It is described by the Kurdish leader and formerIraqi presidentJalal Talabani as “theJerusalem of Kurdistan” even though it is not part ofIraqi Kurdistan region, while it is seen by the Turkmen activist Fatih Salah as the cultural and historical capital of Iraqi Turkmens.[8] Thegovernment of Iraq states that Kirkuk represents a small version of Iraq due to its diverse population, and that the city is a model for coexistence in the country.[9][10]
The region around Kirkuk was known historically in theEastern Aramaic andSyriac Assyrian sources asBeth Garmai (Syriac:ܒܝܬܓܪܡܝ). The name "Beth Garmai" or "Beth Garme" may be of Syriac origin which meaning "the house of bones", which is thought to be a reference to bones of slaughteredAchaemenids after a decisive Macedonian victory in theBattle of Gaugamela.[17] An alternative explanation for the name's origin suggests that it may have been derived from a people, possibly an Assyrian orPersian tribe.[18]
It was one of a number of independentNeo-Assyrian states which flourished during theParthian empire (150 BC–226 AD).
It is also thought that region was known during theParthian andSassanid periods asGarmakan, which means the 'Land of Warmth' or the 'Hot Land'. InPersian "Garm" means warm;[19]
After the 7th century, Muslim writers used the nameKirkheni (Syriac for "citadel"[20]) to refer to the city.[21] Others used other variant, such asBajermi (a corruption of Aramaic "B'th Garmayeh" orJermakan (a corruption of Persian Garmakan) .[19]
History
Ancient history
It is suggested that Kirkuk was one of the places occupied byNeanderthals based on archeological findings in theShanidar Cave settlement.[22] A large amount of pottery shards dating to theUbaid period were also excavated from severalTells in the city.[23]
Later the city was occupied around 2150 BC bylanguage Isolate speaking Zagros Mountains dwellers who were known as the Gutian people by the Semitic and Sumerian of Mesopotamians. Arraphkha was the capital of the short-lived Guti kingdom (Gutium).
However, by the middle of the 2nd millennium B.C. theIndo-AryanMittani ofAnatolia formed a ruling class over thelanguage isolate speakingHurrians, and began to expand into aHurri-Mitanni Empire. In the 1450s they attacked Assyria, sackingAssur, and bringing the cities ofGasur and Arrapkha under their control.[28] From c.1450 to 1393 BC the kings of Assyria paid tribute to the kingdom of Mittani.[28]
Assyrian Period
TheMiddle Assyrian Empire (1365–1020 BC) overthrew the Hurri-Mitanni in the mid 14th century BC. Arrapha became part ofAssyria proper, with the Hurrian population driven away from the region. In the 11th and 10th centuries BC the city rose to prominence, becoming an important city in Assyria until the fall of theNeo-Assyrian Empire (911–605 BC).[29]
Iron Age
It remained as such throughout theNeo-Assyrian Empire (911–605 BC) where it became an important Assyrian city.
Later it became part of theMacedonian Empire (332–312 BC) and succeedingSeleucid Empire (311–150 BC) before falling to theParthian Empire (150 BC–224 AD) as a part of Athura. The Parthians seemed to only exercise loose control, and a number of smallNeo-Assyrian kingdoms sprang up in the region between the 2nd century BC and 4th century AD, one such kingdom named "ܒܝܬܓܪܡܝ", (that is Bit Garmai inSyriac) had Arrapha as its capital.[33] Christianity also arose during this period, with Arrapha and its surrounds being influenced by theAssyrian Church of the East. TheSassanid Empire destroyed these kingdoms during 3rd and early 4th centuries AD, and Arrapha was incorporated into Sassanid ruledAssuristan (Sassanid Assyria).
