History and Identity of Kirkuk City

Year 2018, Volume: 3 Issue: 10, 71 - 92, 30.12.2018

Abdullah Kıran

Abstract

Summary: The region of Kirkuk, which is named as
Shehrezor in Kurdish, is considered one of the oldest human settlements in
Iraqi Kurdistan. We don’t know when exactly the city of Kirkuk was built up,
but we know that during the times of Assyrian Empire Kirkuk used to be a
residential area. After the fall of the Assyrian Empire, the Median became the
rulers of Kirkuk and its vicinities. When the Median lost their sovereignty to
the Persian, the Persian Empire began to rule over almost all of Middle East.
The Kirkuk region later fell into the hands of Alexander the Great’s
forces,  and has been ruled by Antioch,
and his successors.

After emergence of Islam, during the reign of Khalifa
Omer, in 642 AD the Muslims took the administration of the city from Sassanid’s.
Then respectively, the Seljuk, the Ayyubids, Kwarazmzshah, Mongols and Ottoman
ruled over the Kirkuk and it’s vicinities.

Yakût el Hamevî (1179-1229), in his well know book
which entitled as “Mû’cemû’l Buldan”
gave some intersting informations regarding the Kirkuk and its inhabitans. As
he tells ‘’The city of Shehrezor has been located between the city of Hemedan
and Irbil… All the settlers of this region are Kurds.”  Besides, Hamevi pointed out that the people of
Shehrezor were cruel and violence motivated; in order to protect the things
that belongs to them, they could easly risk their lives. Hamevi gives more
information regarding the fortress of city and he mentions that they are as
high as four meetre. Acording to Hamevî, the rulers of the Shehrezor are kins
to each other.  

For a long period of time the word of Shehrezor refered
to the town of Kirkuk an its region.   Nîzamuddîn Şamî is the first author that uses
the name of Kirkuk in his book entitled Zafername
(1404).  After N. Şamî, in the 17th
centruy, first geographer Katîp Çelebî
(1609-1657) and later traveller Ewliya
Çelebî (1611-1685) provides some important information about Kirkuk. Both
of them decribed the Kurdistan’s borders and regarded the Kirkuk as a Kurdish
city such as Cezira Botan, Mosul (Ninova), Meleti, Maraş, Van, Erzerum, Hakkari
and etc.  In 19^th century Şemseddîn Samî gives very detailed
information on Kirkuk location, the structure of the city, its mosques,
churchs, sinagoges and its inhabitans. 
Sami puts forth that “Three out of four people in Kirkuk are Kurds,
while one in four of them Turkoman, Arabs and the others. In the city there are
760 Jews family and 460 Kildans.”

After the First World War and dismemberment of Ottoman
Empire, Mosul and Kirkuk region became a serious problem between the newly
established Turkish Republic and Great Britian.When Turkey wanted to annex this
region and include it to its soils, Great Britain struggled to keep the region
in Iraqi state, which was under its mandate. The Leaguge of Nation negotiated
between Turkey and Great Britain and later on, the region was given to the
Iraq.

Between 1930 and 1980, Turked didn’t claim its rights
over Musul and Kirkuk, but in 1986, when Iraq became too weak during the war
against Iran and was about to dissolve, Turkey claimed some historical rights over
Mosul and Kirkuk regions.  Turkey
hesitated that the Kurds could establish an autonomous region and oil rich city
Kirkuk became part of this autonomus state. In 1991, the first Gulf War created
an opportunity for Kurds to esatablish a self ruled government. The second Gulf
War ended with demise of Saddam regime and the Kurds officaly became the
federate state in Iraq. According to the Iraqi Constitution (article 140),
which was ratified in 2005, the Kirkuk issue should be solved by a referendum
which would be held until the end of 2007, whether it will be part of Iraqi
central governmet or became a part of Kurdistan Regional Government. But the
referendum has never taken place.

In 2014, when ISIS occupaided the Iraq’s second largest
city Mosul, the Iraqi army escaped from Kirkuk and Kurdish Peshmerge took
control over the city. Despite the Kurdsitan region independence referendum,
which was held in 25 September 2017, the majority of Kirkuk inhabitans voted in
favour of independence, in 16 October, the Iraqi forces; with the cooperation
of some Kurish groups entered the city.  Thus
the Kirkuk question remained unsolved between the Kurds and Iraqi central government.

Keywords

Kirkuk, Kurds, Arabs, Turkomen

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