A brief history of Kurdistan, Iraq

1. I found Kurdistan
such a beautiful and
inspiring place to
visit that I wanted to
understand it better.
Today’s Iraq
includes some of
both ancient
Babylonia and
Assyria. I have
dome most on the
Kurdistan area.
PS. NONE OF THIS
INFORMATION CAN BE
GUARANTEED CORRECT!

2. HISTORY OF IRAQ
Formerly MESOPOTAMIA
The Cradle of Western Civilisation
An outline of the history, both cultural and political of the area
called Iraq (in 2014). Iraq has always been an area of ferment.
Mesopotamia means the land between the rivers--
– the Tigris & Euphrates & includes the biblical Garden of Eden.
The green on this background is the Fertile Crescent.
View Normal, not full screen to see credits & sources.

3. ◄ Map of modern Iraq.
 The Tigris & Euphrates
draining into the Persian
Gulf. Mesopotamia means
Land between the Rivers.
▲ The main
Kurdish area today.
Overlapping 4
countries.

4. The Kurds are the largest nation without a state.
Saddam Hussein led the Anfal against the Kurds in 1998, from
February to December. Their identity is undiminished.

5. TIMELINE
80,000 to 35,000BP Mousterian - Neanderthals
50,000 BC Jabroudian (Yabroudian)
40,000 BC, Amoudian culture
30,000 BC, Emirian culture
20,000 BC, Aurignacian culture
10,000–7000 BC Neolithic starts with farming
6100 – 5400 BC Halaf Period
6900–6500 BC Hassuna culture
6500–3800 BC The Ubaid Period
5500–3000 BC Copper Age
3000BC -750ish AD Bronze Age.
2500 BC to 605 BC Assyrian period broad definition
2340-2125 BC Akkadian Period (southern Iraq)
1200 BC-539 BC Iron Age
1300- AD Ottoman State &Empire

6. The Berekhat Ram Figurine (The Acheulian Goddess)
This figure is a 35mm high fragment of volcanic rock (basaltic tuff) that was
found between layers of volcanic flow in southern Syria. 233,000--800,000 years
old, the Acheulian paleolithic era. Made by Archaic Homo Sapiens or Homo
Erectus.
Perhaps the earliest figurative art. FIRST!

7. The Neanderthals in the Shanidar Cave, north of Erbil in
Kurdistan. Remains of 8 adults and 2 infants have been found.
The remains are dated between 60,000 to 35,000 years ago.
This is among the oldest sites and the furthest east they’ve been
found, So old is hard to date accurately. More 50 K yr ago
some Neanderthal women had children with modern human
men. Work continues

8. The entrance to Shanidar Cave,
tools & reconstructed Neanderthal

9. 50,000 BCE Jabroudian Culture, (Mousterian)
The only known site for Neanderthals in the middle east is Shanidar
in Kurdistan. They hunted a wide range of animals: evidence of
elephants, rhinoceros, antelopes and small animals are all found in
their sites. The Neanderthals started making stone tools between
50,000 & 55,000 years ago.
VOLCANIC ERUPTION
A little less than 40k yrs BP was a
devasting volcanic eruption in central
Italy Called the Campanian Ignimbrite
(CI) eruption.
Ash was blown all over the eastern
Mediterranean, and reached as far as
south western Russia. This cooled the
climate and deposited ash.
It might have wiped out the Neanderthal
culture.

10. Neanderthals, total range in blue.

11. Early modern
humans out
of Africa
Cro-magnons, may
have reached the
middle east by
100,000 BP.
They left no early
genetic trace, only
tools. They spread out
50-60,000 yrs ago &
are the ancestors of
modern Caucasians.

12. OUT OF AFRICA
How people
emigrated from
Africa.
Research by the
Genographic
project created by
the National
Geographic
Society. Published
2014.

