Iraq is a country in West Asia that largely corresponds with the territory of ancient Mesopotamia. The history of Mesopotamia extends from the Lower Paleolithic period until the establishment of the Caliphate in the late 7th century AD,after which the region came to be known as Iraq. Encompassed within Iraqi territory is the ancient land of Sumer,which came into being between 6000 and 5000 BC during the Neolithic Ubaid period of Mesopotamian history,and is widely considered the oldest civilization in recorded history. It is also the historic center of the Akkadian,Neo-Sumerian,Babylonian,Neo-Assyrian,and Neo-Babylonian empires,a succession of local ruling dynasties that reigned over Mesopotamia and various other regions of the Ancient Near East during the Bronze and Iron Ages.
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti,was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 to 2003. He also served as prime minister of Iraq from 1979 to 1991 and later from 1994 to 2003. He was a leading member of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party,and later,the Baghdad-based Ba'ath Party and its regional organization,the Iraqi Ba'ath Party,which espoused Ba'athism,a mix of Arab nationalism and Arab socialism.
Kirkuk is a city in Iraq,serving as the capital of the Kirkuk Governorate,located 238 kilometres north of Baghdad. The city is home to a diverse population of Kurds,Turkmens and Arabs. Kirkuk sits on the ruins of the original Kirkuk Citadel which sits near the Khasa River.
Human rights in pre-Saddam Iraq were often lacking to various degrees among the various regimes that ruled the country. Human rights abuses in the country predated the rule of Saddam Hussein.
Iraqi Kurdistan or Southern Kurdistan refers to the Kurdish-populated part of northern Iraq. It is considered one of the four parts of "Kurdistan" in Western Asia,which also includes parts of southeastern Turkey,northern Syria,and northwestern Iran. Much of the geographical and cultural region of Iraqi Kurdistan is part of the Kurdistan Region (KRI),an autonomous region recognized by the Constitution of Iraq. As with the rest of Kurdistan,and unlike most of the rest of Iraq,the region is inland and mountainous.
Mustafa Barzani,also known as Mela Mustafa,was a Kurdish leader,general and one of the most prominent political figures in modern Kurdish politics. In 1946,he was chosen as the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) to lead the Kurdish revolution against the Kingdom of Iraq. Barzani was the primary political and military leader of the Kurdish revolution until his death in March 1979. He led campaigns of armed insurgency against both the Iraqi and Iranian governments.
Khanaqin is the central city of Khanaqin District in Diyala Governorate,Iraq,near the Iranian border (8 km) on the Alwand tributary of the Diyala River. The town is populated by Kurds who speak the Southern Kurdish dialect. Khanaqin is situated on the main road which Shia pilgrims use when visiting holy Islamic cities. The city is moreover rich in oil and the first Iraqi oil refinery and oil pipeline was built nearby in 1927. The main tribes of Khanaqin include Kalhor,Feyli,Zand,Malekshahi Suramiri,Arkavazi and Zangana.
The Council of Representatives,usually referred to simply as the Parliament,is the unicameral legislature of the Republic of Iraq. According to the Constitution of Iraq,it is the lower house of the bicameral legislature of the country. As of 2020,it comprises 329 seats and meets in Baghdad inside the Green Zone.
Ismail Ahmed Rajab Al Hadidi is an Iraqi-Kurdish politician who served as the deputy for the mayor-governor of Kirkuk. Al Hadidi was born in 1955,and was elected as deputy for the mayor of Kirkuk,Abdul Rahman Mustafa in 2003 by the multiethnic city council of Kirkuk,after a Coalition Provisional Authority's organized election for a local city council in Kirkuk in May 2003,in post-Saddam Iraq. Al Hadidi was wounded in the leg in an assassination attempt in November 2003.
The 1975 Algiers Agreement,also known as the Algiers Accord or as the Algiers Declaration,was signed between Iran and Iraq to settle any outstanding territorial disputes along the Iran–Iraq border. Mediated by Algeria,it served as the basis for additional bilateral treaties signed on 13 June 1975 and 26 December 1975. The territorial disputes in question concerned Iraq's Shatt al-Arab and Iran's Khuzestan Province,and Iraq had wished to negotiate to end Iran's support for the then-ongoing Iraqi Kurdish rebellion after suffering a military defeat in the 1974–1975 Shatt al-Arab conflict. On 17 September 1980,shortly after the Iranian Revolution,the Iraqi government abrogated the treaty in light of another series of cross-border clashes between the two countries. On 22 September 1980,the treaty was completely voided with the Iraqi invasion of Iran,which triggered the eight-year-long Iran–Iraq War.
