IRAQ, FLAG OF

horizontally striped red-white-black national flag with three green stars and an Arabic inscription on the white stripe. The flag has a width-to-length ratio of 2 to 3. Following World War I, Britain occupied Mesopotamia, Land Between the Rivers, and offered the crown for the new kingdom of Iraq to Faysal, son of Husayn ibn 'Ali, ruler of the Hejaz. From perhaps as early as 1921, he used the flag of his fatherhorizontal stripes of black-white-green with a red triangle at the hoist. The Organic Law of July 10, 1924, modified the design by truncating the triangle and adding two white seven-pointed stars, representing the Arabs and the Kurds. The Iraqi monarchy was overthrown in 1958, and the following year an entirely new flag was established: its vertical stripes were black-white-green, and the central emblem included a yellow sun (for the Kurds) framed by eight red rays. The 1959 flag was in turn replaced on July 30, 1963, by a version of the Arab Revolt Flag first flown in Egypt in 1952. Its horizontal stripes of red-white-black were already accepted in Egypt, Syria, and northern Yemen; the three green stars adopted by Iraq expressed a desire to unite with Egypt and Syria. The colours honoured a 13th-century poem by Safi ad-Din al-Hilli referring to red as willingness to shed blood, green for Arab fields, black for battles, and white for purity of motives and deeds. On January 14, 1991, the flag was modified by order of President Saddam Hussein through the addition of the Arabic inscription Allahu akbar (God is great). This inscription, appearing between the three stars on the flag, was intended to reflect an Islamic commitment when Iraq was facing military forces determined to reverse its annexation of Kuwait. Whitney Smith History For the history of the region before the 7th century AD, see Mesopotamia. Iraq from c. 600 to 1055 In 600 Iraq was a province of the Persian Sasanian empire, to which it had belonged for the previous three centuries. It was probably the most populous and wealthy area in the Middle East, and the intensive irrigation agriculture of the lower Tigris and Euphrates and of tributaries such as the Diyala and Karun formed the main resource base of the Sasanian monarchy. The term Iraq was not used at this time; in the mid-6th century the Sasanian empire was divided by Khosrow I into four quarters, of which the western one, called Khvarvaran, included most of modern Iraq. The term Iraq is widely used in the medieval Arabic sources for the area in the centre and south of the modern republic as a geographic rather than a political term, implying no precise boundaries. The area of modern Iraq north of Tikrit was known in Muslim times as Al-Jazirah, which means The Island and refers to the island between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. To the south and west lay the Arabian deserts, inhabited largely by Arab tribesmen who occasionally acknowledged the overlordship of the Sasanian kings. Until 602 the desert frontier had been guarded by the Lakhmid kings of Al-Hira, who were themselves Arabs but who ruled a settled buffer state. In that year Khosrow II Parviz rashly abolished the Lakhmid kingdom and laid the frontier open to nomad incursions. Farther north the western quarter was bounded by the Byzantine Empire. The frontier more or less followed the modern Syria-Iraq border and continued northward into modern Turkey, leaving Nisibis (modern Nusaybin) as the Sasanian frontier fortress while the Byzantines held Dara and nearby Amida (modern Diyarbakir). The inhabitants were very mixed. There was an aristocratic and administrative Persian upper class, but most of the population were Aramaic-speaking peasants. There were a considerable number of Arabs, most of whom lived as pastoralists along the western margins of the settled lands, but some lived as townspeople, especially in Al-Hira. In addition, there were Kurds, who lived along the foothills of the Zagros Mountains, and a surprisingly large number of Greeks, mostly prisoners captured during the numerous Sasanian campaigns into Byzantine Syria. Ethnic diversity was matched by religious pluralism. The Sasanian state religion, Zoroastrianism, was largely confined to the Persian ruling class. The majority of the population, especially in the northern part of the country, were probably Christians. These were sharply divided by doctrinal differences into Monophysites, linked to the Jacobite church of Syria, and Nestorians. The Nestorians were the most widespread and were tolerated by the Sasanian kings because of their opposition to the Christians of the Roman Empire, who regarded the Nestorians as heretics. The Monophysites were regarded with more suspicion and were occasionally persecuted, but both groups were able to maintain an ecclesiastical hierarchy, and the Nestorians had an important intellectual centre at Nisibis. The area around the ancient city of Babylon by this time had a large population of Jews, both descendants of the exiles of Old Testament times and local converts. In addition, in the southern half of the country there were numerous adherents of the old Babylonian paganism, as well as Mandaeans and Gnostics. In the early 7th century the stability and prosperity of this multicultural society were threatened by invasion. In 602 Khosrow II Parviz launched the last great Persian invasion of the Byzantine Empire. At first he was spectacularly successful; Syria and Egypt fell, and Constantinople itself was threatened. Later the tide began to turn, and in 627628 the Byzantines, under the leadership of the emperor Heraclius, invaded Iraq and sacked the imperial capital at Ctesiphon. The invaders did not remain, but Khosrow was discredited, deposed, and executed. There followed a period of infighting among generals and members of the royal family that left the country without clear leadership. The chaos had also damaged irrigation systems, and it was probably at this time that large areas in the south