13. The womb of nations DNA evidence
6 modern human groups emerged from the red area to become :-- Mediterranean,
North European, Caucasus, Gedrosia (now west Pakistan), Southwest-Asian, and
Northwest-African. Divergence started about 40,000 years ago.

14. ZARZIAN CULTURE
Epipalaeolithic (end of the Paleaolithic), about 18,000-8,000 years BC.
Modern human remains were found in Zarzi cave in Kurdistan, Zagros
region. The same culture was also found in the Palegawra Cave (next
slide) which has been thoroughly excavated.
These highly mobile hunter gatherers started gathering wild seeds, they
ground them with stones to use the flour in cooking.
Some became the cereal crops in the future. It is thought they spent the
winter near a lowland water source using rock shelters, and summer in
the hills.
Zarzian is Characterised by
microlithic flint tools.

15. Early modern humans, using microlithic tools, hunted,
butchered & ate many wild animals here. They ate
onager, red deer, wild sheep and goats, and occasionally
killed the enormous wild cattle. Remains of a dog were
found. They probably managed wild animals.
Palegawra Cave,
Zagros foothills east of Kirkuk.
14 – 12,000 BP.

16. Early crop growing in the Epipalaeolithic
DNA studies show that plants and animals were domesticated several times.
Wheat was first domesticated in south eastern Turkey about 12,000 years a ago,
according to DNA evidence. Crops were also being cultivated in the Zagros
mountains of Iran about 12,000 years ago, at a site known as Chogha Golan.
Emmer, Einkorn wheat, & barley were
cultivated from the wild.
Figs are among the oldest cultivated
fruit having been traced to 5000 BP

17. A site on a terrace of the River
Zab in Iraqi Kurdistan 6 kms
from the Shanidar Cave,
associated with the transition
from a hunting-gathering
economy to farming. The site
provides important evidence of
early stock control associated
with a radiocarbon date of
circa 8640 BC.
High proportions of immature
sheep in the upper levels, may
indicate incipient
domestication or indicate
stock manipulation, perhaps
herding, rather than
domestication.
Occupation was probably
seasonal and plant resources
were clearly exploited as
indicated by querns, grinding
stones and storage pits. Stone
axes and worked bone with
incised or notched decoration
were found.
Karim Shahir Culture, 9000 - 7000 BC
Early control of livestock.

18. A hilltop farming
village, Excavated
1954-55, between
Kirkuk &
Sulaymaniyah.
100-150 people
lived in 20 mud
brick houses with
stone foundations.
They grew wheat,
barley & lentils,
kept sheep, goats
and dogs and
foraged wild
plants. They used
obsidian & bone
tools, cooked in
clay ovens and
spun fibres.
Jarmo: Pre-pottery Neolithic 7090--4950 BC

19. Domestication of the aurochs began in the southern
Caucusus and northern Mesopotamia from about the 6th
millennium BC. They were might have been beasts of burden
as well as meat animals.
Although there were aurochs native to Britain, all our
domestic cattle have been of near eastern descent.
Hunting mural in Çatalhöyük, perhaps the world’s oldest
village, in Turkey. Inhabited from 7500 - 5700 BC

20. Halaf & Hassuna culture areas
Late Neolithic

21. Hassuna culture 6900–6500 BC
Hassuna was west of modern Mosul. It was excavated 1943-44 by Iraq
Directorate of Antiquities. A small village but sophisticated agricultural
village. Six layers of houses were uncovered, each progressively more
substantial. Few Hassuna villages had more than 500 people.
Doesn’t it look sophisticated?

22. SUMER Ubaid Culture 5300—4000BC
People lived in villages mainly by farming. They produced
beautiful fired pottery. The Fertile Crescent supported Irrigated
agriculture which started 4 - 5000BC.

23. The Ubaid Period 5500–4000 BC
The Ubaid period gradually developed
from the Halaf.
Farming was developing more
intensively, irrigation developed further.
Villages appeared for the first time.
The potters wheel in Ur,
Mesopotamia around 3500 BC. The
first, slow wheels meant a coil pot to be
made faster. The fast wheel came later
and produced thrown circular pots. They
could be made quickly and neatly. The
wheel for transport came at nearly the
same time.
Pottery jar from the Late Ubaid period.
FIRST!

