KIRKUK
![](kirkuk.jpg)
Kirkuk
![](640px-Kirkuk_citadel.jpg)
Kirkuk
Citadel
Kirkuk
(Romanized: Kerkûk,Kerkouk, Turkish: Kerkük) is a city
in Iraq, serving as the capital of the Kirkuk Governorate, located
238 kilometres (148 miles) north of Baghdad. It is home to a diverse
population of Arabs, Kurds and Turkmens, who lay conflicting claims
to the city. The city sits on the ruins of the original Kirkuk
Citadel which sits near the Khasa River.
Kirkuk
was proclaimed the "capital of Iraqi culture" in 2010.
It is claimed by the Kurdistan Regional Government as its capital.
Kirkuk is also considered by Iraqi Turkmens to be their cultural
and historical capital.
Etymology
:
The ancient name of Kirkuk was the Hurrian Arrapha During the
Parthian era, a Korkura/Corcura is mentioned by Ptolemy, which
is believed to refer either to Kirkuk or to the site of Baba Gurgur
4.5 kilometres (2.8 mi) from the city. Since the Seleucid Empire
it was known as Karka d'Bet Sloh, which means 'Citadel of the
House of Seleucid' in Mesopotamian Aramaic, the lingua franca
of the Fertile Crescent in that era.
The
region around Kirkuk was known historically in the Eastern Aramaic
and Syriac Assyrian sources as "Beth Garmai". 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 slaughtered Achaemenids
after a decisive battle [which?] between Alexander the Great and
Darius III on the plains between the Upper Zab and Diyala river.
It was one of a number of independent Neo-Assyrian states which
flourished during the Parthian empire (150 BC-226 AD).
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 Persian "Garm" means warm;
After
the 7th century, Muslim writers used the name Kirkheni (Syriac
for "citadel") to refer to the city. Others used other
variant, such as Bajermi (a corruption of Aramaic "B'th Garmayeh"
or Jermakan (a corruption of Persian Garmakan).
History
:
Ancient history :
It is suggested that Kirkuk was one of the places occupied by
Neanderthals based on archeological findings in the Shanidar Cave
settlement. A large amount of pottery shards dating to the Ubaid
period were also excavated from several Tells in the city.
Ancient
Arrapkha was a part of Sargon of Akkad's Akkadian Empire (2335–2154
BC), and city was exposed to the raids of the Lullubi during Naram-Sin's
reign.
Later
the city was occupied around 2150 BC by language 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), before it
was destroyed and the Gutians driven from Mesopotamia by the Neo-Sumerian
Empire c. 2090 BC. Arrapkha became a part of the Old Assyrian
Empire (c.2025–1750 BC), before Hammurabi briefly subjected
Assyria to the short-lived Babylonian Empire, after which it again
became a part of Assyria c.1725 BC.
However,
by the middle of the 2nd millennium B.C. the Indo-Aryan Mittani
of Anatolia formed a ruling class over the language isolate speaking
Hurrians, and began to expand into a Hurri-Mitanni Empire.
In the 1450s they attacked Assyria, sacking Assur, and bringing
the cities of Gasur and Arrapkha under their control. From c.1450
to 1393 BC the kings of Assyria paid tribute to the kingdom of
Mittani.
The
Middle Assyrian Empire (1365–1020 BC) overthrew the Hurri-Mitanni
in the mid 14th century BC and Arrapha once more became incorporated
into Assyria proper. In the 11th and 10th centuries BC the city
rose to prominence, becoming an important city in Assyria until
the fall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–605 BC).
The
Hurri-Mitanni domination of Assyria was broken in the 1390s BC,
and Arrapkha once more became an integral part of Assyria with
the Middle Assyrian Empire (1365–1020 BC) which saw the
Hurrian population driven from the region. It remained as such
throughout the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–605 BC) where it
became an important Assyrian city.
After
the fall of Assyria between 612 and 599 BC it was still an integral
part of the geo-political province of Assyria – Achaemenid
Assyria, Athura, Seleucid Syria, Assyria (Roman province) and
Assuristan. In the Parthian and Sassanid eras Kirkuk was capital
of the small Assyrian state of Beth Garmai (c.160 BC-250 AD).
The
city briefly came to be part of the short-lived Median Empire
before falling to the Achaemenid Empire (546–332 BC) where
it was incorporated into the province of Athura (Achaemenid Assyria).
