005, Abdel Hamid was mistakenly arrested by U.S. troops.

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Mustafa Barzani
Mustafa Barzani (Kurdish: Mistefa Barzani) (March 14, 1903 – March 1, 1979) also known as Mullah Mustafa was a Kurdish nationalist leader, and the most prominent political figure in the modern Kurdish politics. In 1946 he was chosen as the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) to lead the Kurdish revolution against Iraqi regimes. Barzani was the primary political and military leader of the Kurdish revolution until his death in March 1979. He led campaigns of armed struggle against both the Iraqi and Iranian governments.
Mustafa Barzani was born in 1903 in Barzan, a village in northern Iraqi Kurdistan, (then part of the Ottoman Empire). Following an insurrection launched by his tribe, he was moved along with his mother and the rest of his family in to jail, when Barzani was only at the age of 5 years. His father, grandfather, and a brother were later executed by the Ottoman authorities for other insurrections. At an early age he joined other tribal fighters in aiding Sheikh Barzinji's revolt against the British in Iraq.

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Najiba Ahmad
Najiba Ahmad (Kurdish:نه‌جیبە ئه‌حمه‌د; pronounced [nəɟibə əħməd]; * 1954 in Kirkuk) is a contemporary Kurdish writer and poet. She was born in Kirkuk, in northern Iraq. She studied Kurdish language and literature at the University of Sulaimaniya and worked as a teacher for many years before she joined the Kurdish liberation movement. She has published Three volumes of her short stories and Three poetry books. She has entered the literature world at 1976, when she was the only female Kurdish poet. She has also translated several literary articles from Arabic and Persian to Kurdish, which are novels, short stories and Drama. She has several literary works for children.

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Narsai Toma
Mar Narsai Toma is the Metropolitan of the Ancient Church of the East of the diocese of Kirkuk, Iraq. Narsai Toma was born on 1 July 1941, in the province of Dohuk (Nohadra). He was ordained as a Metropolitan bishop 1968 in Baghdad and he currently resides over the Diocese of Kirkuk in Arrapha district.

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Nemir Kirdar
Nemir A. Kirdar is an Iraqi businessman and financier, he is the executive chairman & CEO of Investcorp, a private equity investment group operating out of New York, London and Bahrain. Kirdar currently lives in London.
Kirdar began his banking career in New York in 1969. Following two years of credit training, he worked in South East Asia and Japan for Allied Bank International. In 1974 he joined the Chase Manhattan Bank in New York, as vice president. Between the years of 1976 and 1981, Kirdar served in the Persian Gulf to oversee and direct Chase’s banking network in the region.
In 1982, he founded Investcorp, a firm which specialises in offering global investments. These include private equity, hedge funds, real estate, technology investments and Gulf growth capital.
Kirdar was born in Kirkuk, Iraq, to a family prominent in the politics of the late Ottoman Empire and interwar Iraq. After a military coup overthrew the monarchy in 1958, Kirdar went to the United States to study, and later returning to Iraq in 1960. He reportedly escaped from Iraq in 1958 by hiding in a rolled-up carpet in the back of a truck. Soon after the Baathist coup, which produced the regime of Saddam Hussein, Kirdar left the country again.

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Oghuz Turks
The Turkomen also known as Oghuz Turks (a linguistic term designating the Western Turkic or Oghuz languages from the Oghur languages) were a historical Turkic tribal confederation in Central Asia during the early medieval Turkic expansion. The name Oghuz is just the Common Turkic word for "tribe". They are referred to as "Western Turks" because they moved west from other Turkic peoples after the Göktürk empire collapsed, and because the majority of the areas in which they inhabit today (except Turkmenistan and the Turkmen Sahra) are west of the Caspian Sea, while those referred to as "Eastern Turks" live east of the Caspian Sea. The founders of the Ottoman Empire were also Oghuz Turks.
In the 9th century, the Oghuz Turks from the Aral steppes drove the Pecheneg Turks, of the Emba region and the Ural River, toward the west. In the 10th century they inhabited the steppe of the rivers Sari-su, Turgai, and Emba to the north of Lake Balkhash of modern day Kazakhstan. A clan of this nation, the Seljuks, embraced Islam and in the 11th century entered Persia, where they founded the Great Seljuk Empire. Similarly, in the 11th century a Tengriist Oghuz clan—referred to as Uzes or Torks in the Russian chronicles—overthrew Pecheneg supremacy in the Russian steppe. Harried by another Turkic horde, the Kipchaks—a branch of the Kimaks of the middle Irtysh or of the Ob—these Oghuz penetrated as far as the lower Danube, crossed it and invaded the Balkans, where they were either crushed or struck down by an outbreak of plague, causing the survivors either to flee or to join the Byzantine imperial forces as mercenaries (1065).

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Osama Rashid
Osama Rashid (born 13 January 1992) is an Iraqi Dutch footballer who plays for FC Den Bosch. He formerly played for Feyenoord.
The midfielder started playing football for Noord-Hollandse ZOB from Zuidoostbeemster. He moved onto Feyenoord and signed his first professional contract in 2008. Osama played for the Netherlands Under 17s side during the 2009 European Under 20 Championships reaching the final against hosts Germany.
In June 2011 after his contract with Feyenoord had run-out, he signed a one-year contract with FC Den Bosch and a few days later, he selected by Iraq coach Wolfgang Sidka to participate in a training camp in Arbil, along with nine players were of Iraqi origin, playing their trade in Europe including Anmar Al-Mubaraki of Dutch side Heracles Almelo, Yaser Kasim of Brighton & Hove Albion, Ahmed Yasin of Orebro SK, David Haider of Hallescher FC and Austrian based midfielder Murad Gerdi. Shwan Jalal and Rawez Lawan were also called-up but were unable to join-up.
Rashid who was born in Kirkuk, made his unofficial international debut for Iraq in the Fuchs International Tournament against Kuwait in Amman although his license wasn't approved by the AFC.

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Parthia
Parthia is a region of north-eastern Iran, best known for having been the political and cultural base of the Arsacid dynasty, rulers of the Parthian Empire.
The name "Parthia" is a continuation from Latin Parthia, from Old Persian Parthava, which was the Parthian language self-designator signifying "of the Parthians" who were an Iranian people.
Parthia roughly corresponds to the western half of Khorasan region in northeastern Iran. It was bordered by the Kopet Dag mountain range in the north and the Dasht-e-Kavir desert in the south. It bordered Media on the west, Hyrcania on the north west, Margiana on the north east, and Aria on the south east.
During Arsacid times, Parthia was united with Hyrcania as one administrative unit, and that region is therefore often (subject to context) considered a part of Parthia proper.
As the region inhabited by Parthians, Parthia first appears as a political entity in Achaemenid lists of governorates ("satrapies") under their dominion. Prior to this, the people of the region seem to have been subjects of the Medes, and 7th century BC Assyrian texts mention a country named Partakka or Partukka (though this "need not have coincided topographically with the later Parthia").

wn.com/Parthia
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy ( /ˈtɒləmi/; Greek: Κλαύδιος Πτολεμαῖος, Klaudios Ptolemaios; Latin: Claudius Ptolemaeus; c. AD 90 – c. AD 168), was a Greek-Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the Thebaid. This theory, proposed by Theodore Meliteniotes, could be correct, but it is late (ca. 1360) and unsupported. There is no reason to suppose that he ever lived anywhere else than Alexandria, where he died around AD 168.
Ptolemy was the author of several scientific treatises, at least three of which were of continuing importance to later Islamic and European science. The first is the astronomical treatise now known as the Almagest (in Greek, Ἡ Μεγάλη Σύνταξις, "The Great Treatise", originally Μαθηματικὴ Σύνταξις, "Mathematical Treatise"). The second is the Geography, which is a thorough discussion of the geographic knowledge of the Greco-Roman world. The third is the astrological treatise known sometimes in Greek as the Apotelesmatika (Ἀποτελεσματικά), more commonly in Greek as the Tetrabiblos (Τετράβιβλος "Four books"), and in Latin as the Quadripartitum (or four books) in which he attempted to adapt horoscopic astrology to the Aristotelian natural philosophy of his day.