24. Ubaid
Stamp seals & cylinder seals of stone
May also be worn as amulets

25. Yarim Tepe -- Halaf Period- 6100 – 5400BC.

26. Around 5900 B.C.E. ,
farmers in the
foothills of the
Zagros mountains
began to dig canals
to carry water from
rivers to their fields
to irrigate them
during the dry
season.
1792– 1750 BC
Babylonian King
Hammurabi was the
first to institute
water regulations
within his kingdom.
This early code
covered:
A) The distribution of
water
proportionally
based on the acres
farmed.
B) A farmer’s
responsibilities in
maintaining canals
on his property.
C) The collective
administration of
the canal by all
users.
FIRST!
IRRIGATION

27. Lizard people, thought by some to be aliens, sent by the god Enki to bring
a more sophisticated culture to Earth. They bred with “the daughters of
men”, producing the Nephilim. Note the chap does have trousers on, their
sexuality is emphasised! But why do have lumps on their shoulders?

28. 2-3000 BC,
early
bronze age
settlements.
The tombs of Ur yielded very
beautiful and interesting things,
like the Royal Game of Ur

29. Ur was the largest city in the world from c. 2030
to 1980 BC. Its population was approximately
65,000 (An estimate on Wikipedia)
The City of Ur

30. The Royal Game of Ur
played from 2,600 BC.
The rules : 
Dice were used to play.
FIRST known
board game

31. This sort of pottery was traded throughout the
middle east. These were found at Hassuna.

32. King Nebuchadnezzar 1st
1126–1103 BC
Victory over Elam (in modern Iran)

33. The transport wheel was invented around 3200 BC,
Soon after the potters wheel.
Logs came first, for rolling
things, a slice of log
eventually got an axle.
Replica of wheel
found in the Ljubljana
Marshes, Slovenia.
Around 3500 BC
Sumerian wheel, like
those of 2700 BC in
Mesopotamia, one
chunk of wood.FIRST!

34. An early depiction of a wheeled cart 2600-2400 BC,
found in a Sumerian royal grave in Ur.
FIRST! wheels

35. • Eridu excavation in 1941. Dated to 4800BC the earliest of
16 layers, the ever first settlement. Founded by Adam and
Eve? It was irrigated from the Euphrates.

36. The colonial expansionism of the later Uruk periods.
[by who?] The building of ziggurats to link heaven
& earth begins.
The city of Uruk was founded 4500 BCE

37. Administrative tablet with cylinder seal impression of a
male figure, hunting dogs, and boars, (aka Uruk III script)
SUMER (Ubaid)
3500 BC earliest writing
from Uruk, in the south
FIRST!
1st state around 3400BC
FIRST!

38. Sumerian is the first known written language and the earliest
known literature. Today it can be viewed at the ETCSLcorpus
website, created at Oxford University. There the tales of Enki, Enlil,
Inana and other deities may be read, as well as the Epic of
Gilgamesh, King lists and other writings.
FIRST!
FIRST written numbers

39. Gilgamesh
ruled Uruk in Babylon around
2700 BC. He is a known historical
figure and ruled around 2700 BC
from a place which is now
southern Iraq. Stories & poems
about him were written in
Sumerian and Akkadian.
The famous Epic of
Gilgamesh tells of his adventures
with his wild-man companion
called Enkidu.
FIRST! Written stories

