Kirkuk Province in Brief

     Kirkuk is regarded as one of the ancient cities; it is recorded as far back as the second Millennium B.C. when Kirkuk was mentioned in the Acadian scripts as Arabkha. Kirkuk has retained a significant geographical and economic position in Mesopotamia for centuries. The main characteristics of Kirkuk nowadays are;

     First: Its population composition, it is always the home of ethnic and religious communities coexisting together these currently include Kurd, Arab, Turkmen and Cheldo- Assyrian.

     Second: It is economically significant especially when oil was been found in 1927, which is regarded as the biggest oil reserve in the world. Kirkuk is known as "Black Gold City", because its richness in oil resources. Still the flames of Baba Gurgur oil field, which was named as "Eternal Fire" still burn and was written into the legends of the nations that inhabited  in the area over centuries.

     There are many historical sites in Kirkuk, which bear witness to its ancient history. Kirkuk Citadel is regarded as one of these sites it is located in downtown Kirkuk, and dates back to the Assyrian era. This Citadel faced devastation and compulsory change to its site by the former regime when it destroyed the buildings located on the Citadel and turned it to an army barrack during 1990s. Also there are many historical sites, not yet excavated, in different places located all over the province.

The richness of Kirkuk's soil contributes largely to grain and cotton farming in addition to other crops. Some of them depend on rain and the others depend on the Lower Zab River.

The total size of Kirkuk Province in 1947 was 20,355 Km² and included four administrative districts, Kirkuk, Chamchamal, Daquq and Kifri. In 1962, Haweeja District was established so the province had five districts after attaching Daquq to Kirkuk District as follows: Kirkuk, Chamchamal, Tuz-Khurmatu(Tuz), Kifri and Haweeja Districts.

Since the 1970s, a policy was launched by the former regime to change the administrative and population composition of Kirkuk Province. The regime deliberately took apart most of the districts of Kirkuk Province then attached them to the neighboring provinces as follows:

• Attaching Chamchamal District to Suleimaniyah Province.
• Attaching Tuz-Khurmatu (Tuz) District to Salahudeen Province
• Attaching Kifri District to Diyala Province

Besides this action the last regime demolished some districts and hundreds of villages which were parts of Kirkuk Province. In 1997 until today the total size of Kirkuk Province administrative border is 9679 Km².

Saddam's Regime also launched the demographic change policy in Kirkuk starting by expelling thousands of Kurdish and Turkmen families from their homes to other provinces. In addition, it brought families from the middle and Southern provinces to settle them in Kirkuk by supporting them financially and by providing them with jobs in the government departments in Kirkuk.

The policy also included forcing those Kurdish and Turkmen families to change their ethnic identity to "Arabic Identity" in the Iraqi National Identification Card under the policy of "Ethnic Correction Policy". Therefore many of them unwillingly changed their Iraqi National Identification Card, i.e., to be regarded as Arabs according to their identity although being Kurds or Turkmen, so they would not be expelled from their houses to other provinces.

Article 58 of the Transitional Administrative Law (TAL) has shaped the procedures and guaranteed steps to normalize the situation in Kirkuk Province by putting forward solutions for the situation in Kirkuk and for the disputed lands all over Iraq. This article has not been executed yet according to the agreed timetable. So, the political parties agreed on this article as a text and a law in the permanent Iraqi Constitution under Article 136, and stipulated the date of 31^st December 2007 to be the completion date for executing this article. 

Also Kirkuk has been given the right to decide whether to remain as one administrative province or to be a part of Iraqi Kurdistan Region.

It is unfortunate that Kirkuk has been deprived of the simple staples of the modern life style although it is located on a huge reserve of oil. Kirkuk is awaiting the efforts and aids of its citizens and those who are loyalists to make progress all over the province; So that in future it could have standards equal to those of other modern provinces or states and be worthy of its people in terms of prosperity, housing, safety and good living.