wn.com/Ptolemy
Rafiq Hilmi
Rafiq Hilmi (1898–1960) was a Kurdish historian, writer and politician born in Kirkuk. He was founder of the Kurdish party Hîwa in 1938 and author of many books on the history of Kurdistan and Kurdish language. After attending school in Sulaimania and Baghdad, he continued his studies at the Military Academy and Technical School of Istanbul.
Early in his career as a writer, he worked for two Kurdish newspapers: Rojî Kurdistan, the official newspaper of Kingdom of Kurdistan, and Bangî Kurdistan. He became recognized as a talented literary critic after publication of the second volume of his Kurdish Poetry and Literature in 1956. In this work for the first time Goran's poetry and characteristics of the modernist literary movement which he represented were studied and analyzed in depth. He has also written several others books on Kurdish history and politics.
Rafiq Hilmi is well known in Kurdish politics as the founder of a party called Hîwa (Hope) in 1938. This party was first organized in Kirkuk and then its activities were expanded to north and central Iraq. It was initially a secret organization and there were Kurdish intellectuals and civil servants among its rank. While the political program of Hîwa was a mainly nationalist one and focused on securing autonomy for Iraqi Kurdistan, many members were also leftist-minded.

wn.com/Rafiq_Hilmi
Rashad Mandan Omar
Rashad Mandan Omar was Minister of Science and Technology in the cabinet appointed by the Interim Iraq Governing Council in September 2003 and in the Iraqi Interim Government.
A Sunni Muslim and Turkoman, originally from Kirkuk, Omar is an engineer by training and recently returned to Iraq from a period working in Dubai in the field of airport construction.

wn.com/Rashad_Mandan_Omar
Riza Talabani
Sheikh Riza Talabani (شێخ ڕه‌زا تاڵه‌بانی, Shêx Rizayê Talebanî in Kurdish) (1835–1910), a celebrated Kurdish poet from Kirkuk, Iraq. Talabani wrote his poetry in Kurdish, Turkish, Persian, and Arabic. Some of Sheikh Riza's poems considered by some historian as a credible testimony to the history of the city of Kirkuk. Most of his poetry consist of Satire, Ribaldry, Flyting and creative insults.
The poet in one of his famous poems recalled his childhood in the Kurdish Emirate of Baban before it was ruled by either the Persians or the Ottomans. that poem is considered by some Kurdish historian as an importance evidence of the Kurdish identity of Kirkuk city.
As a young man of age twenty-five or so, the poet went to the Ottoman capital, Constantinople (Istanbul), and in the course of his journey, he visited the grave of the Kurdish Sufi, Sheikh Nurredin Brifkani. At the graveside he recited a long poem in Persian, telling of how he had journeyed from Kurdish Emirate of Sharazur, of which Kirkuk was its capital, to visit The Country of the Rom as the Kurds used to referred to Turkey at that time^{[citation needed]}, referring to the Turkic migration to Anatolia, thus not being their homeland^{[citation needed]}. In 1879, when the Ottoman Empire annexed the Wilayah of Sharazur to the Wilayah of Mosul, Riza expressed his sadness and disappointment in a poem, in Turkish, in which he told the people that Mosul had now become the capital of their Wilayah and Nafi’i Effendi was the Wali.

wn.com/Riza_Talabani
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti (Arabic: صدام حسين عبد المجيد التكريتي Ṣaddām Ḥusayn ʿAbd al-Maǧīd al-Tikrītī; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, and later, the Baghdad-based Ba'ath Party and its regional organisation Ba'ath Party – Iraq Region, which espoused ba'athism, a mix of Arab nationalism and Arab socialism, Saddam played a key role in the 1968 coup, later referred to as the 17 July Revolution, that brought the party to long-term power of Iraq.
As vice president under the ailing General Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, and at a time when many groups were considered capable of overthrowing the government, Saddam created security forces through which he tightly controlled conflict between the government and the armed forces. In the early 1970s, Saddam nationalized oil and other industries. The state-owned banks were put under his control, leaving the system eventually insolvent mostly due to the Iran–Iraq War, the Gulf War, and UN sanctions. Through the 1970s, Saddam cemented his authority over the apparatuses of government as oil money helped Iraq's economy to grow at a rapid pace. Positions of power in the country were filled with Sunnis, a minority that made up only a fifth of the population.

wn.com/Saddam_Hussein
Simon Jenkins
Sir Simon David Jenkins (born 10 June 1943) is a British newspaper columnist and author, and since November 2008 has been chairman of the National Trust. He currently writes columns for both The Guardian and London's Evening Standard, and was previously a commentator for The Times, which he edited from 1990 to 1992. He was educated at Mill Hill School and St John's College, Oxford, where he read Philosophy, politics, and economics.
A former editor of both The Times and the Evening Standard, he received a knighthood for services to journalism in the 2004 New Year honours.
He married the American actress Gayle Hunnicutt in 1978; the couple separated in 2008.
After graduating from Oxford, Jenkins worked initially at Country Life magazine, before joining the Times Educational Supplement and then editing the Sunday Times Insight pages. From 1976 to 1978 he was editor of the Evening Standard, before moving to become political editor of the Economist. He edited The Times from 1990 to 1992, but since then has primarily worked as a columnist.

wn.com/Simon_Jenkins
Tomb of Daniel
The Tomb of Daniel is the traditional burial place of the biblical prophet Daniel. Various locations have been named for the site, but the tomb in Susa, Iran, is the most widely accepted, it being first mentioned by Benjamin of Tudela, who visited Asia between 1160 and 1163.
The Book of Daniel mentions that Daniel lived in Babylon and may have visited the place of Susa‌, Iran, but the place where he died is not specified; the tradition preserved among the Jews and Arabs is that he was buried in Susa. Today the Tomb of Daniel in Susa is a popular attraction among local Muslims and Iran's Jewish community alike.

wn.com/Tomb_of_Daniel
Turkish people
Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" (Turkish: singular: Türk, plural: Türkler), are a nation and ethnic group primarily living in Turkey, and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities have been established in the Balkans, the island of Cyprus, the Levant, Meskhetia, and North Africa. The Turkish minorities are the second largest ethnic groups in Bulgaria and Cyprus. In addition, due to modern migration, a Turkish diaspora has been established, particularly in Western Europe (see Turks in Europe), where large communities have been formed in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. There are also Turkish communities living in Australia, the former Soviet Union and the United States.
Although Turkic languages may have been spoken as early as 600 BC, the name "Turk" first appeared in Chinese sources and derives from the term "Tujue" (T’u-chue), meaning "strong" or "powerful", which was used in the 6th century C.E. to refer to the Göktürks.