In AD 341, theZoroastrianShapur II ordered the massacre of allAssyrian Christians in the Persian Sassanid Empire. During the persecution, about 1,150 were martyred in Arrapha.[34]
ArabMuslims fought theSassanid empire in the 7th century AD, conquering the region. The city was a part of the IslamicCaliphate until the tenth century. Kirkuk and the surrounding areas were then ruled by theHasanwayhid Kurds &Annazid Kurds from 1014 to 1120 AD, then it was taken over bySeljuk Turks for many years. After the divided empire collapsed, the city came under the Abbasids rule once again Suleiman Shah who was the governor of the city until it was taken over byMongols in 1258. After the Mongol invasion, theIlkhanate was founded in the region and the city became a part of it. The Ilkhanid rule ended when in 1336, theArdalan took over the city, despite being vassals themselves of the various inPersia centred succeeding Turkic federations in the region, namely that of theQara Qoyunlu, and theAq Qoyunlu specifically. After theBattle of Chaldiran in 1514 the city came under theSoran Emirate control until it was taken over byBabanids in 1694. In 1851 it became under direct control of theOttoman Empire. Ottoman rule continued untilWorld War I when the Ottomans were pushed out of the region by theBritish Empire.
British occupation
At the end of World War I, the British occupied Kirkuk on 7 May 1918. Abandoning the city after about two weeks, the British returned to Kirkuk a few months later after theArmistice of Mudros. Kirkuk avoided the troubles caused by the Kurdish nationalistMahmud Barzanji, who quickly attempted to overthrow the British Mandate in Iraq and establish his own fiefdom inSulaymaniyah.
Kirkuk city in the 70s
Entry into the Kingdom of Iraq
an old picture of Kirkuk
As both Turkey and Great Britain desperately wanted control of theVilayet of Mosul (of which Kirkuk was a part), theTreaty of Lausanne in 1923 failed to solve the issue. For this reason, thequestion of Mosul was sent to theLeague of Nations. A committee travelled to the area before coming to a final decision: the territory south of the "Brussels line" belonged to Iraq. By the Treaty of Angora of 1926, Kirkuk became a part of theKingdom of Iraq.
In 1970 the Iraqi government reached an agreement with Kurdish leaderMustafa Barzani called theMarch Agreement of 1970, but the question of whether the oil-rich province of Kirkuk would be included within the Kurdish autonomous region remained unresolved, pending a new census.[35][36]
Despite the signing of the March Agreement, relations between the Kurds and Iraqi government continued to deteriorate due to the unresolved status of Kirkuk, and there were two attempts to assassinate Barzani in 1972. In response to Barzani's continued demands during the early 1970s for Kirkuk to be recognized as part of the autonomous region under the terms of the March Agreement, settlement construction for newly arrived Arab families increased drastically as theBa'athist government implemented Arabization policies to increase the Arab population of Kirkuk. Kurds were forbidden from buying property in Kirkuk, and could sell their properties only to Arabs. They were denied permission to renovate properties in need of maintenance, and poor Shi'a Arab families were paid to move to Kirkuk, while Kurds were paid to move out.[36]
Negotiations between Barzani'sKurdish Democratic Party and the Iraqi government collapsed in March 1974 and Barzani rejected PresidentAhmed Hassan al-Bakr declaration of Kurdish autonomy. Many disputes persisted between the Kurds and Arabs and the conflict escalated into theSecond Iraqi–Kurdish War (also called the Barzani rebellion). The rebellion collapsed after Iran withdrew its support for Barzani's forces following the1975 Algiers Agreement and the Ba'ath regime intensified Arabization efforts.[36][37]
After Barzani's rebellion was defeated in 1974, the districts of Chemchemal andKelar, which had been part of Kirkuk, became part ofSulaymaniyah andKifri became part ofDiyala province. Other Arab-populated districts, likeZab, became part of Kirkuk.[38] Kurds, Turkmen and Christian populations were forcibly relocated and replaced with Shi'a from Iraq's south. The expulsions continued after the1991 uprisings. Kurdish villages were razed and thousands of new homes were built, including at least 200 homes for relatives of Iraqi soldiers killed during theIran-Iraq War.[36] Between 1968, when the Ba'ath Party first rose to power in Iraq, and 2003 between 200,000 and 300,000 persons were forcibly relocated out of Kirkuk.[39] According to the Iraqi Ministry of Planning, by August 2005 (during the Iraq War), approximately 224,544 Kurds had returned to Kirkuk and 52,973 Arab persons had left the city.[38]
Gulf War
In 1991, Saddam Hussein invadedKuwait and was quickly routed by the United States in theFirst Gulf War (also calledOperation Desert Storm). In the aftermath of the Iraqi army's defeat, rebellions broke out in Iraq; first in southern Iraq on March 1, and in the northern Kurdish region a few days later. By March 24, KurdishPeshmerga forces hadseized control of Kirkuk, but they were only able to hold it until March 28 when it was reclaimed by Hussein's forces.[40] The US and UK began to enforce ano-fly zone in Northern Iraq and ade facto Kurdish Autonomous region emerged in the North. Arabs families were expelled from the Kurdish region and relocated to Kirkuk, which was still controlled by the Iraqi government. In these circumstances, Hussein's government further intensified the decades long policy of Arabization in Kirkuk, requiring that Kurds, Turkmen and Assyrians fill out "ethnic identity correction" forms and register as Arabs and many who refused to comply were forcibly relocated north of the Green Line.[36] In May 1991,Massoud Barzani announced thatBaghdad had conceded Kirkuk as the capital of the autonomous region, but when the Iraqi government demanded the Kurds join the Ba'athist government the dispute once again escalated to violent conflict and in October 1991 Iraqi forces had withdrawn from several Kurdish provinces in the North includingErbil,Dohuk andSulaymaniyah.[41]
