Kirkuk (Kurdish: Kerkûk, Arabic: كركوك) is an ancient city in Iraq, sitting near the Hasa River on the ruins of a 3,000-year-old settlement. It is the centre of the northern Iraqi petroleum industry. It is located at 35.47°N, 44.41°E, in the Iraqi province of at-Ta'mim. The estimated population in 2003 was 755,700 people.

The Kirkuk oil field was brought into use by the Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC) in 1934 and has remained the basis of northern Iraqi oil production, with over 10 billion barrels (1.6 km³) of proven remaining oil reserves, as of 1998. The facilities have been sabotaged at times during fighting between Iraqi forces and the Kurds.

Pipelines from Kirkuk run through Turkey to Ceyhan on the Mediterranean Sea and were one of the two main routes for the export of Iraqi oil under the "oil for food" programme following the Gulf War of 1991. This was in accordance with a United Nations mandate that at least 50% of the oil exports pass through Turkey. There are two parallel lines built in 1977 and 1987.

Major historic ethnic groups of Kirkuk are the Kurds and the Turkmen people. The city of Kirkuk was long known as a city where people of different ethnic groups lived together in peace, but this was changed starting in the 1980s during the regime of Saddam Hussein. Kurds and Turkmen were forced from Kirkuk and outlying villages and replaced with Arab oilfield workers in Saddam's Arabization plan of the Al-Anfal Campaign. Under the protection of the 'no-fly' zones imposed after 1991, many returned to live in tent encampments on the edges of Kirkuk. There was sporadic violence.

January 26, 2004, the Los Angeles Times quoted Barham Salih, prime minister for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of two main political parties controlling the Kurdish autonomous zone in northern Iraq. "Kirkuk is a benchmark for how most Kurds would define their legitimacy in Iraq," he said. "We have a claim to Kirkuk rooted in history, geography and demographics?. This is a recipe for civil war if you don't do it right."

References

• Insurgents stir up strife in Kirkuk
• Kurds flee Iraqi town, March 15, 2003; named Kurds' preferred capital.
• Key Targets in Iraq, Anthony H. Cordesman, CSIS, February 1998; information about the oil resources and facilities.

See also

• List of places in Iraq