wn.com/Turkish_people
Turkmen people
The Turkmen (Turkmen: Türkmen/Түркмен, plural Türkmenler/Түркменлер) are a Turkic people located primarily in the Central Asian states of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, northeastern Iran, Syria, Iraq and North Caucasus (Stavropol Krai). They speak the Turkmen language, which is classified as a part of the Western Oghuz branch of the Turkic languages family together with Turkish, Azerbaijani, Qashqai, Gagauz and Salar.
Originally, all Turkic tribes that were not part of the Turkic dynastic mythological system (for example, Uigurs, Karluks, Kalaches and a number of other tribes) were designated "Turkmens". Only later did this word come to refer to a specific ethnonym. The etymology of the term derives from Türk plus the Sogdian affix of similarity -myn ,-men, and means "resembling a Türk" or "co-Türk". A prominent Turkic scholar, Mahmud Kashgari, also mentions the etymology Türk manand (like Turks). The language and ethnicity of the Turkmen were much influenced by their migration to the west. Kashgari calls the Karluks Turkmen as well, but the first time the etymology Turkmen was used was by Makdisi in the second half of the 10th-century AD. Like Kashgari, he wrote that the Karluks and Oghuz Turks were called Turkmen. Some modern scholars have proposed that the element -man/-men acts as an intensifier, and have translated the word as "pure Turk" or "most Turk-like of the Turks". Among Muslim chroniclers such as Ibn Kathir the etymology was attributed to the mass conversion of two hundred thousand households in AH 349 (971 CE), causing them to be named Turk Iman, which is a combination of "Turk" and "Iman" إيمان (faith, belief), meaning "believing Turks", with the term later dropping the hard-to-pronounce hamza.

wn.com/Turkmen_people
World War I
World War I (WWI), which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939 (World War II), and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918. It involved all the world's great powers, which were assembled in two opposing alliances: the Allies (based on the Triple Entente of the United Kingdom, France and Russia) and the Central Powers (originally centred around the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy; but, as Austria–Hungary had taken the offensive against the agreement, Italy did not enter into the war). These alliances both reorganised (Italy fought for the Allies), and expanded as more nations entered the war. Ultimately more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history. More than 9 million combatants were killed, largely because of enormous increases in lethality of weapons, thanks to new technology, without corresponding improvements in protection or mobility. It was the sixth-deadliest conflict in world history, subsequently paving the way for various political changes such as revolutions in the nations involved.

wn.com/World_War_I
Younis Mahmoud
Younis Mahmoud Khalef (Arabic: يونس محمود خلف‎; born 2 March 1983 in Al-Dibs, Kirkuk, Iraq) is an Iraqi football striker who currently playes for Al-Wakrah. He was recently removed from his previous club, Al-Gharafa in Qatar despite being the top goal scorer in the league for the third time in five years. He is also the captain of the Iraq national football team. In 2007, he captained the Iraq football team to Asian Cup glory.
Younis Mahmoud called up to the Iraqi U-19 squad; scored 4 goals from 8 matches but he was also sent-off twice.
In March 2002, while many were questioning his temperament and lack of experience, coach Adnan Hamad named Younis in his squad for Iraq's training camp in Italy and gave him his first start against Serie B club Cagliari Calcio and later went on to score. A month after landing both the Iraqi league and cup, Younis made his first full international debut against Syria but failed to score; his first goal came in dramatic style as he netted in the 90th minute in the WAFF Championship final against Jordan to put the game into extra-time; where Haidar Mahmoud headed in the winner. His 6 goals at the Emir Abdullah Al-Faisal Cup including a hat-trick in the 5-1 win over Al-Nasr turned several heads; he earned even more praise with 7 goals in the 2004 Asian Cup qualifiers with four goals in a 5-1 drubbing of Bahrain. Younis was nominated for the 2003 Asian Young Footballer of the Year.

wn.com/Younis_Mahmoud

Kirkuk ... A New Hope

Videos shot in Feb 2012....

published: 06 Feb 2012

author: Anas Najmeddin

Kirkuk

Kirkuk (Karkuk) is a Kurdish city of Kurdistan with a long history of Kurdish people. Its ...

published: 04 Mar 2010

author: Mehran Kurdistan

Deadly car bomb attacks in Kirkuk - no comment

www.euronews.com Two car bombs in Iraq's ethnically mixed oil-rich city of Kirkuk killed s...

published: 16 Aug 2012

author: nocommenttv

Hêza Piştîwanî Peshmerge gihişte Kerkûkê (Kirkuk 24.11.2012)

Hêza Piştîwanî Peshmerge gihişte Kerkûkê (Kirkuk 24.11.2012)...

published: 25 Nov 2012

author: RojevTv1

Kirkuk city of Kurdistan. the place that we fight for it. un seen. new 2012.

Kurds have a long history in Kirkuk before the Baban family. The Baban family was a Kurdis...

published: 17 Nov 2012

author: Namorad

euronews reporter - Kirkuk: financing the future

www.euronews.net Kirkuk lies on the well of Iraqi oil. The ethnically diverse city contain...

published: 17 Jan 2012

author: Euronews

Governor Of Kirkuk Dr. Karim

Monthly video reviews activities and meetings of the Governor Of Kirkuk Dr. Najmaldin...

published: 24 Dec 2012

author: Kirkuk Gov

Series of blasts hit Iraq's Kirkuk

www.facebook.com www.youtube.com Latest News Platform Please Subscribe LatestNewsPlatform ...

published: 26 Dec 2012

author: LatestNewsPlatform

Kirkuk Night in Toronto 10-03-2012 part 1

This event took place at Edessa Banquet Hall in Toronto Ont Canada. This was for anyone wh...

published: 11 Mar 2012

author: Qaroya

Peshmerga towards Kirkuk پێشمهرگه 2012

www.kurdistanskyscrapers.com...

published: 05 Dec 2012

author: Alan Kirkuki

Zami Dabran Kirkuk Tv Hicran Yarasi

...

published: 13 Nov 2012

author: DeKaN MuHaMaD

Peshmerga Kurdistan Kirkuk پێشمهرگه 2012

www.kurdistanskyscrapers.com...

published: 05 Dec 2012

author: Alan Kirkuki

Kirkuk sliced off Heart and Quds of Kurdistan

1921, the British estimated the population of the Kirkuk region to be 75000 Kurds, 35000 T...

published: 04 May 2012

author: Alan Kirkuki

KRG deputy PM visits Peshemrga forces in Kirkuk 2012 پێسمهرگه

KRG deputy PM paid a visit to the Peshmerga forces in Kirkuk and broke his fasting with th...

published: 13 Aug 2012

author: Alan Kirkuki

Kirkuk

published: 05 Dec 2010

author: Sebastian Meyer

Raid in Kirkuk

How much do you tell the office when you go off to report a dangerous story? Neil Arun emb...

published: 27 Oct 2011

author: Richard Pendry

IRAK: El factor Kirkuk

¿Ocupación o vuelta a casa? Turcomanos y árabes se enfrentan a lo llaman la "kurdización" ...

published: 01 Jul 2011

author: mikel ayestaran

Vivre ensemble à Kirkuk

un film de Ardalan Gharib réalisé dans le cadre des ateliers DOKU http://doku6.wordpress....

published: 04 Oct 2011

author: alterdoc

<li class="playlistitemli thumbnail border_color">
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photo: US Navy / HMC Josh Ives

U.S. Army Spc. Jacob Bobbe, security force team member for Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) Farah, maintains security on the street during a key leader engagement in the Lash-e Juwayn district of Farah province, Afghanistan, Dec. 11 2012.

Imperial Lockstep

CounterPunch

27 Dec 2012

Imperial adventures are nothing new in the Middle East. Neither is their glorification, as Peter O’Toole’s pained Lawrence of Arabia eternally reminds us. But for a decade or so now, things have been heating up, as if to coincide with climate change and fears of declining petroleum reserves ... The Belly for Belligerence? ... The question loomed over beltway intelligentsia like an ephemeral Gordian knot ... We’re All Hawks Now ... While George W ... ....(size: 9.3Kb)

photo: WN / Janice Sabnal

Six dead as winter snowstorms pound US

Zeenews

27 Dec 2012

Washington. Six people, including two young children, were left dead in weather-related accidents, as winter snowstorms complicated travel for many Americans in the Midwest and Northeast on Wednesday. Snow totals in parts of Indiana ranged from 6 to 12 inches, CNN reported. About 350 snowploughs were clearing roads throughout the city. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told residents they should avoid nonessential travel ... IANS ... ....(size: 2.2Kb)

photo: AP

Members of Myanmar Fire Brigade team gather near a damaged Air Bagan passenger plane in Heho, Shan State, Myanmar, Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2012.