Later
it became part of the Macedonian Empire (332–312 BC) and
succeeding Seleucid Empire (311–150 BC) before falling to
the Parthian Empire (150 BC-224 AD) as a part of Athura. The Parthians
seemed to only exercise loose control, and a number of small Neo-Assyrian
kingdoms sprang up in the region between the 2nd century BC and
4th century AD, one such kingdom, had Arrapha as its capital.
Christianity also arose during this period, with Arrapha and its
surrounds being influenced by the Assyrian Church of the East.
The Sassanid Empire destroyed these kingdoms during 3rd and early
4th centuries AD, and Arrapha was incorporated into Sassanid ruled
Assuristan (Sassanid Assyria).
In
AD 341, the Zoroastrian Shapur II ordered the massacre of all
Assyrian Christians in the Persian Sassanid Empire. During the
persecution, about 1,150 were martyred in Arrapha. The city appears
on the Peutinger Map of this time. The city remained a part of
the Sassanid Empire until the Islamic conquest in the mid 7th
century AD.
After
the Islamic Conquests :
Arab Muslims fought the Sassanid empire in the 7th century AD,
conquering the region. The city was a part of the Islamic Caliphate
until the tenth century. Kirkuk and the surrounding areas were
then ruled by the Hasanwayhid Kurds & Annazid Kurds from 1014
to 1120 AD, then it was taken over by Seljuk 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 by Mongols in 1258. After the Mongol invasion,
the Ilkhanate State was founded in the region and the city became
a part of the Mongol Ilkhanate. The Ilkhanate rule ended when
in 1336, the Ardalan Kurds took over the city, despite being vassals
themselves of the various in Persia centred succeeding Turkic
federations in the region, namely that of the Kara Koyunlu, and
the Ak Koyunlu specifically. After the battle of chaldiran in
1514 the city came under the soranid Kurds control until it was
taken over by Babanids in 1694. In 1851 it became under direct
control of the Ottoman Empire. Ottoman rule continued until World
War I when the Ottoman Empire was pushed out of the region by
the British 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 the Armistice of Mudros. Kirkuk
avoided the troubles caused by the Kurdish nationalist Mahmud
Barzanji, who quickly attempted to overthrow the British Mandate
in Iraq and establish his own fiefdom in Sulaymaniyah.
![](kirkuk1.jpg)
A
photograph of Ben Zion Israeli in Kirkuk Iraq, 1933
Entry into the Kingdom of Iraq :
As both Turkey 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. By the
Treaty of Angora of 1926, Kirkuk became a part of the Kingdom
of Iraq.
Discovery
of oil :
![](640px-Kirkukoil.jpg)
Father / Baba Gurgur
In 1927, Iraqi and American drillers working for the foreign-owned
and British-led Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC) struck a huge oil
gusher at Baba Gurgur ("St. Blaze" or father blaze in
Kurdish) near Kirkuk. The IPC began exports from the Kirkuk oil
field in 1934. The Company moved its headquarters from Tuz Khormatu
to a camp on the outskirts of Kirkuk, which they named Arrapha
after the ancient city. Arrapha remains a large neighborhood in
Kirkuk to this day. 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.
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. Kirkuk, which
had been a predominantly Iraqi 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. According to the
1957 census, Kirkuk city was 37.63% Iraqi Turkmen, 33.26% Kurdish
with Arabs and Assyrians making up less than 23% of its population.
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.
Over
all, 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.
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.
Kurdish
autonomy and Arabization :
In 1970 the Iraqi government reached an agreement with Kurdish
leader Mustafa Barzani called the March 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.
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 the Ba'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.
Negotiations
between Barzani's Kurdish Democratic Party and the Iraqi government
collapsed in March 1974 and Barzani rejected President Ahmed Hassan
al-Bakr declaration of Kurdish autonomy. Many disputes persisted
between the Kurds and Arabs and the conflict escalated into the
Second Iraqi–Kurdish War (also called the Barzani rebellion).
The rebellion collapsed after Iran withdrew its support for Barzani's
forces following the 1975 Algiers Agreement and the Ba'ath regime
intensified Arabization efforts.
After
Barzani's rebellion was defeated in 1974, the districts of Chemchemal
and Kelar, which had been part of Kirkuk, became part of Sulaymaniyah
and Kifri became part of Diyala province. Other Arab-populated
districts, like Zab, became part of Kirkuk. Kurds, Turkmen and
Christian populations were forcibly relocated and replaced with
Shi'a from Iraq's south. The expulsions continued after the 1991
uprisings. Kurdish villages were razed and thousands of new homes
were built, including at least 200 homes for relatives of Iraqi
soldiers killed during the Iran-Iraq War. 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. 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.