40. AKKADIAN PERIOD ? (Bronze Age)
The Dynasty of Akkad. Dates given vary, 2350-2150 BC.
RAPID URBANISATION
Early Bronze Age c. 2600–2000 BC – Erbil (northern Mesopotamian) urbanised :--
Baqrta/ Baqarru, EBA- 80ha, a 5ha village by the Neo-Assyrian period.
Qasr Shemamok, ancient Kilizu, the largest LBA site on the Plain.
kingdom of Qabrā 5.5kms NW of Baqrta – a large walled town. 3rdk BC to late
bronze age. Important in 2nd
k had a canal through it.
Gutian king Erridu-Pizir 2200–2100 BC
IRON AGE / Neo-Assyrian settlement of Erbil plain was densest in 1st k BC
Cylinder seal and modern
impression: hunting scene,
2250–2150 b.c.; late Akkadian
period. Mesopotamia
Chert; H. 1 1/16 in. (2.8 cm)
FIRST!

41. King Shulgi 2012 -- 1982 BC
Repeatedly fought the nomadic Guti,
because they raided farms. Thousands
died on both sides. They were regarded
as uncivilised barbarians and lived in the
central Zagros mountains. The Guti
defeated the Akkadian army of King Ur-
Utu around 2150 BC and held power in
Sumer for less than 100 years.
The Guti came from the Zagros
mountains and down to the Tigris in
Kurdistan and had their own language
and script, unrelated to neighbouring
ones. They seem to be mysterious.
Some consider them the ancestors of
modern Kurds.
The Assyrian Period 1350-612 BC
A Gutian inscription 

42. Tribes of Semitic
migrants who
arrived in the
region from the
Levant during the
10th C BC known
as the Chaldeans
or the Chaldees
In the bottom right of this
old map, you can see the
Persian Gulf.

43. King Sennacherib of Assyria, 705 – 681 BC Babylonian wars, also fought
Judah relief from his palace in Nineveh. He had a wonderful garden
made for his wife.

44. ASSYRIAN
WARS
With the
Chaldeans
652 B.C
to 612 BC
And more wars, list?
Shalmaneser III
Senecherib, son
of above
Sennacherib's Annals
known as the Taylor
Prism. A heavy book!
Cyrus the Great
600 or 576 – 530 BC

45. Nebuchadnezzar 2nd,
King of the Chaldeans 605 – 562 BC
Had the "Hanging Gardens of Babylon," built, one of the seven
wonders of the ancient world, for his wife in Mesopotamia. It is
known they were irrigated, but not how. Perhaps, as in this image
from an aqueduct.

46. The Battle of Gaugamela
Alexander the Great defeated Darius III of Persia
in 331 BC., about 100km west of Arbil. After the
battle, Darius escaped to Arbela.

47. Semitic
languages
spoken in the
1st
century AD
Aramaic is
still spoken
by the
Christians of
the region
today

48. These fragments of wall-paintings from the harem baths at Jawsaq al-
Khaqani provide a glimpse of important early examples of figurative art in
the Islamic world. Of Caliph al-Muasim in Samarra, where the walls of
the palaces were painted with large scenes of hunters, dancers, and
drinkers. The palaces were also decorated with carved wooden panels
and stucco (plaster).
Harem girls were often
highly trained in singing,
music and literature and it
was potentially an
attractive career for a
woman of humble origins.
British Museum
Samarra, Iraq,
9th century AD

49. Ottoman State &Empire
The Ottoman State in today’s Turkey
under the Osman dynasty 1300 AD
Expansion and apogee 1453–1566
Much change 1556–1683
The Sultanate of women 1648–1656
Decline and modernization 1828–1908

50. Yezidis on Sinja Mountain 1920s. It’s a holy place. They
believe their founder, Tawûsê Melek (the Peacock Angel) was
created by God before Adam and they believe in reincarnation.

51. POLITICAL EVENTS IN KURDISTAN
in the 20th Century
Drawn from book:
“Invisible Nation” by Quil Lawrence,
pub 2008 and the BBC website
PS. The Kurds are not Arabs. They are
thought to be the ancestors of the
Caucasians, European white people.