Iraq War (2003–2011) and return of displaced Kurds
Iraqi Personnel Graduate From Kirkuk
American and British military forces led aninvasion of Iraq in March 2003, marking the start of theSecond Iraq War. Kurdishpeshmerga fighters assisted in the 2003 capture of Kirkuk. Though thepeshmerga were allowed to operate even after theCoalition Provisional Authority (CPA) disbanded and outlawed most of the armed militias in Iraq, thepeshmerga were eventually asked to withdraw from Kirkuk and other Kurdish held provinces.[42]
Under the supervision of chief executive ofCoalition Provisional AuthorityL. Paul Bremer, a convention was held on 24 May 2003 to select the first City Council in the history of this oil-rich, ethnically divided city. Each of the city's four majorethnic groups was invited to send a 39-memberdelegation 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 andTurkmen—and the fifth is made up ofindependents which meant 10 more council seats given to two main Kurdish Parties by Paul Bremer as token of appreciation for cooperation with American Forces. Turkmen and Arabs complained that theKurds allegedly hold five of the seats in the independent block. They were also infuriated that their only representative at the council's helm was an assistant mayor whom they considered pro-Kurdish.Abdul Rahman Mustafa (Arabic:عبدالرحمن مصطفى), aBaghdad-educated lawyer was elected mayor by 20votes 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 30 June 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 the elections and announced the outcome of this process, which filled the 41 seats ofKirkuk 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 newKirkuk Provincial Council started its second turn on 6 March 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.
Kirkuk is located in a disputed area of Iraq that runs fromSinjar on the Syrian border southeast toKhanaqin andMandali on the Iranian border.[43] Kirkuk has been a disputed territory for around eighty years — Kurds wanted Kirkuk to become part of theKurdistan Region, which has been opposed by the region's Arab and Turkmen populations.[44]
The Kurds sought to annex the long disputed territory to theKurdistan Regional Government (KRG) through Article 140 of theIraqi Constitution that was enacted in 2005.[45][44] Under Article 140 the Ba'athist Arabization policy would be reversed: Displaced Kurds who had relocated to areas in the Kurdish autonomous region would return to Kirkuk, while the Arab Shi'a population would be compensated and relocated to areas in the south. After the Ba'athist regimes demographic and redistricting policies were undone a census and referendum would determine whether Kirkuk would be administered by the KRG or Baghdad.[43]
Three churches in Kirkuk were targeted with bombs in August 2011.[46] On 12 July 2013, Kirkuk was hit by a deadly bomb, killing 38 people in an attack on a café. A few days prior, on 11 July 2013, over 40 people were killed in a series of bombings and shootings across Iraq, including in Kirkuk.[47]
On 21 October 2016, the Islamic State launchedmultiple attacks in Kirkuk to divert Iraqi military resources during theBattle of Mosul. Witnesses reported multiple explosions and gun battles in the city, most centered on a government compound. At least 11 workers, including several Iranians, were killed by a suicide bomber at a power plant in nearby Dibis.[50] The attack was brought to an end by 24 October, with 74 militants being killed and others (including the leader) being arrested.[51]
Kurdification
Under Kurdish control, Turkmen and Arab residents in Kirkuk experienced intimidation, harassment and were forced to leave their homes, in order to increase the Kurdish demographic in Kirkuk and bolster their claims to the city. MultipleHuman Rights Watch reports detail the confiscation of Turkmen and Arab families' documents, preventing them from voting, buying property and travelling. Turkmen residents of Kirkuk were detained by Kurdish forces and compelled to leave the city. Kurdish authorities expelled hundreds of Arab families from the city, demolishing their homes in the process.[52][53]
United Nations reports since 2006 have documented that Kurdish authorities and Peshmerga militia forces were illegally policing Kirkuk and other disputed areas, and that these militia have abducted Turkmen and Arabs, subjecting them to torture.[54]
On 16 October 2017, the Iraqi national army andPMF militiaretook control[55] of Kirkuk as the Peshmerga forces fled the city without fighting.[56][57][58]
Kirkuk has been a disputed territory for around eighty years. The KRG wanted Kirkuk to become part of theKurdistan Region, which is opposed by the region's Arab and Turkmen populations.[59]
In 2023,Anti-Kurdish unrest started in Kirkuk after the building used by the Joint Operation Command in Iraq was transferred to the KDP.[60]
Demographics
Kirkuk in Kâmûsü'l-A'lâm.
