The History of Kirkuk

Historical Background of Kirkuk

The City of Kirkuk is one of the oldest sites of human occupation in the modern Iraq state. The history of Kirkuk can be traced back five thousand years ago following the archaeological artifacts which have been found where the city is currently located.¹ The Assyrians dominated the city of Kirkuk before the close of the 11^th century B.C. and so far has been occupied by Turkmen and the Kurdish people. The city is of unique importance to the Kurds owing to the historical identity they attach it to. It is also an economically viable land to the Iraqi government owing to the heavy deposits of oil it is endowed with. This paper is going to give a historical account of the city of Kirkuk with particular reference to Saddam’s Hussein era.

During the reign of saddam Hussein, the city of Kirkuk went through a series of both socio-economic and political turmoil with a bid for the Baghdad government to have total control of the oil field in Kirkuk. The first ever attempt which was made by Saddam Hussein to gain control of Kirkuk was to move the Arab population into the region. This was known as Arabization. The program was meant to put a firm Arab control in place.

In achieving this program, the Saddam regime forced out the original inhabitants of Kirkuk to other designated locations. Moreover, the government implemented some amendments on the registration procedures of different ethnic groups. The worst affected group was the Kurdish people. In a relentless effort however, the Kurdish people maintained that Kirkuk was their cultural identity, an assertion that led to incessant wrangles and disputes between the Kurds and the Saddam’s totalitarian government.

Kirkuk city was equally devastated in terms of the huge Kurds population which was hitherto moved to the neighboring Iran. As a result, constant wrangles persisted between the Saddam’s government and the Kurds on the ownership of this oil-rich region.² One of the worst attacks which took place in Kirkuk targeting the adamant Kurdish people was witnessed way back in the late 70s and early 80s soon after President Saddam Hussein had declared himself the ruler of Iraq. Over three thousand Kurdish settlements were pulled down by the Iraqi forces. This destruction was not a one time event but it persisted throughout the reign of Saddam Hussein.

Additionally, Kirkuk acted as an ammunition storage base for the Iraqi government forces right from the beginning of the 80s. There was need to store ammunition outside the capital for security purposes and consequently a considerable load of assorted weapons like bombs and artillery shells were periodically stored in Kirkuk before they could finally be transferred to the town of Sulaymaniyah. Furthermore, the Kirkuk weaponry base was also entrusted with the storage of Chemical Warfare equipment.³ This did not go well with the U.S federal government which later called for the need of launching an intelligence system over Iraq and Kirkuk in particular to investigate the possible damage these S-shaped bunkers would cause in the event of war.

The oil conflict in Kirkuk

The oil field capacity of Kirkuk was significantly destabilized by the aftermath of the 1991 aggressions between the Kurdish people and the government deployed forces.⁴ Oil mining activities at the Kirkuk site went down as a result of the war between the two groups owing to the fact that some oil wells were tampered with alongside the deteriorating security situation in this region which would not have allowed any substantial mining of oil to take place.

Nevertheless, oil production at the Kirkuk site resumed its normal capacity by 1999 whereby it was projected to yield about nine hundred thousand barrels everyday. This was almost half of Iraqi’s total oil production capacity. Before the close of the last century, a Russian company had laid down proposals of embarking on an oil drilling mission in Kirkuk arguing that it was not going to underrate the U.N embargo. By so doing, it was expected to jumpstart the overall oil production volume of Kirkuk. This energy company from Russia would also drill other wells in Iraq as per the agreement between it and the Saddam Hussein government.⁵

The Aftermath of this conflict

Another aggressive action which interrupted oil mining activities in Kirkuk was the dispute between Kuwait and Iran. As the two countries were embroiled themselves in a fight, the water plant which was being constructed in Kirkuk came to a standstill. Although Iran and Kuwait were not part of Iraq, the damaging effects arising from the war spilled over to Kirkuk and destabilized the relative peace. It took more than a decade before the completion of the water reservoir. Nonetheless, structural problems associated with leaking began to be experienced with the tanks some years later after the plant had been commissioned.

Meanwhile, as the Saddam government pursued the ownership and control of the oil-rich Kirkuk region, the U.S government was already refurbishing its foreign policy plan on Iraq in order to counteract the inhuman policies perpetrated by Saddam Hussein regime especially to Kurdish people in Kirkuk.⁶ Some of the unjust practices included forced deportation of the Kurds and destruction of villages alongside genocide of the innocent population who were anti-government policies.

Bibliography

Anderson L and Stansfield G (2009). Crisis in Kirkuk: The Ethnopolitics of Conflict and Compromise. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. (pp.35-36).

Astarjian D. H (2007). The struggle for Kirkuk: the rise of Hussein, oil, and the death of tolerance in Iraq. CT: Greenwood Publishing Group. (p.145).

Batatu H (1978). The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq. Princeton: Princeton University Press. (pp.237-239).

McDowell D (2004). A Modern History of the Kurds. Tauris & Co. (p.49).

Tripp C (2000). A History of Iraq. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (p.259).

Footnotes

1. Tripp (2000).
2. McDowell (2004)
3. Batatu (1978).
4. Astarjian (2007).
5. Astarjian (2007).
6. Anderson and Stansfield (2009).