52. • 1917 Britain seizes Baghdad.
• 1918 With the end of the Ottoman Empire and the 1st War, British forces hold oil-rich Mosul.
• 1919 The new Iraqi state takes Mosul province under British mandate. Sheikh Mahmoud Barzinji rebels against
British and claims title of king of Kurdistan. Brits quickly exile him to India.
• 1920 Britain creates the state of Iraq, with League of Nations approval. Iraqi revolution against British rule.
Treaty of Sevres: signed by defeated Ottoman government with a referendum on Kurdish independence.
• 1921 Emir Faisal crowned the first king of Iraq. Continuing unrest.
• 1922 Sheik Mahmoud returned to power by British. He again claims kingship and then fights British!
• 1923 International community rejects Treaty of Sevres.
• 1924 British retake Sulimaniya.
• 1932 Uprising led by Sheik Ahmed Barzani for Kurdish autonomy.
• Iraq becomes independent of British mandate. In world war 2 Britain reoccupies Iraq.
• 1943 Uprising led by Mulla Mustafa Barzani, captures parts of Erbil & Badinan.
• 1946 KDP (Kurdish Democratic Party) holds 1st congress in Mahabad with Soviet support.
Mulla Mustafa Barzani commands armed forces.
• 1947 Mahabs Republic falls under attack from Iran. Barzani flees to Soviet Union.
• 1951 KDP holds 2nd congress, led by Ibrahim Ahmad. M Barzani remains president though in Soviet Union.
• 1958 Military coup (July 14th) expels monarchy. Qassim becomes prime minister and declares Iraq a republic,
Mullah Mustafa Barzani returns from Soviet Union.
• 1961 Barzani pushes for Kurdish rebellion against Baghdad
• 1963 Qassim overthrown by Ba’athist coup in February. In November Ba’athists expelled by Arif and fellow
officers.
• 1968 Ba’athists regain power by a coup. Gen Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr is president. Saddam Hussein is vice-
president, gaining power.
• 1970 Kurds get a peace agreement with Iraq and autonomy.
Kurds are Iraq’s second nationality, with language and cultural rights. Status of Kirkuk unresolved.
• 1971 Barzani survives several “exploding Imams”. Appeals for US aid through Iran.
• 1972 Iraq aligns with Soviet Union and nationalises the oil industry.
• 1974 Mullah Mustafa Barzani rejects Baghdad autonomy offer. Rebellion.
• 1975 Algiers Accord between Iran & Iraq which ends Iranian support for Kurdish uprising, which collapses.
Barzani flees to US for medical treatment.
Mam Jalal Talabani establishes the PUK (Patriotic Union of Kurdistan) from Damascus, breaking from KDP.
• 1978 clashes between KDP and PUK.
• 1979 Mullah Mustafa Barzani dies of cancer in the US. His son Masoud Barzani takes over.
Saddam Hussein formalises absolute power in Baghdad.
• 1980 Iran-Iraq war begins. KDP helps Iran on Iraqi northern border. PUK negotiates with Baghdad.

