Kirkuk (; ; ; ) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of the Kirkuk Governorate. The city is home to a diverse population of Kurds, Iraqi Turkmens and Arabs. Kirkuk sits on the ruins of the original Kirkuk Citadel which sits near the Khasa River.
Due to its diverse population, shaped by various forms of demographic engineering such as Arabization, the status of Kirkuk is highly contested and has led to recurring disputes. Jalal Talabani described Kirkuk as "the Jerusalem of Kurdistan," emphasizing its central symbolic and political importance to Kurds, while the government of Iraq has instead portrayed the city as a "small version of Iraq," presenting it as a model for coexistence among the country’s diverse communities. Turkmen, meanwhile, regard Kirkuk as a historic city of theirs. Following the adoption of the 2005 Iraqi Constitution, Kirkuk was designated a disputed territory under Article 140, requiring normalization of demographics, a census, and a referendum to decide whether it belongs to the Kurdistan Region or remains under Iraqi authority. Intended to be completed by 2007, the process remains unresolved, leaving the city's status in limbo.
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 from the city.Edward Balfour, Encyclopaedia Asiatica, p. 214, Cosmo Publications, 1976 Since the Seleucid Empire it was known as karkā d-ḇeṯ slōḵ (), which means 'Citadel of the House of Seleucid'The Acts of Mar Mari the Apostle By Amir Harrak. p. 27 in Mesopotamian Aramaic, the lingua franca of the Fertile Crescent in that era.The World's Greatest Story: The Epic of the Jewish People in Biblical Times By Joan Comay. p. 384
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 Macedonian victory in the Battle of Gaugamela. An alternative explanation for the name's origin suggests that it may have been derived from a people, possibly an Assyrian or Persian tribe.
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"meaning of Karkha in Syriac , Syriac dictionary) 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.
Early Bronze Akkadian Period 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.
Gutian Period 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).
Ur III Period The Gutians were driven from Mesopotamia by the Neo-Sumerian Empire c. 2115 BC.William Gordon East, Oskar Hermann Khristian Spate (1961). The Changing Map of Asia: A Political Geography, 436 pages, p: 105Georges Roux- Ancient Iraq
Middle Bronze 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.
Late Bronze Mitanni Period 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.
Assyrian Period The Middle Assyrian Empire (1365–1020 BC) overthrew the Hurri-Mitanni in the mid 14th century BC. Arrapha became part of Assyria 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 the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–605 BC).
Iron Age 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).Martin Sicker. The Pre-Islamic Middle East, p. 68I. E. S. Edwards, John Boardman, John B. Bury, S. A. Cook. The Cambridge Ancient History. pp. 178-179
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 named "ܒܝܬܓܪܡܝ", (that is Bit Garmai in Syriac) 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.
Islamic Conquests of Mesopotamia
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 was founded in the region and the city became a part of it. The Ilkhanid rule ended when in 1336, the Ardalan took over the city, despite being vassals themselves of the various in Persia centred succeeding Turkic federations in the region, namely that of the Qara Qoyunlu, and the Aq Qoyunlu specifically. After the Battle of Chaldiran in 1514 the city came under the Soran Emirate 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 Ottomans were 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.
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.
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.Book 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. . "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."
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.