Kirkuk Conflict over the Identity of a City of all Races and Religions

A Visit to the Old Thunderbolts and Rain God's Temple (North of Iraq)

Kirkuk: At the end of Zagarous Mountains (230 km north of Baghdad) lies the city of Kirkuk. The divine writings on the slates, which were found in the corners of Kirkuk Castle in 1927, have pointed out that the current Kirkuk is the city of "Arbakha" or "Arfa" in Babel, during the era of the Assyrian state.

In the city, there are remains of an old civilization that goes back to 3000 years ago. Its castle, which goes back to 5000 years ago, is considered as one of the most significant civilization landmarks in the region.

At that time, the city was considered as a temple for thunderbolts and the gods of rain. There is still a district in Kirkuk, which is called "Arafa" district. By the beginning of Islam, the name of the city was changed to "Karkhini". The city of Kirkuk was the capital of the Ottoman state of "Shahr Zour", since the sixteenth century. The state included the lands that are known today as the provinces of Kirkuk, Al Seliamania and Erbil.

Web master's note: The ancient Assyrian name for Kirkuk was Arrapha and was called as such utile it was changed perhaps by the order of Selucus of the Alexander the Great's Seleucid's dynasty 330-145 B.C. to (Kirkha d' bet Suluk) Syriac for the (Citadel of the House of Suluk).  This name later was shortened into Kirkha and changed to Kirkuk. [Kirkha seems to have derived from the Akkadian Kirhu for citadel]  During the Persian Sassanian rule Christian Assyrians were subjected to various massacres, the most well known was that of the Persian king Jazdeggered II in the summer of 446 AD. A spot near the city is still known to the Assyrians as the place where Jazdeggered's executioner Tahmezggerd murdered thousands of their people. A monastery was built by bishop Maron in that location where Assyrians of the region commemorated a three days memorial for their martyrs. In later centuries the relations between Assyrians and their Persian rulers had improved. In 630 AD the Persian queen Pourundokht sent a delegation of Assyrians to the Byzantine court of emperor Hercules, among them was Joubraeil the bishop of Kirkuk . The city's bishops have been listed as present in many of Church of the East Synods. Like Nineveh, Mosul, Arbil, Tikrit, Nissibin, and Urhay, Kirkuk was an important center of the Assyrian Christianity long after the 7th century Arab conquest of the region. In later centuries the demography of the city gradually changed as Arabs, Turkmen, and later Kurds arrived in the region. After the Mongol's invasion.Assyrians were subjected to massacres and forced into exiles. An older part of Kirkuk is still known as Arrapha or Arafa.

The Kurdish princes were "Ardlanians". Hence, the Babbayans ran the affairs of the state for various centuries. By the fall of Babban Emirate in 1851, the Ottoman State began to gain more control over Kirkuk. When Al Mousel state was re-created in 1879, the province of Kirkuk was within its administrative borders. The official correspondence continued to call Kirkuk province "Shahr Zour, until 1894, when it was decided to re-use the name Kirkuk instead of Shahr Zour, to avoid the confusion that used to take place in the official correspondence between Shahr Zour and Al Zour province in Bilad Al Sham (the traditional Arab name for the region that today contains Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, and Palestine). From Kirkuk, the main line of the Iraqi main oil pipeline moves north towards the Mediterranean coasts. It is also a significant commercial center in the region, due to the abundance of agricultural crops (grains and fruit).

In 1972, Iraq has nationalized its oil resources. Due to the fact that Kirkuk was one of the first regions, where oil was discovered, the name of the province was changed to "Al Ta'meem" [nationalization], while the name of the city remained as Kirkuk, upon a republican decree that was issued by the former regime. This province and the lands following it kept this name for the past three decades, until the fall of the former regime, in April 2003, when the name "Al Ta'meem" was cancelled and it returned to the name "Kirkuk". Nevertheless, no one could imagine that this city, of a controversial origin in the past and present, would trigger a dispute of another type, whose end does not seem to be coming soon, to the extent that it seems similar to a natural phenomenon that it is characterized with, which is the eternal fire emerging for thousands of years that the oil fields of "Ba Karkar" are distinguished with. In the past, these fields have turned into a tourist site that all visitors of Kirkuk go to, including experts, researchers, students and curious people, despite all security measures.

Iraqi political elite identities agree that Kirkuk is a mini-Iraq, where the Arabs, Kurds, Turken and Assyrians co-exist since the far past.

Al Sharq Al Awsat was in Kirkuk. It found it not on the verge of explosion, as some people portray it. Nevertheless, it is not completely safe against explosion, as it all depends on the way that politicians deal with its complicated reality and not to deliberately push it towards explosion, for political objectives, as many of those we interviewed have stated. The residents of Kirkuk can very easily come to mutual understanding and communicate among themselves, in case politicians let them do that. Despite the existence of some sensitivity, whether those fabricated at present or those inherited since the former regime, they have a set of mutual worries that can not be neglected, such as the lack of services, the slight employment opportunities, and the lack of order, the deteriorating security conditions and the difficult economic situation.

During the tour in the streets of the city, we felt that each of the classes that constitute the Kirkuki community has its own government, political reference and own system. Even the policemen, who patrol the city streets for the purpose of supplying with the necessary directions for the pedestrians and drivers, through speakers that are placed on their vehicles, you find each of them reads only in his language, forgetting the presence of pedestrians, who do not understand this language, or are sensitive towards it. The strange matter is that the majority of affiliates in the field of police, as we noticed, are of those mastering the three Kirkuki languages, and some times the four languages (adding the Assyrian language). The same applies to the governmental departments and authorities, where Adel Zinka, an employee in the province, told us that the province council, which is controlled by Kurds, does not possess any actual authority over the departments that are run by Arab or Turkmen managers. He added that when the council sends a decision to one of these departments, it sends it in the form of a petition and not an obliging order. In turn, these departments are free in responding or not responding to the decision. Naturally, this situation has caused the failure of the majority of the reconstruction and development projects in the city, which a group of service and non-service departments should cooperate for the success of each project. Actually, it is easy to notice the idleness of the construction aspect in the city.

In general, we have been informed by some laymen that the problem stems from the lack of including Arabs, Assyrians and Turkmen in the administration, as they are revenging for being politically marginalized, in this manner; i.e. despite their being officially outside the administration, their actual influence in the vital facilities of the city allows them to hinder the works of the Kurdish administration, and correspondingly, it should pay attention to this truth, in case it actually desired to develop the city and activate the works of reconstruction in it.

Ribwar Talebani, vice president of the province council, said during our interview with him, "The Kurdish political leaders have submitted the idea of including the Arabs and Turkmen in the political process of administering the city. They have submitted real and authenticated suggestions in this respect. Nevertheless, the "Fraternity" Kurdish slate still has the right to create the administration, due to the electoral entitlement." Talebani pointed out, "Kirkuk province did not receive any special aids from the American administration. It only relies on its designated quota of the Iraqi state budget and some other grants and aids that it receives from the government of Kurdistan region and some other organizations and institutions." As for the organization and cooperation between the province council and the two administrations of Kurdistan region, Talebani confirmed, "Pursuant to the state administration code for the interim period, Kirkuk province council possesses an inclusive administrative independence, similar to the other Iraqi province. On this basis, it is entitled to establish relations, of a special type, with Kurdistan region or any other media. These special and natural relations are not evidence on the inclusion of Kirkuk to the region, from a practical prospective."

Huda Jassem and Nibz Kamal Nouri
Al Sharq Al Awsat