Şemseddin Sâmi mentioned Kirkuk city in the Kâmûsü'l-A'lâm written in the late 19th century. And says "Kirkuk is located to the southeast of theMosul vilayet inKurdistan, with a population of 30,000." then he says "The Kurds make up three-quarters of the people of Kirkuk, and the rest are Turks, Arabs, 760 Jews and 460 Chaldeans."[61][62]
Kirkuk's population was predominantly Turkmen in the early 20th century, when Turkish was the most common language spoken at home. The city had a population near 30,000 in the late 1910s. The Turkmen were majority in the city centre, dominating the political and economic life of the area.[63][64][65]
The most reliable census concerning the ethnic composition of Kirkuk dates back to 1957. The Turkish-speakingTurkmen formed the majority in the city of Kirkuk, whilst the Kurds were the plurality in thegovernorate. The provincial borders were later altered, the province was renamed al-Ta'mim, and some Kurdish-majority districts were added to Erbil and Sulamaniya provinces.[66]
Census results for the city proper of Kirkuk in 1957[67]
A report by theInternational Crisis Group points out that figures from the 1977 and 1997 censuses "are all considered highly problematic, due to suspicions of regime manipulation" because Iraqi citizens were only allowed to indicate belonging to either the Arab or Kurdish ethnic groups;[68] consequently, this skewed the number of other ethnic minorities.[68] ManyIraqi Turkmen declared themselves as Arabs (because the Kurds were not desirable underSaddam Hussein's regime), reflecting the changes wrought byArabisation.[68]
Ethnic groups
Ethnic groups in Kirkuk and its environs in 2014, at the time of the capture of the area by Kurdish forces.
After attacks by ISIS, Kurdish authorities who were suspicious of the Arab refugees in Kirkuk, expelled hundreds of Arab families who had fled to the region during Iraq's war against ISIS. The refugees were sent to camps for the displaced or to their places of origin. Some of the displaced described themselves as locals and not as internally displaced.[69]
Arabs
The principal Arab extended families in the city of Kirkuk were: theTikriti and theHadidi (Arabic:حديدي). The Tikriti family was the mainArab family in Kirkuk coming fromTikrit in the 17th century. OtherArab tribes who settled in Kirkuk during theOttoman Period are theAl-Ubaid (Arabic:آل عبيد) and theAl-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 theHawija district in Kirkuk in 1805 during theOttoman Period.[70]
The Seleucid town, like many otherUpper Mesopotamian cities had a significantindigenousAssyrian population. Christianity was established among them in the 2nd century by the bishop Tuqrītā (Theocritos).[73] During the Sasanian times the town became an important centre of theAssyrian Church of the East, with several of its bishops rising to the rank of Patriarch. Tensions among Christians and Zoroastrians led to a severe persecution of Christians during the reign ofShapur II (309–379 A.D.) as recorded in the Acts of the Persian Martyrs. Persecution resumed underYazdegerd II in 445 A.D. who massacred thousands of them. Their situation greatly improved under the Sasanians in the following two centuries after the advent of a national Persian church of free ofByzantine influence, namelyNestorianism.[74] Persecution resumed underYazdegerd II in 445 A.D. who massacred thousands of them. Tradition puts the death toll at 12,000 among them the patriarchShemon Bar Sabbae.[75] The city was known as the centre of the prosperousEcclesiastical Province of Beth Garmai which lingered until the conquests ofTimur Leng in 1400 A.D. During the Ottoman period most of Kirkuk's Christians followed theChaldean Catholic Church whose bishop resided in the Cathedral of the Great Martyrion which dates back to the 5th century. The cathedral was however used as a powder storage and was blown up as the Ottomans retreated in 1918.[76]
The discovery of oil brought more Christians to Kirkuk, however they were also affected by the Arabization policy of the Baath Party.[77] Their numbers continued to plummet after the American invasion,[78] and they occupy 4% of municipal offices, a percentage thought to be representative of their numbers in the city.[79]
