ضةند ويَنةيةكي ديَريني شاري بابةطورطور
The Ancient city of Kirkuk
View 1957 Census of the Population of Iraq
نةخشةي كةركووك |
Kirkuk is considered to the Kurds as The Heart of Kurdistan. Its the biggest city in south Kurdistan.
THE HISTORIC CITADEL
WAS BUILT BY AKADIANS ABOUT 5.000 YEARS AGO BUT WAS DESTROYED BY BRUTAL SADDAM
HUSSEIN IN 1998,IT CONTAINS THE
WORLDS BIGGEST OILFIELDS THAT EQUALLS MORE THAN %10 OF THE TOTAL WORLDS
OIL RESERVES, ITS KURDISH POPULATION HAS BEEN UNDER INCREASING OPPRESSION,
HARRASSMENTS AND ETHNIC CLEANSING AND WERE SUBJECTED
TO AN ORGANISED EXPELLING FROM THE CITY AND REPLACED BY THE ARABS LOYAL TO THE
DEPOSED SADDAM'S REGIME AND THEIR PROPERTIES WERE
CONFISCATED. THOSE REFUGEES NEED INTERNATIONAL ASSISTANCE TO RETURN TO THEIR
HOMELAND.
The Ottoman Empire have placed many loyal Turkomen families which are mainly of Kurdish origin in and around the city and all way long the
road to Persia to secure the Trading route to Persia.
Since the Baathists gained power on 1963, the city has become a subject for Arabisation that cleared the way for the ruling party officials and the security forces the right
to arrest, prosecute or expell all those who are not loyal to the ruling Baath party.The total population of the city is estimated at 800.000. in the nineteen sixties the
Kurds formed around 68% of the population the rest were Turkmens, Assyrians, Armenian minorities and Arab normads. The officials have sanctioned the employment of
Kurds in govermental sectors and has already cleared the Oil company from Kurdish nationals. Since 1996 the ruling regime has come out with a new law called the
"The law of the correction of the nationality registration" by which all the Kurds had to register as Arabs. otherwise they will be sanctioned from all government services
and subjects to mass expulsions from their homeland and their properties were confiscated and later auctioned to Arabs. Since late eighties all Kurds were banned from
buying properties in the City. There are estimated 300.000 refugees in Sulaimaniya and Arbil only. Tens of thousans were sent to southern Iraq and around 180.000
are quoted as disappeared since the large barbaric operations of1987/88, called Anfal.
View The Gallery of Kirkuk Liberation
on 19th March 1991