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Kirkuk
KNOWLEDGE OF Kirkuk
Kirkuk (Arabic: كركوك,kirkÅ«k; Kurdish: Kerkûk; The present city of Kirkuk stands on the site of the ancient Assyrian city of Arrapha Ü?ܪܦÜ? (Arabic: أررابخا , عرÙ?Ø© ) and sits near the Khasa River (Arabic: نهر خاصة ) on the ruins of a 5,000-year-old settlement. Kirkuk reached great importance under the Assyrians in the 10th and 11th centuries BC. Because of the strategic geographical location of the city, Kirkuk was the battle ground for the three main empires, Assyrian, Babylonian and Medes, who controlled the city at various times.
One theory states that the name Kirkuk is derived from the Assyrian name Karkha D-Bet Slokh (Arabic: كرخاد بيث سلوخ ), which means 'siege wall'. The cuneiform script found in 1927 at the foot of Kirkuk Citadel (Arabic: قلعة كركوك ) stated that the city of Erekha of Babylonia was on the site of Kirkuk. Other sources consider Erekha to have been simply one part of the larger Arrapha metropolis. The region around Kirkuk was known during the Sassanid period as Garmakan, which means the 'Land of Warmth' or the 'Hot Land'. The Turkmen of Kirkuk believe that the word Kirkuk started to be used for the first time by the Turkmen State Kara Koyunlu (1375–1468). According to Turkmen tradition, the name of the city comes from their word Kerk, meaning 'beauty'.
Kirkuk is the centre of the northern Iraqi petroleum industry. It is an historically and ethnically mixed city populated by Kurds, Turkmens, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Arabs, and Armenians. It is located at 35.47°N, 44.41°E, in the Iraqi province of at-Ta'mim, 250 kilometres (156 miles) north of the capital, Baghdad. The Kirkuk region lies between the Zagros Mountains to the north-east, the Zab River and the Tigris River to the west, the Hamrin Mountains (Arabic: جبل Øمرين) to the south, and the Sirwan (Diyala) River to the south-east. The population was estimated to stand at 755,700 in 2003.
In 1927 a huge oil gusher was discovered at Baba Gurgur near Kirkuk. The Kirkuk oil field was brought into use by the Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC) in 1934 and has ever since remained the basis of northern Iraqi oil production with over ten billion barrels (1.6 km³) of proven remaining oil reserves as of 1998. After about seven decades of operation, Kirkuk still produces up to one million barrels a day, almost half of all Iraqi oil exports. The facilities have been frequently sabotaged during the fighting between Iraqi forces and the Kurds.
Some analysts believe that poor reservoir-management practices during the Saddam Hussein years may have seriously, and even permanently, damaged Kirkuk's oil field. One example showed an estimated 1.5 billion barrels of excess fuel oil being reinjected. Other problems include refinery residue and gas-stripped oil. Fuel oil reinjection has increased oil viscosity at Kirkuk making it more difficult and expensive to get the oil out of the ground.
Overall, between April 2003 and late December 2004 there were an estimated 123 attacks on Iraqi energy infrastructures, including the country's 4,350 mile-long pipeline system. In response to these attacks, which have cost Iraq billions of US dollars in lost oil-export revenues and repair costs, the US military set up the Task Force Shield to guard Iraq's energy infrastructure and the Kirkuk-Ceyhan Oil Pipeline in particular. In spite of the fact that little damage was done to Iraq's oil fields during the war itself, looting and sabotage after the war ended was highly destructive and accounted for perhaps eighty percent of the total damage.
The discovery of vast quantities of oil in the region after World War I provided the impetus for the annexation of the former Ottoman Wilayah of Mosul (of which the Kirkuk region was a part), to the Iraqi Kingdom, established in 1921. Since then and particularly from 1963 onwards, there have been continuous attempts to transform the ethnic make-up of the region.
One theory states that the name Kirkuk is derived from the Assyrian name Karkha D-Bet Slokh (Arabic: كرخاد بيث سلوخ ), which means 'siege wall'. The cuneiform script found in 1927 at the foot of Kirkuk Citadel (Arabic: قلعة كركوك ) stated that the city of Erekha of Babylonia was on the site of Kirkuk. Other sources consider Erekha to have been simply one part of the larger Arrapha metropolis. The region around Kirkuk was known during the Sassanid period as Garmakan, which means the 'Land of Warmth' or the 'Hot Land'. The Turkmen of Kirkuk believe that the word Kirkuk started to be used for the first time by the Turkmen State Kara Koyunlu (1375–1468). According to Turkmen tradition, the name of the city comes from their word Kerk, meaning 'beauty'.
Kirkuk is the centre of the northern Iraqi petroleum industry. It is an historically and ethnically mixed city populated by Kurds, Turkmens, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Arabs, and Armenians. It is located at 35.47°N, 44.41°E, in the Iraqi province of at-Ta'mim, 250 kilometres (156 miles) north of the capital, Baghdad. The Kirkuk region lies between the Zagros Mountains to the north-east, the Zab River and the Tigris River to the west, the Hamrin Mountains (Arabic: جبل Øمرين) to the south, and the Sirwan (Diyala) River to the south-east. The population was estimated to stand at 755,700 in 2003.
In 1927 a huge oil gusher was discovered at Baba Gurgur near Kirkuk. The Kirkuk oil field was brought into use by the Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC) in 1934 and has ever since remained the basis of northern Iraqi oil production with over ten billion barrels (1.6 km³) of proven remaining oil reserves as of 1998. After about seven decades of operation, Kirkuk still produces up to one million barrels a day, almost half of all Iraqi oil exports. The facilities have been frequently sabotaged during the fighting between Iraqi forces and the Kurds.
Some analysts believe that poor reservoir-management practices during the Saddam Hussein years may have seriously, and even permanently, damaged Kirkuk's oil field. One example showed an estimated 1.5 billion barrels of excess fuel oil being reinjected. Other problems include refinery residue and gas-stripped oil. Fuel oil reinjection has increased oil viscosity at Kirkuk making it more difficult and expensive to get the oil out of the ground.
Overall, between April 2003 and late December 2004 there were an estimated 123 attacks on Iraqi energy infrastructures, including the country's 4,350 mile-long pipeline system. In response to these attacks, which have cost Iraq billions of US dollars in lost oil-export revenues and repair costs, the US military set up the Task Force Shield to guard Iraq's energy infrastructure and the Kirkuk-Ceyhan Oil Pipeline in particular. In spite of the fact that little damage was done to Iraq's oil fields during the war itself, looting and sabotage after the war ended was highly destructive and accounted for perhaps eighty percent of the total damage.
The discovery of vast quantities of oil in the region after World War I provided the impetus for the annexation of the former Ottoman Wilayah of Mosul (of which the Kirkuk region was a part), to the Iraqi Kingdom, established in 1921. Since then and particularly from 1963 onwards, there have been continuous attempts to transform the ethnic make-up of the region.
Chapi