They are ethnic Assyrians who speak their own dialect ofTurkish and religiously follow theChaldean Catholic Church from Kirkuk who lived in or near the citadel, where they adopted the Turkish language from Iraqi Turkmen, especially during theOttoman Empire. Their dialect is mutually intelligible with the Iraqi Turkmen dialect. Their official hymns, eulogies, and prayers are in Turkish.[80] Their bible is in theOttoman Turkish language written in the 1800s and is recited by community leaders.[81][82] The Citadel Christians are not to be confused with the community ofIraqi Turkmen who follow theRoman Catholic Church, which numbered around 30,000 in 2015 and live all acrossTurkmeneli, including Kirkuk, while the Citadel Christians were exclusively in Kirkuk before the migrations.[83]
Jews
Jews had a long history in Kirkuk. Ottoman records show that in 1560 there were 104 Jewish homes in Kirkuk,[84] and in 1896 there were 760 Jews in the city.[85][better source needed] After World War I, the Jewish population increased, especially after Kirkuk became a petroleum center; in 1947 there were 2,350 counted in the census. Jews were generally engaged in commerce and handicraft. Social progress was slow, and it was only in the 1940s that some Jewish students acquired secondary academic education. By 1951 almost all of the Jews had left for Israel.[86][better source needed]
Kurds
Kirkuk is claimed by theKurdistan Regional Government as its capital, but they do not control the city or province, and Kirkuk is not part of the Kurdistan Region. The last reliable census shows that the Kurds constituted less than a third of Kirkuk's population.[87][88][89]
Provisions of the Treaty of Sèvres for an independentKurdistan (in 1920)
TheBaban family was a Kurdish family that, in the 18th and 19th centuries, dominated the political life of the province ofSharazor, 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. It was from this time that Kurds in Iraq began to view 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.[90]
Iraqi Turkmens view the city as their capital, with the last reliable census showing the city of Kirkuk had a Turkmen majority.[91][92]
In the city of Kirkuk, Turkmens reside in the neighborhoods of Tisin, Musalla, Korya, Baghdad Road, Sarıkahya, Şaturlu, Beyler, Piryadi, Almas, Arafa, Bulak, Çukur, İmam Abbas, Cırıt Square, Çay, 1 June and Beşiktaş. They are sparsely dispersed in other neighborhoods. It is also known that Christian Turkmens live in the neighborhoods of Şaturlu, Almas and Arafa in Kirkuk. There are many Turkmen villages around Kirkuk. These villages include Türkalan, Yayçı, Çardaklı, Kızılyar, Kümbetler, Bulova andBeşir.[93]
The riverfront, the historical homes, alleyways, the old cemeteries, and the prevailing musical modes of Kirkuk historically belong to the Turkmen. The old names of most of the villages and districts in Kirkuk, as well as the prevalent trades and occupations, trace back to Turkmen families.[94]
TheTurkmen are believed to be descendants of numerous Turkic migration waves. The earliest arrivals date back to theUmayyads andAbbasid eras, when they arrived as military recruits.[95] Considerable Turcoman settlement continued during theSeljuq era whenToghrul entered Iraq in 1055 with his army composed mostly ofOghuz Turks. Kirkuk remained under the control of theSeljuq Empire for 63 years. However, the largest Turkic migration waves occurred during the four centuries ofOttoman rule (1535–1919) when Turkish migrants fromAnatolia were encouraged to settle in the region;[96] indeed, it is largely from this period that modern Turkmens claim association withAnatolia and the modernTurkish state.[97]
In particular, following the conquest of Iraq by the Ottoman sultanSuleiman the Magnificent in 1535, Kirkuk came firmly under Ottoman control and was referred to “Gökyurt” (Blue Homeland) in the Ottoman records, "perhaps indicating that Kirkuk was identified as a particularly Turkic town by that time."[97] Under the Ottomans, Turkish migrations fromAnatolia to Kirkuk occurred throughout the centuries; firstly during the initial conquest of 1535, followed by the arrival of Turkish families with the army of sultanMurad IV in 1638, whilst others came later with other notable Ottoman figures.[97] These families occupied the highest socioeconomic strata and held the most important bureaucratic jobs until the end of Ottoman rule.[97] During this period, the Turcoman were the predominant population of Kirkuk city and its close environs but Kurds constituted the majority of the rural population of Kirkuk.[98] Kirkuk had a population near 30,000 in the late 1910s,Turkmens were majority in the city center, dominating the political and economic life of the area.[63][64]