53. • 1983 KDP supported by Iranian attack. Saddam Hussein has 8,000 men from Barzan region executed in
revenge. PUK opens a ceasefire and negotiates with Baghdad for autonomy.
• 1984 in Turkey Kurdish civilians attacked. 35,000 killed, and 1.5 million displaced over the following 15 years.
• 1985 Turkey intervenes to stop negotiations between PUK & Baghdad.
• 1986 KDP & PUK unify against Baghdad as Kurdistan Front, with Iranian support.
• 1988 Saddam Hussein begins “Anfal” campaign against the Kurds with his cousin Ali Hassa al-Majid in charge.
Systematic killing and destruction of villages, chemical attacks like Halabjah. Between 50 & 100,000 Kurds die,
mainly civilians
• 1990 Iraq invades Kuwait.
• 1991 US leads coalition against Iraq, routed from Kuwait and surrender.
• Kurds and Shi’ites rise against Baghdad regime, brutally suppressed. Many dead, many flee, so Turkey
has to close its border. UN approves US coalition creation of small safe area in NW Iraq. No fly zone in Northern
Iraq.
• Kurdistan Front in Dohuk, Erbil & Sulimaniya. Saddam withdrew from Kurdish areas and blockaded them.
• 1992 Kurdish elections, government split equally between KDP & PUK (led by Barzani & Talabani.)
• 1994 KDP & PUK tension becomes small civil war. Peace agreement signed, soon abandoned.
• 1995 Failed coup attempt INC (Iraqi National Congress)
• 1996 Another coup attempt by based in Jordan backed by the CIA of US. Foiled by Saddam Hussein. PUK
expelled from Erbil by Iraqi army, approved by Masoud Barzani.
• 1997 US provides food to Iraq instead of money for oil. Kurdistan to receive 13%
• 1998 Washington Agreement: Talabani & Barzani sign for peace, with KDP based in Erbil and PUK in
Sulimaniya.
• 1999 PKK leader captured in Kenya with US help.
• Grand Ayatolla Muhammed Sadiq al-Sadar assassinated.
• 2001 Report to the US White House on Ansar al-Islam in Kurdish area. They are linked to al-Qa’ida in
Afghanistan.
• 2002 Talabani & Barzani go to the US to visit The Farm, a CIA training facility. They are warned of intervention
coming to Iraq.
• 2003 Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State speaks to the UN to make a case for US intervention. Turkish
parliament decide not to allow US troops to form a northern against Iraq. The US bomb Iraq, trying to kill Saddam
Hussein, who hid. US Coalition forces arrive in Iraq & attack Islamist groups including Komala Islami & Ansar al-
Islam. They put rotating Iraqi presidents in place, including Talabani & Barzani. Many attacks made and Saddam
Hussein was arrested.
• 2004 Suicide bombings of KDP & PUK offices in Erbil, and at Shi’ite festivals. Hundreds were killed. US
Marines attack Fallujah twice after four American contactors were attacked.
• 2005 More suicide bombings. Jalal Talabani becomes Kurdish president, quickly followed by Masoud Barzani.
Two Iraqi elections. Saddam Hussein tried for crimes against humanity. A Norwegian company starts drilling for
oil in Kurdistan.

54. • 2006 A Shi’ite mosque in Samarra is bombed, which starts a war.
• Elections again, Jalal Talabani was president again, Nuriel al-Maliki was prime minister. Many die in violence
including car bombs. Saddam Hussein in hung.
• 2007 President Bush of the US announces an increase of troops in Baghdad. Car and truck bombs. UK
finally withdraws from Iraq.
• 2008 Prime Minister Maliki orders crackdown on militia in Basra, sparking pitched battles with Moqtada Sadr's
Mehdi Army. Hundreds are killed.
• 2009 US President Barack Obama announces withdrawal of most US troops by end of August 2010. Up to
50,000 of 142,000 troops now there will stay on into 2011.
• Masoud Barzani is president.
• 2010 November/December - Parliament reconvenes after long delay, re-appoints Jalal Talabani as president and
Nouri al-Maliki as prime minister. The new government includes all major factions.
• 2011 February - Oil exports from Iraqi Kurdistan resume. December - US completes troop pull-out.
(undercover troops remain to this day, 2014) Unity government in disarray.
• 2012 Bomb and gun attacks target Shia areas. Around 600 people are killed. Mass rallies by Sunni Muslims
against what they see as marginalisation by the Shia-led government.
• 2013 Government troops storm a Sunni anti-government protest camp near Kirkuk. More than 50 die, it
prompts clashes in other towns. The insurgency intensifies, with levels of violence matching those of 2008. Iraq
is described as being in a full-blown sectarian war zone once again.
• At least 500 prisoners, mainly senior al-Qaeda members, escape from Taji and Abu Ghraib jails in a mass
breakout. Mass killing at Camp Ashraf housing Iranian exiles - members of the People's Mujahedeen
Organisation of Iran.
• Regional parliamentary elections in Iraqi Kurdistan, won by KDP.
• Bombings in Erbil in the first such attack since 2007. Al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq (IS formerly ISIS)
was responding to alleged Iraqi Kurdish support for Kurds fighting jihadists in Syria.
• Government says October was deadliest month since April 2008, with 900 killed. By the year-end the UN
estimates the 2013 death toll of civilians as 7,157 - a dramatic increase in the previous year's figure of 3,238.
• At least 35 people killed in twin bombing of Baghdad churches on Christmas Day.
• 2014 Islamists fight government forces. ISIS seize Mosul, calls itself IS and declares a Caliphate. 10s of
thousands flee.
• Prime Minister al-Maliki's coalition wins a plurality at first parliamentary election since 2011. US returns to
Kurdistan to support Peshmerga (Kurdish army)
• Kurdish president Barzani announces a referendum on independence from Iraq.
• In September Shia politician Haider al-Abad forms a broad-based government for Iraq, including Sunni Arabs and
Kurds.
• US announces new strategy against Islamic State, carries out air raids in support of Iraqi Army near Baghdad.
International conference in Paris, including ten Sunni Arab states but excluding Iran and Syria, agrees to support
strategy.