Two killed and 11 injured in Burma emergency landing

BBC News

25 Dec 2012

Two people, including a young child, have been killed and another 11 injured during an emergency landing in Burma, officials say. The Air Bagan plane was carrying more than 60 passengers, many of whom were foreign nationals ... "The cause of the accident is not clear yet ... ....(size: 1.4Kb)

photo: AP / Khalil Hamra, File

FILE - In this Saturday, Dec. 22, 2012 file photo, an elderly Egyptian man shows his inked finger after casting his vote on the second round of a referendum on a disputed constitution drafted by Islamist supporters of President Mohammed Morsi in Fayoum, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of Cairo , Egypt.

Egypt constitution passes, economic crunch looms

The Salt Lake Tribune

26 Dec 2012

Cairo • The official approval of Egypt’s disputed, Islamist-backed constitution Tuesday held out little hope of stabilizing the country after two years of turmoil and Islamist President Mohammed Morsi may now face a more immediate crisis with the economy falling deeper into distress ... Join the Discussion. The battle over the constitution left Egypt deeply polarized at a time when the government is increasingly cash-strapped ... The U.S ... " ... ....(size: 5.7Kb)

photo: AP / K.M.Chaudary

Supporters of Pakistan's slain leader Benazir Bhutto, stand beside her portrait after lighting earth lamps at a ceremony to mark the second anniversary of her death

Pakistan marks fifth anniversary of Benazir Bhutto murder

BBC News

27 Dec 2012

Large crowds of Pakistan People's Party (PPP) supporters are gathering to mark the fifth anniversary of the murder of ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Ms Bhutto died in a gun and bomb attack during her 2007 election campaign. Hundreds of thousands of people have set up camp near the Bhutto family's ancestral home in Sindh province ... He cannot contest an election until his 25th birthday. Show of strength ... ....(size: 2.4Kb)

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The Kurds Seize Their Chance

Middle East Online

26 Dec 2012

They are determined to seize it. It could be that the map of the region is being redrawn before our eyes ... Both sides have massed large numbers of troops along a contested border in the oil-rich region of Kirkuk. The immediate causes of the dispute are first, a contract the KRG has signed with Exxon Mobil to drill for oil in the Kirkuk area; and secondly, a proposed strategic energy partnership between the KRG and Turkey ... Gen....(size: 7.2Kb)

Ten Killed in Iraq, Including Iranian Exile

Antiwar

25 Dec 2012

At least 10 people were killed nine more were wounded in the latest violence. Although one fatality was a heart attack, his colleagues are blaming the Iraqi government for withholding medical care ... A civilian was kidnapped ... An ambulance driver was shot and wounded in Kirkuk....(size: 1.5Kb)

BP Buys North Sea Forties Crude; Glencore Sells Russian Urals

Bloomberg

24 Dec 2012

BP Plc bought a cargo of North Sea Forties crude at the lowest differential in three weeks. Glencore International Plc sold a consignment of Russian Urals blend at a bigger discount than the previous trade. Iraq plans to reduce exports of its Kirkuk crude in January from the Turkish port of Ceyhan to 18 cargoes, one less than this month, a loading program obtained by Bloomberg News showed ... 21 and is the lowest since Dec. 3 ... 9 to Jan ... 16 ... ....(size: 4.0Kb)

Exxon oil deal linked to looming civil war in Iraq

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

23 Dec 2012

Iraq's two most explosive political conflicts -- over land and oil -- are primed to combust ... Mr ... In some areas near the city of Kirkuk -- home of a massive oil field and the epicenter of the territorial disputes -- the Iraqi army and the pesh merga are less than a mile apart, well within firing range of each other's weapons ... officials ... law." ... Mr ... He made a high-profile visit to the pesh merga's front lines in Kirkuk on Dec ... ....(size: 7.6Kb)

Exit the Conciliator

Foreign Policy

21 Dec 2012

COMMENTS (0) SHARE .. Twitter  . Reddit . More... He is, in effect, the mediator-in-chief. Most recently, he won agreement from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the federal government to withdraw their armed forces from a disputed area around Kirkuk ... The Kurds want Baghdad to recognize the KRG's constitutional rights on oil and to hold the constitutionally mandated referenda for Kirkuk and other disputed territories ... ....(size: 3.8Kb)

China the Frontrunner to Buy Exxon Out of Iraq Oil

CNBC

21 Dec 2012

U.S ... Iraqi and Chinese sources said CNPC unit Petrochina is negotiating for Exxon's 60 percent in the $50 billion West Qurna-1 project and that there are rival bidders ... (Read More ... Fear of War ... (Read More ... At the heart of the dispute is the oil wealth under the swathe of land know as the "Disputed Territories" along the vague internal border that includes the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk, known to some as the "Jerusalem of the Kurds" ... ....(size: 5.5Kb)

Fleeing Syria, Palestinian refugees cram Beirut camp

France24

21 Dec 2012

Fleeing the violence in their adoptive country, thousands of Palestinian refugees have crossed the Syrian border into Lebanon in recent days, cramming into already over-crowded and decrepit camps. Our reporter visited the Shatila camp in Beirut. By Nayla EL EID reporting from the Shatila refugee camp in Beirut (video). FRANCE 24 (text).   ... Others only have the clothes on their back.” ... IRAQ ... Series of blasts strikes Iraq’s Kirkuk....(size: 9.1Kb)

‘Fleeing death’ in Syria, Palestinians flood Beirut camp

France24

21 Dec 2012

Iraq: 6 Killed Including Mosque Preacher

Antiwar

20 Dec 2012

Violence claimed six lives today. Another three people were wounded. In Mosul, a mosque preacher was gunned down ... In Kirkuk, gunmen killed a civilian and a Peshmerga fighter outside their home....(size: 1.0Kb)

Iraqi President Talabani flies to Germany for treatment

BBC News

20 Dec 2012

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani is flying to Germany for further treatment after a reported stroke ... In recent weeks, he has been mediating in the dispute triggered by the government's attempt to take greater control of security in oil-rich territory around the city of Kirkuk, which is claimed by both Arabs and Kurds ... ....(size: 1.7Kb)

Outrage in Damascus after Israeli reporters enter Syria

France24

20 Dec 2012

A report made by two Israeli journalists working undercover in the rebel-held Idlib region of Syria has been picked up by the Damascus regime and its Lebanese supporters Hezbollah as proof that the insurgents are on the side of the Israeli “enemy”. By FRANCE 24 (text).   ... The country is doubly dangerous for Israelis ... The preview to the Israeli broadcast (in Hebrew) ... . SYRIA ... SYRIA. Syrian VP ... Series of blasts strikes Iraq’s Kirkuk....(size: 9.1Kb)

Iraqi president 'stable' after stroke, doctor says

France24

19 Dec 2012

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani (pictured) was showing “stability and improvement” in hospital on Wednesday after suffering a stroke the previous day, a doctor said ...   ... He is showing clear signs of improvement,” Najmaldin Karim, the governor of Iraq’s Kirkuk city who is also a doctor, told Reuters ... ... Series of blasts strikes Iraq’s Kirkuk ... Series of blasts strikes Iraq’s Kirkuk ... Series of blasts strikes Iraq’s Kirkuk....(size: 8.3Kb)