Currently Iraqi Turkmen politicians hold just over 20 percent of seats on Kirkuk's city council, while Turkmen leaders say they make up nearly a third of the city.[99]
The discovery of vast quantities of oil in the region afterWorld War I provided the impetus for the annexation of the formerOttoman Vilayet of Mosul (of which the Kirkuk region was a part), to the Iraqi Kingdom, established in 1921.[100] Since then and particularly from 1963 onwards, there have been continuous attempts to transform the ethnic make-up of the region.[100] Pipelines from Kirkuk run throughTurkey toCeyhan on theMediterranean Sea and were one of the two main routes for the export of Iraqi oil under theOil-for-Food Programme following theGulf War of 1991.[100] This was in accordance with a United Nations mandate that at least 50% of the oil exports pass through Turkey.[100] There were two parallel lines built in 1977 and 1987.[100]
In 1927, Iraqi andAmerican drillers working for the foreign-owned and British-ledIraq Petroleum Company (IPC) struck a hugeoil gusher atBaba Gurgur ("St. Blaze" or father blaze in Kurdish) near Kirkuk. The IPC began exports from the Kirkuk oil field in 1934.[101] The Company moved its headquarters from Tuz Khormatu to a camp on the outskirts of Kirkuk, which they named Arrapha after the ancient city.[101] Arrapha remains a large neighborhood in Kirkuk to this day.[101] The IPC exercised significant political power in the city and played a central role in Kirkuk's urbanization, initiating housing and development projects in collaboration with Iraqi authorities in the 1940s and 1950s.[101]
The presence of the oil industry had an effect on Kirkuk's demographics. The exploitation of Kirkuk's oil, which began around 1930, attracted both Arabs and Kurds to the city in search of work.[102] Kirkuk, which had been a predominantly Iraqi Turkmen city, gradually lost its uniquely Turkmen character.[35][103][102] 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.[102] The influx of Kurds into Kirkuk continued through the 1960s.[98] According to the 1957 census, Kirkuk city was 37.63%Iraqi Turkmen, 33.26%Kurdish withArabs constituting 22.53% of its population.[102] Assyrians comprised 1.25% of the population.[104][105]
In 1972 the Iraqi government, led by then Vice-PresidentSaddam Hussein, nationalized theIraqi Petroleum Company, after being unable to reach an agreement that would increase oil exports and resolve a longstanding dispute overLaw 80 of 1961.[106] The Iraqi government began to sell its oil toEastern bloc countries and the IPC's French partner CFP.[106] After reaching an agreement with the Iraqis in 1973, the IPC members were able to retain some of their interests in southern Iraq through the Basra Petroleum Company but had lost Iraq's main oilfields, including the Kirkuk field.[106] Some analysts believe that poorreservoir-management practices during the time ofSaddam may have seriously, and even permanently, damaged Kirkuk's oil field.[107] One example showed an estimated 1,500,000,000 barrels (240,000,000 m3) of excess fuel oil being re injected.[107] Other problems include refinery residue and gas-strippedoil. Fuel oil reinjection has increased oilviscosity at Kirkuk making it more difficult and expensive to get the oil out of the ground.[107]
Over all, between April 2003 and late December 2004 there were an estimated 123 attacks on energy infrastructures, including the country's 7,000 km-longpipeline system.[108] In response to these attacks, which costIraq billions of U.S dollars in lost oil-export revenues and repair costs, the United States military set up theTask Force Shield to guard Iraq's energy infrastructure and theKirkuk–Ceyhan Oil Pipeline in particular.[108] In spite of the fact that little damage was done to Iraq's oil fields during the war itself,looting andsabotage after the war ended was highly destructive and accounted for perhaps eighty percent of the total damage.[108]