55. In 1970, the parliament of the Kurdistan
Autonomous Region was established in
Erbil but was controlled by Saddam
Hussein until 1991 at the end of the Gulf
War.
From 2005 the Iraqi constitution recognized
the Kurdistan Regional Government. An
agreement was signed to unify the
administration of the entire Kurdish region
in Erbil.
Erbil Citadel was included as a World
Heritage Site on June 21st
2014.

56. • There is now no postal service, dwellings do
not even have addresses.
• No cash points, credit cards can only be used
inside banks. Cash is necessary.
• No health service. There are good schools.
• No freedom of information

57. 3rd
millennium AD (IRIN news)
December 2011
US troops exit Iraq after more than eight years of
occupation, leaving behind a government led by Shia
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Sunnis and Kurds also
hold key positions but Sunnis claim from the offset they
are marginalized.
July 2013
Several fatal clashes between demonstrators and Iraq
Security Force; bomb attacks become more frequent.
December 2013. Al-Maliki orders the arrest of Ahmed Al-
Alwani, an influential Sunni member of parliament.
3 July 2014 Iraq is experiencing one of the largest internal
population displacements in the world

58. See the IRIN (UN) report on how this situation has escalated:--
http://www.irinnews.org/report/95999/briefing-why-is-iraq-still-so-dangerous

59. OIL
The middle east holds 60% of the worlds oil reserves & 41% of gas.
Oil formed from life under the sea in the Jurassic and Cretaceous, &
accumulated in the Zagros deformation, salt domed deposits helped trap it.
it’s easy to extract. In 2011 oil accounted for 97% of Iraq government
revenue.
Kurdistan has exported oil since 2012, not through the Iraqi government.

60. The Citadel has been found to date back at least 7k
years, perhaps as much 10,000 years

61. STILL TO INSERT:
Returning to land, where we went, Mark’s
pic of bestun’s cousin.
and being in Erbil, citadel pic – long history.

62. These caves, west of Suleimani
have been used for millennia.
Kurds used them to hide from the
genocide Saddam Hussein’s
Anfal campaign 1986-9.

63. This land is the Garden of Eden

64. Continual Ferment!
This cradle of civilisation, this womb of nations, this
centre of invention, has a special high energy that
inspires and stimulates, to creativity, to invention &
to protective aggression. The deep beauty can be
found in many places, here is something deeper
and more intense that cannot be grasped or
defined. Yet it must be real and physical and have
been so active for millennia.
If we understood it, it would be sold in bottles,
which cannot be!
It is an unfathomable and sacred mystery.

65. Makeshift camps have been set up in central Erbil,
capital of Iraq’s Kurdish region. Cathy Otten IRIN News.
September 2014

66. SHOULD I ADD
More on today’s politics?