Kurdish troops fire on Iraqi surveillance helicopter

The Examiner

19 Dec 2012

Troops of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, known as “Peshmerga” opened fire on an Iraqi Army helicopter yesterday near Sikanyan, a town just north of the disputed city of Kirkuk ... More than 30 people have been killed since Sunday in bombings against both Kurds and Iraqis in an around Kirkuk....(size: 3.4Kb)

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This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2012)

Kirkuk Kerkûk / که‌رکووک كركوك
Kirkuk Kirkuk's location in Iraq
Coordinates: 35°28′0″N 44°19′0″E / 35.466667°N 44.316667°E / 35.466667; 44.316667Coordinates: 35°28′0″N 44°19′0″E / 35.466667°N 44.316667°E / 35.466667; 44.316667
Country	Iraq
Governorate	Kirkuk
Population (2009 Est.)^[1]
• Total	850 787
Time zone	GMT +3

Kirkuk (also spelled Karkuk or Kerkuk, Arabic: كركوك‎ karkūk, Kurdish: Kerkûk/که‌رکووک, Syriac: ܟܪܟ ܣܠܘܟ karḵ sluḵ, Turkish: Kerkük) is a city in Iraq and the capital of Kirkuk Governorate.

It is located in the Iraqi governorate of Kirkuk, 236 kilometres (147 mi) north of the capital, Baghdad. Kirkuk city lies 83 km south of Arbil, 149 km southeast of Mosul, 97 km west of Sulaymaniyah, and 116 km northeast Tikrit ^[2]

It stands on the site of the ancient Assyrian capital of Arrapha,^[3] which sits near the Khasa River on the ruins of a 5,000-year-old settlement (Kirkuk Citadel). Arrapha reached great importance under the Assyrians in the 10th and 11th centuries BC. Because of the strategic geographical location of the city, Kirkuk was the battle ground for three empires—the Neo Assyrian Empire, Babylonia, and Media—which controlled the city at various times.^[4]

Kirkuk lies in a wide zone with an ethnically mixed population, which has moreover experienced dramatic demographic changes in the course of the twentieth century. Kurds, Turkmen and Arabs lay conflicting claims to this zone, and all have their historical accounts and memories to buttress their claims.^[5]

Historically, the city has always been considered by Kurds^[6] and Turkmens^[7]^[8] as a cultural capital. It was named the "capital of Iraqi culture" by the ministry of culture in 2010.^[9]

The city currently consists of Kurds, Arabs, Iraqi Turkmens and some Assyrians.

Etymology [link]

The ancient name of Kirkuk was the Mittani Arraphka. During the Parthian era, a Korkura is mentioned by Ptolemy, which is believed to refer either to Kirkuk or to the site of Baba Gurgur three miles (5 km) from the city.^[10] Under Greek reign it was known as Karkha D-Bet Slokh, which means 'Citadel of the House of Seleucid'^[11] in Mesopotamian Aramaic, the lingua franca of the Fertile Crescent in that era.^[12]

The region around Kirkuk was known in Aramaic and Syriac sources as "Beth Garmai" (Syriac: ܒܝܬܓܪܡܝ), which means the "place of bones" in a reference to bones of slaughtered Achaemenids which littered the plains after a decisive battle between Alexander the Great and Darius III.^[13] It is also thought that region was known during the Parthian and Sassanid periods as Garmakan, which means the 'Land of Warmth' or the 'Hot Land'. In the modern Persian and Kurdish languages too "Garm" means warm;^[14] the name is still used by the Kurds in the form Garmian with the same meaning.

And from the 7th century, when Muslim Arabs conquered the area, up to the medieval era, Arab writers simply used the name Kirkheni (Syriac for "citadel"^[15]) to refer to the city.^[16] Some Arabs used the names Bajermi or Jermakan.^[14] A cuneiform script found in 1927 at the foot of Kirkuk Citadel stated that the city of Erekha of Babylonia was on the site of Kirkuk. Other sources consider Erekha to have been simply one part of the larger Arrapha metropolis.

History [link]

Kirkuk Citadel.

Originally the city was founded by Hurrian-related Zagros-Taurus dwellers who were known as Gutian people by lowland-dwellers of Southern Mesopotamia. Under its ancient name Arraphkha, Kirkuk was capital of Kingdom of Gutium which is mentioned in cuneiform records about 2400 BC.^[17]

The small Hurrian kingdom of Arraphka, of which modern Kirkuk was the capital,^[18] was situated along the southeastern edge of the area under Aryan Mittanian domination.^[19] From 1500 to 1360 BC all kings of Assyria were vassals of kingdom of Mittani.^[19] Assyria's revolt against the Hurrian kingdom of Mittani probably led to fall of the kingdom in the 14th BC century and ultimately contributed to Mittani empires’s collapse.^[20]

The city reached great prominence in the 10th and 11th centuries BC under Assyrian rule. However in 6th BC, Assyria was conquered by a union of Medes, remaining Hurrian-related tribes, and Babylonians.^[20] After Achaemenids had the region under their dominion; in the Parthian and Sassanid eras Kirkuk was capital of Beth Garmai. ^[21]

After the Islamic conquest [link]

Arab Muslims invaded the Sassanid empire in the 7th century AD. Up to the end of the 14th century AD, Kirkuk often administratively and economically belonged to Daquq and they were both at the same time in contact with Arbil, the modern capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, and Sharazor and their extensions. In the medieval era the city was part - and since the 16th century the capital - of the ancient wilayet of Sharazor which is still important to Kurdistan's economy.^{[citation needed]}

Arab people [link]

The principal Arab extended families in the city of Kirkuk were: the Tikriti and the Hadidi (Arabic: حديدي‎). The Tikriti family was the main Arab family in Kirkuk coming from Tikrit in 17th century. Other Arab tribes who settled in Kirkuk during the Ottoman Period are the Al-Ubaid (Arabic: آل عبيد‎) and the Al-Jiburi (Arabic: آل جبور‎). The Al-Ubaid came from just northwest of Mosul when they were forced out of the area by other Arab tribes of that region. They settled in the Hawija district in Kirkuk in 1935 during the government of Yasin al-Hashimi.^[22]

Kurdish people [link]

Kurds have a long history in Kirkuk before the Baban family. The Baban family was a Kurdish family that, in the 18th and 19th centuries, dominated the political life of the province of Sharazor, in present-day Iraqi Kurdistan. The first member of the clan to gain control of the province and its capital, Kirkuk, was Sulayman Beg. Enjoying almost full autonomy, the Baban family established Kirkuk as their capital. This persisted even after the Babans moved their administration to the new town of Sulaymaniya, named after the dynasty’s founder, in the late 18th century.^[23]

Turkmen people [link]

Turkmens migrated to Iraq during the Umayyads and Abbasid eras as military recruits. Considerable Turkmen settlement began during the Seljuq era when Toghrul entered Iraq in 1055 with his army composed mostly of Oghuz Turks. Kirkuk remained under the control of the Seljuq Empire for 63 years. The Turkmen settlement in Kirkuk was further expanded later during the Ottoman Era, when people were brought to the city from there. Tuzhurmati has been one of the historical Turkmen settlement in Iraq.^{[citation needed]}

During the Ottoman period the Turkmen were the predominant population of Kirkuk city but Kurds constituted the majority of the rural population of Kirkuk.^[5]

British occupation [link]

At the end of World War I, the British occupied Kirkuk on May 7, 1918. Abandoning the city after about two weeks, the British returned to Kirkuk a few months later after the Armistice of Mudros. Kirkuk avoided the troubles caused by the British-backed Shaykh Mahmud, who quickly attempted to defy the British and establish his own fiefdom in Sulaymaniyah. The townspeople and tribesmen of Kirkuk, notably the Talabani shaykhs, demanded to be excluded from Shaykh Mahmud's area of authority before he was put in place.^{[citation needed]}

Entry Into the Kingdom of Iraq [link]

As both Ottomans and Great Britain desperately wanted control of the Vilayet of Mosul (of which Kirkuk was a part), the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 failed to solve the issue. For this reason, the question of Mosul was sent to the League of Nations. A committee travelled to the area before coming to a final decision: the territory south of the "Brussels line" belonged to Iraq. Kirkuk then became a part of the Kingdom of Iraq.