Kurdistan Region is an autonomous administrative entity within the Republic of Iraq. It comprises four Kurdish-majority divisions of Arab-majority Iraq:the Erbil Governorate,the Sulaymaniyah Governorate,the Duhok Governorate,and Halabja Governorate. The KRI is bordered by Iran to the east,by Turkey to the north,and by Syria to the west. It does not govern all of Iraqi Kurdistan,and lays claim to the disputed territories of northern Iraq;these territories have a predominantly non-Arab population and were subject to the Ba'athist Arabization campaigns throughout the late 20th century. Though the KRI's autonomy was realized in 1992,one year after Iraq's defeat in the Gulf War,these northern territories remain contested between the Kurdistan Regional Government and the Government of Iraq to the present day. In light of the dispute,the KRI's constitution declares the city of Kirkuk as the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. However,the KRI does not control Kirkuk,and the Kurdistan Region Parliament is based in Erbil. In 2014,when the Syria-based Islamic State began their Northern Iraq offensive and invaded the country,the Iraqi Armed Forces retreated from most of the disputed territories. The KRI's Peshmerga then entered and took control of them for the duration of the War in Iraq (2013–2017). In October 2017,following the defeat of the Islamic State,the Iraqi Armed Forces attacked the Peshmerga and reasserted control over the disputed territories.
Minorities in Iraq include various ethnic and religious groups.
Iraqi Armenians are Iraqi citizens and residents of Armenian ethnicity. Many Armenians settled in Iraq after fleeing the 1915 Armenian genocide. It is estimated that there are 10,000–20,000 Armenians living in Iraq,with communities in Baghdad,Mosul,Basra,Kirkuk,Baqubah,Dohuk,Zakho and Avzrog.
The 1991 Iraqi uprisings were ethnic and religious uprisings against Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq that were led by Shi'ites and Kurds. The uprisings lasted from March to April 1991 after a ceasefire following the end of the Gulf War. The mostly uncoordinated insurgency was fueled by the perception that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had become vulnerable to regime change. This perception of weakness was largely the result of the outcome of the Iran–Iraq War and the Gulf War,both of which occurred within a single decade and devastated the population and economy of Iraq.
The Kurdistan Democratic Party,usually abbreviated as KDP or PDK,is the largest party in Iraqi Kurdistan and the senior partner in the Kurdistan Regional Government. It was founded in 1946 in Mahabad in Iranian Kurdistan. The party states that it combines "democratic values and social justice to form a system whereby everyone in Kurdistan can live on an equal basis with great emphasis given to rights of individuals and freedom of expression."
Nawshirwan Mustafa was an Iraqi Kurdish politician who served as the General Coordinator of the Movement for Change and the leader of the opposition in the Kurdistan Region from 1 April 2009 to his death on 19 May 2017.
Ali Askari (1936–1978) was a Kurdish politician,military leader,and revolutionary. He was a prominent leader in Iraqi Kurdistan and his political party was the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
The Iraqi–Kurdish conflict consists of a series of wars and rebellions by the Kurds against the central authority of Iraq during the 20th century,which began shortly after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I and lasting until the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. Some put the marking point of the conflict beginning to the attempt by Mahmud Barzanji to establish an independent Kingdom of Kurdistan,while others relate to the conflict as only the post-1961 insurrection by the Barzanis. The conflict lasted until the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003,though tensions between the Kurdish autonomy and the central Iraqi government have continued.
Between 1968 and 2003,the ruling Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party of the Iraqi Republic perpetrated multiple campaigns of demographic engineering against the country's non-Arabs. While Arabs constitute the majority of Iraq's population as a whole,they are not the majority in parts of northern Iraq,and a minority in Iraqi Kurdistan. In an attempt to Arabize the north,the Iraqi government pursued a policy of ethnic cleansing and settler colonialism,killing and forcefully displacing a large number of Iraqi minorities—predominantly Kurds,but also Turkmen,Yazidis,Assyrians,Shabaks,Mandaeans,and Armenians,among others—and subsequently allotting the cleared land to Arab settlers. In 1978 and 1979 alone,600 Kurdish villages were burned down and around 200,000 Kurds were deported to other parts of Iraq.
Sadiyah is a town in Diyala Governorate,Iraq. It is located near the Diyala River 8 km south of Jalawla. The town is populated by Arabs,Kurds and Turkmens. It is disputed and experienced significant Arabization during the Saddam era.