Nationalization
of Iraqi Petroleum Company :
In 1972 the Iraqi government, led by then Vice-President Saddam
Hussein, nationalized the Iraqi Petroleum Company (IPC), after
being unable to reach an agreement that would increase oil exports
and resolve a longstanding dispute over Law 80 of 1961. The Iraqi
government began to sell its oil to Eastern bloc countries and
the IPC's French partner CFP. 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.
The
First Gulf War :
In 1991, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and was quickly routed
by the United States in the First Gulf War (also called Operation
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, Kurdish
Peshmerga forces had seized control of Kirkuk, but they were only
able to hold it until March 28 when it was reclaimed by Hussein's
forces. The US and UK began to enforce a no-fly zone in Northern
Iraq and a de 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. In May 1991, Massoud
Barzani announced that Baghdad 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 including
Erbil, Dohuk and Sulaymaniyah.
Iraq
War (2003–2011) and return of displaced Kurds :
![](640px-Iraqi_Personnel_Graduate_From_Kirkuk_Training_Center_DVIDS236956.jpg)
Iraqi
Personnel Graduate From Kirkuk
American and British military forces led an invasion of Iraq in
March 2003, marking the start the Second Iraq War. Kurdish peshmerga
fighters assisted in the 2003 capture of Kirkuk. Though the peshmerga
were allowed to operate even after the Coalition Provisional Authority
(CPA) disbanded and outlawed most of the armed militias in Iraq,
the peshmerga were eventually asked to withdraw from Kirkuk and
other Kurdish held provinces.
Under
the supervision of chief executive of Coalition Provisional Authority
L. 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 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 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 the Kurds
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, a Baghdad-educated lawyer was elected mayor
by 20 votes to 10. The appointment of an Arab, Ismail Ahmed Rajab
Al Hadidi, 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 of Kirkuk
Provincial Council as follows :
Particulars |
• |
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 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 from Sinjar on
the Syrian border southeast to Khanaqin and Mandali on the Iranian
border. Kirkuk has been a disputed territory for around eighty
years — Kurds wanted Kirkuk to become part of the Kurdistan
Region, which has been opposed by the regions with Arab and Turkmen
populations. (Turkmen are Turkic people who remained in Iraq after
the collapse of the Ottoman Empire).
The
Kurds sought to annex the long disputed territory to the Kurdistan
Regional Government (KRG) through Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution
that was enacted in 2005. 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.
Following
the 2010 parliamentary election the Kurds signed the Erbil Agreement
and backed Nouri al-Maliki on the condition that Article 140 would
be implemented.
Violence
after US withdrawal :
Three churches in Kirkuk were targeted with bombs in August 2011.
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.
Kurdish
control (2014–2017) :
On 12 June 2014, following the 2014 Northern Iraq offensive of
the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, during which it secured
control of Tikrit and nearby areas in Syria, the Iraqi army fled
Kirkuk. The Peshmerga of the Kurdistan Regional Government then
took the city.
On
21 October 2016, the Islamic State launched multiple attacks in
Kirkuk to divert Iraqi military resources during the Battle 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. The attack was brought
to an end by 24 October, with 74 militants being killed and others
(including the leader) being arrested.
Kurdification
and human rights abuses :
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. Multiple Human 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.
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.
Kurdish
- Iraqi conflict :
On 16 October 2017, the Iraqi national army and PMF militia retook
control of Kirkuk as the Peshmerga retreated from the city. The
city had been under Kurdish Peshmerga control since 2014.
Kirkuk
has been a disputed territory for around eighty years. The KRG
wants Kirkuk to become part of the Kurdistan Region, which is
opposed by the region's Arab and Turkmen populations.
The
Kurds were promised a referendum to resolve Kirkuk's status under
Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution.
Demographics
:
The most reliable census concerning the ethnic composition of
Kirkuk dates back to 1957. Whilst the Turkish-speaking Iraqi Turkmen
formed the majority in the city of Kirkuk, the Kurds were the
largest group in the Kirkuk Governorate. 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.
Census
Results for the City Proper of Kirkuk in 1957 |
Mother
tongue |
Population |
Percentage |
Turkish |
45,306 |
37.6% |
Kurdish |
40,047 |
33.3% |
Arabic |
27,127 |
22.5% |
Syriac |
1,509 |
1.3% |
Hebrew |
101 |
0.1% |
Total |
120,402 |
|
|
A
report by the International 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; consequently, this skewed the
number of other ethnic minorities. Many Iraqi Turkmen declared
themselves as Arabs (because the Kurds were not desirable under
Saddam Hussein's regime), reflecting the changes wrought by Arabisation.
