Kirkuk

Kirkuk is an Iraqi city and the capital of Kirkuk Governorate, located in the north of the country, and is one of the most important oil cities in Iraq. Kirkuk was the capital of the Shahrizor Eyalet during the rule of the Ottoman Empire, and the city is currently at the heart of the conflict in the disputed areas between the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government, as Kirkuk Governorate witnessed long-term national conflicts. During the twentieth century, the region witnessed extensive demographic changes, especially after the discovery of oil there, so the Iraqi government at that time launched demographic and cultural Arabization operations, which led to an increase in the percentage of Arabs in the Kurdish population in the city. During the rule of the Baath Party, the governorate was called the Nationalization Governorate (in reference to the nationalization of the Iraq Petroleum Company) until the head of the provincial council, Rizgar Ali Kurdi, announced in 2003, returning the name to Kirkuk after the American occupation of Iraq.

A map from the era of Abdul Hamid II of the lands of the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East, showing Kirkuk within the "Mosul Province".

Name

Kirkuk was formerly called Arrabkha during the Hurrians. During the Parthian era, Ptolemy mentioned the name Korkura, which is believed to refer either to Kirkuk or to the site of Baba Gurgur near the city of Kirkuk. Researchers differ on the origin of the name Kirkuk, with some tracing it back to the Syriac word Karkha d-Beth Selukh, meaning "Castle of the Seleucids" in Aramaic.

The area surrounding the city was known as Bajarmi, which is believed to be of Syriac origin meaning "house of bones" in reference to the bones of the Achaemenids. It is also believed that the area was known during the Parthian and Sassanid periods as Garmkan, which means "hot land", as the Persian word "Garm" means hot.

History

The time of the Safavid occupation of Kurdistan during the reign of Shah Ismail Safavid is considered the point in time when the forced settlement of Turkmen in the region began. The Safavids attempted to impose the Shiite "Qizilbashi" doctrine on the Kurds in the region in an attempt to replace the Sunni Muslims. The Ottomans, who followed the Safavids, initially tried to befriend the Kurds to incite them to rise up against the Safavid Shiites. This allowed the Kurdish princes to regain their sovereignty in some parts of their principalities, including the areas of Arbil and Kirkuk, which were retaken by Sa'id Beg Shah Ali, the Emir of the Soran Emirate. Kurdistan became a long-standing battlefield between the Safavid Shiites and the Sunni Ottomans, especially during the reigns of Shah Tahmasp, Shah Abbas, Shah Tahmasp Qoli Khan (Nader Shah) and the Ottoman sultans Suleiman the Magnificent and Murad IV. Kirkuk's strategic location led to regional powers taking control of it several times during these wars. Kurdish writer Nouri Talabani says: “Shortly after the Ottoman Empire annexed Kurdistan, the Ottoman sultans, like the Safavids before them, realized the importance of Kirkuk for the vital trade and transportation routes that passed through it, linking Anatolia with Iraq and Iran. As a result, both sides encouraged their subjects and military personnel to settle in the cities and towns spread along the road known by historians as the “Sultan’s Road,” which starts from Tal Afar and Mosul in the north, passing through Erbil, Altun Kupri, Kirkuk, Daquq, and Kifri to Baghdad on one side and the cities of Khanaqin and Mandali on the other, then continues to Kermanshah, Hamadan, and other cities in Iran.”