| Summary: | Summary: The region of Kirkuk, which is named asShehrezor in Kurdish, is considered one of the oldest human settlements inIraqi 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 aresidential area. After the fall of the Assyrian Empire, the Median became therulers of Kirkuk and its vicinities. When the Median lost their sovereignty tothe 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’sforces, and has been ruled by Antioch,and his successors. After emergence of Islam, during the reign of KhalifaOmer, in 642 AD the Muslims took the administration of the city from Sassanid’s.Then respectively, the Seljuk, the Ayyubids, Kwarazmzshah, Mongols and Ottomanruled over the Kirkuk and it’s vicinities. Yakût el Hamevî (1179-1229), in his well know bookwhich entitled as “Mû’cemû’l Buldan”gave some intersting informations regarding the Kirkuk and its inhabitans. Ashe tells ‘’The city of Shehrezor has been located between the city of Hemedanand Irbil… All the settlers of this region are Kurds.” Besides, Hamevi pointed out that the people ofShehrezor were cruel and violence motivated; in order to protect the thingsthat belongs to them, they could easly risk their lives. Hamevi gives moreinformation regarding the fortress of city and he mentions that they are ashigh as four meetre. Acording to Hamevî, the rulers of the Shehrezor are kinsto each other. For a long period of time the word of Shehrezor referedto the town of Kirkuk an its region. Nîzamuddîn Şamî is the first author that usesthe name of Kirkuk in his book entitled Zafername(1404). After N. Şamî, in the 17thcentruy, first geographer Katîp Çelebî(1609-1657) and later traveller EwliyaÇelebî (1611-1685) provides some important information about Kirkuk. Bothof them decribed the Kurdistan’s borders and regarded the Kirkuk as a Kurdishcity such as Cezira Botan, Mosul (Ninova), Meleti, Maraş, Van, Erzerum, Hakkariand etc. In 19th century Şemseddîn Samî gives very detailedinformation 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 are760 Jews family and 460 Kildans.”After the First World War and dismemberment of OttomanEmpire, Mosul and Kirkuk region became a serious problem between the newlyestablished Turkish Republic and Great Britian.When Turkey wanted to annex thisregion and include it to its soils, Great Britain struggled to keep the regionin Iraqi state, which was under its mandate. The Leaguge of Nation negotiatedbetween Turkey and Great Britain and later on, the region was given to theIraq.Between 1930 and 1980, Turked didn’t claim its rightsover Musul and Kirkuk, but in 1986, when Iraq became too weak during the waragainst Iran and was about to dissolve, Turkey claimed some historical rights overMosul and Kirkuk regions. Turkeyhesitated that the Kurds could establish an autonomous region and oil rich cityKirkuk became part of this autonomus state. In 1991, the first Gulf War createdan opportunity for Kurds to esatablish a self ruled government. The second GulfWar ended with demise of Saddam regime and the Kurds officaly became thefederate state in Iraq. According to the Iraqi Constitution (article 140),which was ratified in 2005, the Kirkuk issue should be solved by a referendumwhich would be held until the end of 2007, whether it will be part of Iraqicentral governmet or became a part of Kurdistan Regional Government. But thereferendum has never taken place. In 2014, when ISIS occupaided the Iraq’s second largestcity Mosul, the Iraqi army escaped from Kirkuk and Kurdish Peshmerge tookcontrol over the city. Despite the Kurdsitan region independence referendum,which was held in 25 September 2017, the majority of Kirkuk inhabitans voted infavour of independence, in 16 October, the Iraqi forces; with the cooperationof some Kurish groups entered the city. Thusthe Kirkuk question remained unsolved between the Kurds and Iraqi central government.
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