Ethnic
groups :
![](640px-Kirkuk_Demographical_Map_2014.jpg)
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.
Armenians
:
In 2017, there resided about 30 families in the city. The community
has also an Armenian Apostolic church.
Assyrians
:
The Assyrians have an ancient history in Kirkuk, as they do throughout
northern Iraq. As Arrapha it was a part of the Old Assyrian Empire
(c.1975–1750 BC), and fully incorporated into Assyria proper
by the 14th century BC during the Middle Assyrian Empire (1365–105
BC), and remained so until the downfall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire
between 615 and 599 BC. After this it was an integral part of
Achaemenid Assyria (Athura), and during the Parthian Empire was
centre to an independent Neo Assyrian state named Beth Garmai,
before being incorporated into Assuristan by the Sassanid Empire.
The
Seleucid town, like many other Upper Mesopotamian cities had a
significant indigenous Assyrian population. Christianity was established
among them in the 2nd century by the bishop Tuqrita (Theocritos).
During the Sasanian times the town became an important centre
of the Assyrian 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 of Shapur II (309–379 A.D.) as recorded in the
Acts of the Persian Martyrs. Persecution resumed under Yazdegerd
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 of Byzantine
influence, namely Nestorianism. During the Sasanian times the
town became an important centre of the 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 of Shapur II (309-79 A.D.) as recorded
in the Acts of the Persian Martyrs. Their situation greatly improved
under the Sasanians in the following two centuries. During the
Sasanian times the town became an important centre of the Church
of the East, with several of its bishops rising to the rank of
Patriarch. Persecution resumed under Yazdegerd II in 445 A.D.
who massacred thousands of them. Tradition puts the death toll
at 12,000 among them the patriarch Shemon Bar Sabbae. The city
was known as the centre of the prosperous Ecclesiastical Province
of Beth Garmai which lingered until the conquests of Timur Leng
in 1400 A.D. During the Ottoman period most of Kirkuk's Christians
followed the Chaldean 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.
The
discovery of oil brought more Christians to Kirkuk, however they
were also affected by the Arabization policy of the Baath Party.
Their numbers continued to plummet after the American invasion,
and they occupy 4% of municipal offices, a percentage thought
to be representative of their numbers in the city. They number
around 2,000.
Jews
:
Jews had a long history in Kirkuk. Ottoman records show that in
1560 there were 104 Jewish homes in Kirkuk, and in 1896 there
were 760 Jews in the city. 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.
Kurds
:
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. 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.
![](Kurdish_states_1835.jpg)
Kirkuk
of Baban. Once from 1649 - 1784 Kirkuk was the capital of the
principality
Turkmens :
![](Misak-i_milli.png)
The
Republic of Turkey's borders according to the National Pact
Iraqi Turkmens view the city as their capital, with the last reliable
census showing the city of Kirkuk had a Turkmen majority.
The
Turkmen/Turkoman are descendants of numerous Turkic migration
waves. The earliest arrivals date back to the Umayyads and Abbasid
eras, when they arrived as military recruits. Considerable Turcoman
settlement continued 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.
However, the largest Turkic migration waves occurred during the
four centuries of Ottoman rule (1535–1919) when Turkish
migrants from Anatolia were encouraged to settle in the region;
indeed, it is largely from this period that modern Turkmens claim
association with Anatolia and the modern Turkish state.
In
particular, following the conquest of Iraq by the Ottoman sultan
Suleiman 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." Under
the Ottomans, Turkish migrations from Anatolia to Kirkuk occurred
throughout the centuries; firstly during the initial conquest
of 1535, followed by the arrival of Turkish families with the
army of sultan Murad IV in 1638, whilst others came later with
other notable Ottoman figures. These families occupied the highest
socioeconomic strata and held the most important bureaucratic
jobs until the end of Ottoman rule. 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. 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.
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.
Main
sites :
Ancient architectural monuments of Kirkuk include :
•
The Kirkuk Citadel
• The Qishla of Kirkuk
• The Prophet Daniel's Tomb
• The market Bazari Pirehmerd
• Qaysareyah of Kirkuk
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".
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".
Geography
:
Climate :
Kirkuk experiences a hot semi-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, and from 10 to 11 January 2008.
Source
:
https://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Kirkuk