Main sites
Ancient architectural monuments of Kirkuk include:
The archaeological sites of Qal'atJarmo andYorgan Tepe are found at the outskirts of the modern city. In 1997, there were reports that the government ofSaddam Hussein "demolished Kirkuk's historic citadel with its mosques and ancient church".[109]
The architectural heritage of Kirkuk sustained serious damage duringWorld War I (when some pre-Muslim Assyrian Christian monuments were destroyed) and, more recently, during theIraq 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".[110]
Geography
Alton Kopri, between Kirkuk and Erbil
Kirkuk is located 238 kilometres (148 miles) north ofBaghdad.[111]
Statue of a Peshmerga with the Kurdistan flag at the entrance to Kirkuk on the road with Erbil
Climate
Kirkuk experiences a hotsemi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification: BSh) with extremely hot and dry summers and mild winters with moderate rainfall. Snow is rare but it fell on 22 February 2004,[112] and from 10 to 11 January 2008.[113]
Climate data for Kirkuk (1991–2020, extremes since 1938)
^abBook IV. Ethno-nationalism in Iraq. – 16. The Kurds under the Baath, 1968–1975, page 329–330. // A Modern History of the Kurds. Author: David McDowall. Third edition. First published in 1996. Third revised and updated edition published in 2004, reprinted in 2007. London:I.B. Tauris, 2007, 515 pages.ISBN9781850434160. "It now began to look as if the Baath were playing for time and the year 1971 brought a disintegration of trust between the two parties. The central issue was a demographic one. The census (Article 14) for disputed areas planned for December 1970 had been postponed till the spring by mutual agreement, but when spring came it was unilaterally postponed sine die. Mulla Mustafa accused the government of resettling Arabs in the contested areas, Kirkuk, Khanaqin and Sinjar, and told the government he would not accept the census results if they indicated an Arab majority. He also dismissed the offer of the 1965 census, which he said was forged. When the government proposed to apply the 1957 census to Kirkuk, Mulla Mustafa refused it, since this was bound to show that the Turkomans, although outnumbered in the governorate as a whole, were still predominant in Kirkuk town. Given the residual animosity after the events of July 1959, the Turkomans were likely to opt for Ba'ati rather than Kurdish rule. The Baath thought the Kurds might be packing disputed areas with Kurds from Iran and Turkey, but the real tensions surfaced over the Faili Kurds, resident in Iraq since Ottoman days and yet without Iraqi citizenship. The government argued they were Iranians, and now determined their fate by the simple expedient of expelling roughly 50,000 of them from September onwards."
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^abGalbraith, Peter W. (2008)."Turkey".Unintended Consequences: How War in Iraq Strengthened America's Enemies. Simon and Schuster.ISBN978-1-4165-6225-2.
^Gunter, Michael M. (20 February 2018).Historical Dictionary of the Kurds. Rowman & Littlefield.ISBN978-1-5381-1050-8.
^"Iraq".www.let.uu.nl. Archived fromthe original on 17 April 2017. Retrieved16 October 2016.
^abc"Turkey and the Iraqi Kurds: Conflict or Cooperation?"(PDF).International Crisis Group. 2008. p. 16. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 8 August 2019. Retrieved19 June 2018.In Kirkuk governorate overall, the Kurds were the largest group (187,593), with the Arabs second (109,620) and the Turkomans third (83,371). Subsequent censuses, in 1967, 1977, 1987 and 1997, are all considered highly problematic, due to suspicions of regime manipulation. Moreover, the last three reflect the changes wrought by Arabisation, when Iraqis could indicate belonging to one of two ethnicities only: Arab or Kurd. This meant that many Turkomans identified themselves as Arabs (the Kurds not being a desirable ethnic group in Saddam Hussein's Iraq), thereby skewing the numbers.