Discovery of oil [link]

Main article: Kirkuk Field

In 1927 a huge oil gusher was discovered at Baba Gurgur ("St. Blaze" or father blaze in Kurdish) near Kirkuk. The Kirkuk oil field was brought into use by the Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC) in 1934. The field has remained the basis of northern Iraqi oil production with over ten billion barrels (1.6 km³) of proven remaining oil reserves as of 1998. After about seven decades of operation, Kirkuk still produces up to one million barrels a day, almost half of all Iraqi oil exports.^{[citation needed]}

The exploitation of Kirkuk’s oil, which began around 1930, attracted both Arabs and Kurds to the city in search of work. Kirkuk, which had been a predominantly Turkmen city, gradually lost its uniquely Turkmen character. At the same time, large numbers of Kurds from the mountains were settling in the uninhabited but cultivable rural parts of the district of Kirkuk. The influx of Kurds into Kirkuk continued through the 1960s.^[5]

According to the 1957 census, Kirkuk was 40% Iraqi Turkmen, 35% Kurdish with Arabs less than 25% of its population.^[24]

Some analysts believe that poor reservoir-management practices during the Saddam Hussein years may have seriously, and even permanently, damaged Kirkuk's oil field. One example showed an estimated 1,500,000,000 barrels (240,000,000 m³) of excess fuel oil being reinjected. Other problems include refinery residue and gas-stripped oil. Fuel oil reinjection has increased oil viscosity at Kirkuk making it more difficult and expensive to get the oil out of the ground.^[25]

Overall, between April 2003 and late December 2004 there were an estimated 123 attacks on Iraqi energy infrastructures, including the country's 7,000 km-long pipeline system. In response to these attacks, which cost Iraq billions of US dollars in lost oil-export revenues and repair costs, the US military set up the Task Force Shield to guard Iraq's energy infrastructure and the Kirkuk-Ceyhan Oil Pipeline in particular. In spite of the fact that little damage was done to Iraq's oil fields during the war itself, looting and sabotage after the war ended was highly destructive and accounted for perhaps eighty percent of the total damage.^[26]

The discovery of vast quantities of oil in the region after World War I provided the impetus for the annexation of the former Ottoman Vilayet of Mosul (of which the Kirkuk region was a part), to the Iraqi Kingdom, established in 1921. Since then and particularly from 1963 onwards, there have been continuous attempts to transform the ethnic make-up of the region.

Pipelines from Kirkuk run through Turkey to Ceyhan on the Mediterranean Sea and were one of the two main routes for the export of Iraqi oil under the Oil-for-Food Programme following the Gulf War of 1991. This was in accordance with a United Nations mandate that at least 50% of the oil exports pass through Turkey. There were two parallel lines built in 1977 and 1987.

1970 Autonomy Agreement [link]

On paper, the Autonomy Agreement of March 11, 1970, recognized the legitimacy of Kurdish participation in government and Kurdish language teaching in schools. However, it reserved judgment on the territorial extent of Kurdistan, pending a new census. Such a census, according to Kurds would surely have shown a solid Kurdish majority in the city of Kirkuk and the surrounding oilfields, as well as in the secondary oil-bearing Kurdish area of Khanaqin, south of the Kurdish city of Sulaymaniyah (Kurdish: Sîlemanî). A census was not scheduled until 1977, by which time the autonomy deal was dead. In June 1973, with Ba'ath-Kurdish relations already souring, the guerrilla leader Mullah Mustafa Barzani laid formal claim to the Kirkuk oilfields.^{[citation needed]}

Baghdad interpreted this as a virtual declaration of war, and, in March 1974, unilaterally decreed an autonomy statute. The new statute was a far cry from the 1970 Manifesto, and its definition of the Kurdish autonomous area explicitly excluded the oil-rich areas of Kirkuk, Khanaqin and Shingal/Sinjar. In tandem with the 1970–1974 autonomy process, the Iraqi regime carried out a comprehensive administrative reform, in which the country's sixteen provinces, or governorates, were renamed and in some cases had their boundaries altered. The old province of Kirkuk was split in half. The area around the city itself was named At-Ta'mim(Arabic: التأميم ‎) ("nationalization"), and its boundaries were redrawn to give an Arab majority.^[27]

According to Human Rights Watch, from the 1991 Gulf War until 2003, the former Iraqi government systematically expelled an estimated 500.000, Kurds and some Assyrians from Kirkuk and other towns and villages in this oil-rich region. Most have settled in the Kurdish-controlled northern provinces. Meanwhile, the Iraqi government resettled Arab families in their place in an attempt to reduce the political power and presence of ethnic minorities, a process known as Arabization.^[28]

The "Arabization" of Kirkuk and other oil-rich regions is not a recent phenomenon. Successive governments have sought at various times to reduce the ethnic minority populations residing there since the discovery of significant oil deposits in the 1920s. By the mid-1970s, the Ba'ath Party government that seized power in 1968 embarked on a concerted campaign to alter the demographic makeup of multi-ethnic Kirkuk. The campaign involved the massive relocation of tens of thousands of ethnic minority families from Kirkuk, Sinjar, Khanaqin, and other areas, transferring them to purpose-built resettlement camps. This policy was intensified after the failed Kurdish uprising in March 1991.^[29]^[30]^[31]^[32]^[33]^[34] Those expelled included individuals who had refused to sign so-called "nationality correction" forms, introduced by the authorities prior to the 1997 population census, requiring members of ethnic groups residing in these districts to relinquish their Kurdish or Assyrians identities and to register officially as Arabs. The Iraqi authorities also seized their property and assets; those who were expelled to areas controlled by Kurdish forces were stripped of all possessions and their ration cards were withdrawn.^[35]

Kirkuk after 2003 [link]

American and British military forces led an invasion of Iraq in March 2003, driving Saddam Hussein and his Ba'ath Party from power. A caretaker government was created until the establishment of a democratically-elected government.

Since April 2003, thousands of internally displaced Kurds have returned to Kirkuk and other Arabized regions to reclaim their homes and lands which have since been occupied by Arabs from central and southern Iraq.

Under the supervision of chief executive of Coalition Provisional Authority L. Paul Bremer, a convention was held on May 24, 2003 to select the first City Council in the history of this oil-rich, ethnically divided city. Each of the city's four major ethnic groups was invited to send a 39-member delegation from which they would be allowed to select six to sit on the City Council. Another six council members were selected from among 144 delegates to represent independents social groups such as teachers, lawyers, religious leaders and artists.

Kirkuk's 30 members council is made up of five blocs of six members each. Four of those blocs are formed along ethnic lines- Kurds, Arabs, Assyrian and Turkmen- and the fifth is made up of independents. Turkmen and Arabs complained that Kurds hold five of the seats in the independent block. They are also frustrated that their only representative at the council's helm was an assistant mayor whom they considered pro-Kurdish. Abdul Rahman Mustafa (Arabic: عبدالرحمن مصطفى ‎), a Baghdad-educated lawyer was elected mayor by 20 votes to 10. The appointment of an Arab, Ismail Ahmed Rajab Al Hadidi (Arabic: اسماعيل احمد رجب الحديدي ‎), as deputy mayor went some way towards addressing Arab concerns.