^Matthew Gordon, The Breaking of a Thousand Swords: A History of the Turkish Military of Samarra, A.H. 200-275/815-889 C.E., SUNY Press, 2001, p.1
^Taylor, Scott (2004),Among the Others: Encounters with the Forgotten Turkmen of Iraq, Esprit de Corps Books, p. 31,ISBN978-1-895896-26-8
^abcdAnderson, Liam D.; Stansfield, Gareth R. V. (2009), "Kirkuk Before Iraq",Crisis in Kirkuk: The Ethnopolitics of Conflict and Compromise, University of Pennsylvania Press, p. 17,ISBN978-0-8122-4176-1
^abcdBook IV. Ethno–nationalism in Iraq. – 15. The Kurds in Revolutionary Iraq, page 305. // A Modern History of the Kurds. Author: David McDowall. Third edition. First published in 1996. Third revised and updated edition published in 2004, reprinted in 2007. London: I.B. Tauris, 2007, 515 pages.ISBN9781850434160. "Tension had been growing for some time between Turkomans, the originally predominant element, and Kurds who had settled increasingly during the 1930s and 1940s, driven from the land by landlord rapacity and drawn by the chance for employment in the burgeoning oil industry. By 1959 half the population of qo,ooo were Turkoman, rather less than half were Kurds and the balance Arabs, Assyrians and Armenians."
^Chapter 1: Introduction: Kurdish Identity and Social Formation, page 3. // A Modern History of the Kurds. Author: David McDowall. Third edition. First published in 1996. Third revised and updated edition published in 2004, reprinted in 2007. London:I.B. Tauris, 2007, 515 pages.ISBN9781850434160. "Few Kurds would claim quite as much today, but would still claim the city of Kirkuk, even though it had a larger Turkoman population as recently as 1958."
^Part I. Kirkuk and its environs. – Chapter 2. Kirkuk in the Twentieth Century,page 43. // Crisis in Kirkuk: The Ethnopolitics of Conflict and Compromise. Authors: Liam Anderson, Gareth Stansfield.Philadelphia:University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011, 312 pages.ISBN9780812206043
^Understanding radical Islam: medieval ideology in the twenty-first century,Brian R. Farmer, page 154, 2007
^abcBamberg, James (31 August 2000). "18. An Avalanche of Escalating Demands".British Petroleum and Global Oil 1950-1975: The Challenge of Nationalism. Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0-521-78515-0.
^abc"Kirkuk". GlobalSecurity.org. 9 July 2005. Retrieved5 June 2006.
^abc"Iraq".Country Analysis Briefs. Energy Information Administration. Archived fromthe original on 6 June 2006. Retrieved5 June 2006.
^John Pike."Kirkuk Citadel". Globalsecurity.org. Retrieved26 March 2013.
^"Iraq under cold front bringing snow and below zero temperatures".Indian Muslims. Kuwait News Agency (KUNA). 11–12 January 2008. Archived from the original on 28 September 2013. Retrieved3 March 2013.BAGHDAD, Jan 11 (KUNA) – Snow fell on large areas of Iraq following two days of low temperature. Dr. Daoud Shaker, head of the Iraqi weather bureau told the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) snow fell in Baghdad during two hours in the morning on Friday after coming under the effect of two pressure systems, one cold originating from Siberia and the other warm coming from the sea. He said the temperature on Friday was "below zero in several Iraqi areas" resulting in snowfalls Thursday in several western areas. But the snowfall continued on Friday along with the low temperatures, he added. He predicted that the snowfalls and rain would subside as of Friday night paving the way for subzero temperatures in the next few days that could reach six degrees Celsius below zero specifically at night. He added that the snow that fell on Baghdad has melted. But in Kirkuk and several northern cities including Suleimaniah, snow fell again on Friday along with very low temperatures. According to weather sources, up to four millimeters of snow fell on Kirkuk Friday.
"Kerkuk".Palestine and Syria (5th ed.). Leipzig: Karl Baedeker. 1912.
Published in the 21st century
Michael R. T. Dumper; Bruce E. Stanley, eds. (2008). "Kirkuk".Cities of the Middle East and North Africa. Santa Barbara, USA:ABC-CLIO.ISBN978-1576079195.
Bet-Shlimon, Arbella (2019).City of Black Gold: Oil, Ethnicity, and the Making of Modern Kirkuk. Stanford: Stanford University Press.ISBN978-1-5036-0812-2.
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