On June 30, 2005, through a secret direct voting process, with the participation of the widest communities in the province and despite all the political legal security complexities of this process in the country generally and in Kirkuk in particular, Kirkuk witnessed the birth of its first elected Provincial Council. The Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq IECI approved and announced the outcomes of this process, which filled the 41 seats of Kirkuk Provincial Council as follows:

26 seats 367 List Kirkuk Brotherhood List KBL
8 seats 175 List Iraqi Turkmen Front ITF
5 seats 299 List Iraqi Republic Gathering
1 seats 178 List Turkmen Islamic Coalition
1 seats 289 List Iraqi National Gathering

The new Kirkuk Provincial Council started its second turn on March 6, 2005. Its inaugural session was dedicated to the introduction of its new members, followed by an oath ceremony supervised by Judge Thahir Hamza Salman, the Head of Kirkuk Appellate Court.

Five churches in Kirkuk were targeted with bombs in August 2011^[36]

Demographics [link]

Mother tongue	Kirkuk City	Rest of Kirkuk Province	Total	Percentage of total population
1957 Census results for Kirkuk Province^[37]
Arabic	19,127	82,493	102,620	26.3%
Kurdish	71,047	147,546	218,593	56.2%
Turkish	26,306	38,065	64,371	16.5%
Syriac	1,509	96	1,605	0.4%
Hebrew	101	22	123	0.03
Other	6,330	215	6,545	1.77%
Total	120,402	268,437	388,829	100%

Future of Kirkuk [link]

Main article: Kirkuk status referendum

A referendum on whether Kirkuk province should become part of Iraqi Kurdistan was due to be held in November 2007 but has been delayed repeatedly, and currently has no firm date. In December 2007, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made an unscheduled visit to Kirkuk before proceeding to Baghdad, where she called on Iraqi leaders to urgently implement a national reconciliation roadmap.^[38]

Main sights [link]

Ancient architectural monuments of Kirkuk include:

the citadel
the qishla
the Prophet Daniel's Tomb
the market Bazari Pirehmerd.

The archaeological sites of Qal'at Jarmo and Yorgan Tepe are found at the outskirts of the modern city. In 1997, there were reports that the government of Saddam Hussein "demolished Kirkuk's historic citadel with its mosques and ancient church".^[39]^[40]

The architectural heritage of Kirkuk sustained serious damage during World War I (when some pre-Muslim Assyrian Christian monuments were destroyed) and, more recently, during the Iraq War. Simon Jenkins reported in June 2007 that "eighteen ancient shrines have been lost, ten in Kirkuk and the south in the past month alone".^[41]

Climate [link]

Kirkuk experiences a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification BSh) with extremely hot and dry summers and cool, rainy winters.

Climate data for Kirkuk
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Average high °C (°F)	13.8 (56.8)	15.7 (60.3)	20.1 (68.2)	26.3 (79.3)	33.7 (92.7)	39.8 (103.6)	43.2 (109.8)	42.8 (109.0)	38.7 (101.7)	31.4 (88.5)	22.6 (72.7)	15.8 (60.4)	28.66 (83.58)
Average low °C (°F)	4.5 (40.1)	5.7 (42.3)	9.0 (48.2)	13.8 (56.8)	19.6 (67.3)	24.5 (76.1)	27.5 (81.5)	27.1 (80.8)	23.2 (73.8)	18.1 (64.6)	11.2 (52.2)	6.3 (43.3)	15.88 (60.58)
Precipitation mm (inches)	68.3 (2.689)	66.7 (2.626)	57.3 (2.256)	44.1 (1.736)	13.4 (0.528)	0.1 (0.004)	0.2 (0.008)	0.0 (0)	0.7 (0.028)	12.4 (0.488)	39.1 (1.539)	59.0 (2.323)	361.3 (14.224)
Avg. precipitation days	11	11	11	9	5	0	0	0	0	5	7	10	69
Source: World Meteorological Organisation (UN) ^[42]

Notable people from Kirkuk [link]

Ibtisam Abdallah (novelist)
Mohsen Abdel Hamid (member of the Interim Iraq Governing Council)
Najiba Ahmad (writer and poet)
Ali Askari (politician)
Hijri Dede (poet)
Fadhil Al Azzawi (writer and poet)
Chopy Fatah (singer)
Ismail Ahmed Rajab Al Hadidi (politician)
Hajim al-Hassani (speaker of the Iraqi National Assembly)
Rafiq Hilmi (poet, writer and academic)
Kevork Hovnanian (founder of Hovnanian Enterprises)
Adnan Karim (singer)
Nemir Kirdar (CEO of Investcorp)
Younis Mahmoud (Captain of the Iraqi soccer team)
Ali Mardan (musician)
Abdul Rahman Mustafa (mayor-governor of Kirkuk)
Herdi Noor Al-Deen (soccer player)
Rashad Mandan Omar (Minister of Science and Technology in the Interim Iraq Governing Council and the Iraqi Interim Government)
Osama Rashid (Dutch soccer player)
Mama Risha (prominent member of the Peshmerga)
Ferhad Shakely (writer and poet)
Bakr Sidqi (Iraqi general)
Riza Talabani (poet)
Narsai Toma (Metropolitan bishop for the Diocese of Kirkuk)
Mehmet Türkmehmet (Turkish soccer player)

Sister cities [link]

References [link]

^ "World Gazetteer". World Gazetteer. 2009-01-26. http://www.world-gazetteer.com/wg.php?x=1104352975&men=gpro&lng=en&des=wg&geo=-105&srt=npan&col=abcdefghinoq&msz=1500&pt=c&va=&geo=451714439. Retrieved 2009-01-26.
^ http://www.daftlogic.com/projects-google-maps-distance-calculator.htm
^ The Cambridge Ancient History - Page 17 by John Boardman
^ Talabany, Nouri (1999). "Iraq’s Policy of Ethnic Cleansing: Onslaught to change national/demographic characteristics of the Kirkuk Region". http://www.fortunecity.com/business/laur/791/nouri_kirkuk.htm. Retrieved 2006-06-05.
^ ^a ^b ^c Bruinessen, Martin van, and Walter Posch. 2005. Looking into Iraq. Paris: European Union Institute for Security Studies.
^ Claims in conflict: reversing ethnic cleansing in northern Iraq, Human Rights Watch (Organization), Aug. 2004, Vol.16, 54. [1]
^ "The Identity of Kirkuk". http://m-i-m.org/the_identity_of_kerkuk.pdf. "Conclusion"
^ Cocks, Tim (July 21, 2009). "U.N. wants Iraq Kurds to drop Kirkuk vote-diplomat". ofReuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLL491827.
^ http://pukmedia.com/english/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15498&Itemid=52
^ Edward Balfour, Encyclopaedia Asiatica, p. 214, Cosmo Publications, 1976
^ The Acts of Mar Mari the Apostle By Amir Harrak. p. 27.
^ The World's Greatest Story: The Epic of the Jewish People in Biblical Times By Joan Comay. p. 384.
^ Grant, Asahel (1841). Nestorians. Harper. pp. 52. http://books.google.com/books?id=5z4AAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA52.
^ ^a ^b Iraq’s Policy of Ethnic Cleansing: Onslaught to change national/demographic characteristics of the Kirkuk Region by Nouri Talabany
^ meaning of Karkha in Syriac, Syriac dictionary
^ Kirkuk and its dependencies: Historically part of Kurdistan - II by Mufid Abdulla
^ William Gordon East, Oskar Hermann Khristian Spate, The Changing Map of Asia: A Political Geography, 1961 - 436 pages, p: 105
^ Soldiers Help Preserve Archeological Sites By Sergeant Sean Kimmons
^ ^a ^b Before the Greeks By M. Chahin. p. 77.
^ ^a ^b The Cambridge Ancient History By I. E. S. Edwards, John Boardman, John B. Bury, S. A. Cook. p. 178-179.
^ "BĒṮ GARMĒ". Iranica. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/bet-garme. Retrieved 3 May 2012.
^ Arabization of the Kirkuk Region (in Arabic), Kurdistan Studies Press, Uppsala, 2001, p.131.
^ Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire, Baban Family Entry
^ Understanding radical Islam: medieval ideology in the twenty-first century,Brian R. Farmer, page 154, 2007
^ "Kirkuk". GlobalSecurity.org. 2005-07-09. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/kirkuk.htm. Retrieved 2006-06-05.
^ "Iraq". Country Analysis Briefs. Energy Information Administration. http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/iraq.html. Retrieved 2006-06-05.
^ "Ba'athis and Kurds". Genocide in Iraq. Human Rights Watch. July 1993. http://hrw.org/reports/1993/iraqanfal/ANFAL1.htm. Retrieved 2006-06-05.
^ [2]
^ http://www.hrw.org/reports/1994/iraq/TEXT.htm
^ http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/iraq0303/Kirkuk0303.htm
^ http://www.hrw.org/wr2k/Mena-05.htm
^ http://www.hrw.org/wr2k3/mideast4.html
^ http://www.hrw.org/reports/1996/WR96/MIDEAST-04.htm
^ http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/mena/iraq1217bg.html
^ http://www.hrw.org/wr2k1/mideast/iraq.html
^ Barnabas Fund
^ Anderson, Liam D.; Stansfield, Gareth R. V. (2009), Crisis in Kirkuk: The Ethnopolitics of Conflict and Compromise, University of Pennsylvania Press, p. 43, ISBN 0-8122-4176-2
^ "Rice pushes "roadmap" as Turkish troops enter Iraq". Reuters. 2007-12-18. http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL0864778620071219?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0.
^ http://www.meforum.org/article/1075#_ftn11
^ http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/iraq/2000/photo3.htm
^ Jenkins, Simon (June 7, 2007). "In Iraq's four-year looting frenzy, the allies have become the vandals". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2098272,00.html.
^ "World Weather Information Service – Kirkuk". United Nations. July 2011. http://worldweather.wmo.int/154/c01466.htm. Retrieved 1 January 2011.

External links [link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Kirkuk

v t e Districts of Iraq and capitals

Al Anbar Governorate	Al-Qa'im District (Al-Ka'im) •Ar Rutba District (Al-Rutba)• Anah District (Anah) • Falluja District (Falluja) • Haditha District (Haditha) • Hīt District (Hīt) •Ramadi District (Ramadi)

Al Muthanna Governorate	Al-Khidhir District (Al-Khidhir) • Al-Rumaitha District (Al-Rumaitha) • Al-Salman District (Al-Salman) • Al-Samawa District (Samawa)

Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate	Afaq District (Afaq) • Al-Shamiya District (Al-Shamiya) • Diwaniya District (Diwaniya) • Hamza District (Hamza)

Babil Governorate	Al-Mahawil District (Al-Mahawil) • Al-Musayab District (Al-Musayab) • Hashimiya District (Hashimiya) • Hilla District (Hilla)

Baghdad Governorate	Abu Ghraib District • Al Istiqlal District• Al-Mada'in District • Mahmudiya District (Mahmudiya) • Taji District• Al Tarmia District• Baghdad:Adhamiyah •Karkh • Karadah • Kadhimyah • Mansour • Sadr City • Al Rashid • Rusafa • 9 Nissan

Basra Governorate	Abu Al-Khaseeb District (Abu Al-Khaseeb) • Al-Midaina District (Al-Midaina) • Al-Qurna District (Al-Qurna) • Al-Zubair District (Al-Zubair) • Basrah District (Basrah) • al-Faw District (al-Faw) • Shatt Al-Arab District (Shatt Al-Arab)

Dhi Qar Governorate	Al-Chibayish District (Al-Chibayish) • Al-Rifa'i District (Al-Rifa'i) • Al-Shatra District (Al-Shatra) • Nassriya District (Nassriya) • Suq Al-Shoyokh District (Suq Al-Shoyokh)

Diyala Governorate	Al-Khalis District (Al-Khalis) • Al-Muqdadiya District (Al-Muqdadiya) • Baladrooz District (Baladrooz) • Ba'quba District (Ba'quba) •Khanaqin District (Khanaqin) • Kifri District (Kifri)

Dohuk Governorate	Amadiya District (Amadiya) • Dohuk District (Dohuk)• Sumel District (Sumel) • Zakho District (Zakho)

Arbil Governorate	Makhmur District (Makhmur) • Arbil • Koisanjaq District (Koisanja) • Shaqlawa District (Shaqlawa)• Soran District • Mergasur District • Choman District

Karbala Governorate	Ain Al-Tamur District (Ain Al-Tamur) • Al-Hindiya District (Al-Hindiya) • Kerbala District (Kerbala)

Kirkuk Governorate	Al-Hawiga District (Al-Hawiga) • Daquq District (Daquq) • Kirkuk District (Kirkuk)

Maysan Governorate	Ali Al-Gharbi District (Ali Al-Gharbi) • Al-Kahla District (Al-Kahla) • Al-Maimouna District (Al-Maimouna) • Al-Mejar Al-Kabi District (Al-Mejar Al-Kabi) • Amara District (Amarah) • Qal'at Saleh District (Qal'at Saleh)

Najaf Governorate	Al-Manathera District (Al-Manathera) • Kufa District (Kufa) • Najaf District (Najaf)

Ninawa Governorate	Aqrah District (Aqrah) • Al-Ba'aj District (Al-Ba'aj) • Al-Hamdaniya District (Bakhdida) • Hatra District (Hatra) •Mosul District (Mosul) • Shekhan District (Ain Sifni) • Sinjar District (Sinjar) • Tel Afar District (Tel Afar) • Tel Keppe District (Tel Keppe)

Salah ad Din Governorate	Al-Daur District (Al-Daur) • Al-Shirqat District (Al-Shirqat) • Baiji District (Baiji) • Balad District (Balad) • Samarra District (Samarra) • Tikrit District (Tikrit) • Tooz District (Tooz)

Sulaymaniyah Governorate	Chamchamal District (Chamchamal) • Darbandokeh District (Darbandokeh) • Dokan District (Dokan) • Halabja District (Halabja) • Kalar District (Kalar) • Penjwin District (Penjwin) • Pshdar District (Pshdar) • Ranya District (Ranya) • Sharbazher District (Sharbazher) • Sulaymaniya District (Sulaymaniya)

Wasit Governorate	Al-Hai District (Al-Hai) • Al-Na'maniya District (Al-Na'maniya) • Al-Suwaira District (Al-Suwaira) • Badra District (Badra) • Kut District (Kut)

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Contents

Etymology [link]

History [link]

After the Islamic conquest [link]

Arab people [link]

Kurdish people [link]

Turkmen people [link]

British occupation [link]

Entry Into the Kingdom of Iraq [link]

Discovery of oil [link]

1970 Autonomy Agreement [link]

Kirkuk after 2003 [link]

Demographics [link]

Future of Kirkuk [link]

Main sights [link]

Climate [link]

Notable people from Kirkuk [link]

Sister cities [link]

See also [link]

References [link]

External links [link]

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