of the country reverted to marshlands, which they have remained ever since. It was with this devastated land that the earliest Muslim raiders came into contact. (See also Islamic world: Conversion and crystallization .) History Ottoman Iraq (15341918) When the Ottoman Empire was dismembered following World War I and the boundaries of the 20th-century state of Iraq were drawn, they bore little resemblance to those of the provinces of Ottoman Iraq. Nor had the name Iraq been attached to any of those provinces. Ottoman Iraq was roughly approximate to the Arabian Iraq of the preceding era, but without clearly defined borders. The Zagros Mountains, which separated Arabian Iraq from Persian Iraq, now lay on the Ottoman-Iranian frontier, but that frontier shifted with the fortunes of war. On the west and south, Iraq faded out somewhere in the sands of the Syrian and Arabian deserts. The incorporation of Arabian Iraq into the Ottoman Empire not only separated it from Persian Iraq but also reoriented it toward the Ottoman lands in Syria and Anatolia, with especially close ties binding the province (eyalet) of Diyar Bakr to the Iraqi provinces. For administrative purposes, Ottoman Iraq was divided into the three central eyalets of Mosul, Baghdad, and Basra, with the northern eyalet of Shahrizor, east of the Tigris, and the southern eyalet of Al-Hasa, on the western coast of the Persian Gulf. These provinces only roughly reflected the geographic, linguistic, and religious divisions of Ottoman Iraq. Most of the inhabitants of Mosul and Shahrizor in the north and northeast were Kurds and other non-Arabs. Pastures and cultivated fields benefited from the plentiful rainfall and melting winter snows of this largely mountainous region. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers flowing through the central and southern plains created an irregular belt of irrigated farmlands bounded by desert and merging into the marshlands around the head of the Persian Gulf. The people of the plains, marshes, and deserts were overwhelmingly Arabic-speaking. Few Turkish speakers were to be found outside of Baghdad, Kirkuk, and some other towns. Centuries of political upheavals, invasions, wars, and general insecurity had taken their toll on Iraq's population, especially in the urban centres. Destruction and neglect of the irrigation system had restricted settled agriculture to a few areas, the most extensive of which were between the rivers north of Baghdad and around Basra in the south. As much as half of the Arab and Kurdish population in the countryside was nomadic or seminomadic. Outside the towns, social organization and personal allegiances were primarily tribal, with many of the settled cultivators having retained their tribal ties. Baghdad, situated near the geographic centre, reflected within itself the division between the predominantly Shi'ite south and the largely Sunnite north. Unlike Anatolia and Syria, Iraq's non-Muslim communities were modest in size, but there was an active Jewish commercial and financial element in Baghdad, and Assyrian Christians were prominent in Mosul. Absorbed piecemeal by the Ottoman sultans Selim I and Sleyman I in the 16th century, this region on the empire's eastern periphery was the battleground in recurrent struggles between the Sunnite Ottomans and the Shi'ite rulers of Iran and was subject to frequent Arab and Kurdish tribal disturbances. It was never as thoroughly integrated into the empire or as directly administered by the Ottomans as was the western half of the Fertile Crescent. Nevertheless, bearing in mind the destruction, chaos, and fragmentation that had beset the region in the preceding centuries, the expansion of the vast Ottoman political and economic sphere to include Iraq brought with it certain advantages. Under the watchful eye of Sleyman I's government, local administration was reorganized; trade increased; the economic and living conditions of most of the inhabitants improved; and the towns, especially Baghdad, experienced some growth and new building. The Ottomans at first attempted to rule the Iraqi provinces directly, but in the 17th and 18th centuries a weakened government in Istanbul was obliged to concede extensive autonomy to the governors, and some areas were beyond the reach of Ottoman authority for extended periods. This trend was reversed in the 19th century when administrative centralization and reorganization, undertaken by the Ottoman government as part of a comprehensive reform and modernization program, were extended to Iraq. The reassertion of direct rule by the sultan's government did not, however, halt the increasing penetration of Iraq by British and other European interests. The 16th-century conquest of Iraq and the regime imposed by Sleyman I The 16th-century conquest of Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and the Hejaz brought the holiest cities of Islam, the most important of the pilgrimage routes, and all the former seats of the caliphate under Ottoman rule, thus reinforcing the dynasty's claim to supreme leadership within the Sunnite Muslim world. In Iraq, Ottoman rule represented the victory of Sunnism. Although the Shi'ite notables of southern Iraq continued to enjoy considerable local influence and prestige, they were inclined to identify with Shi'ite Iran and to resent the Sunnite-dominated Ottoman administration. Control of the trade routes passing through the Red Sea and up the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and from Iran to Anatolia, Syria, and the Mediterranean was an important element in the sultan's efforts to ensure that east-west trade would continue to flow through his territories despite the newly opened sea routes around Africa. But, perhaps most importantly, Iraq served as a buffer zone, a shield protecting Ottoman Anatolia and Syria against encroachments from Iran or by the intractable Arab and Kurdish tribes. Sleyman's imposition of direct rule over Iraq involved such traditional Ottoman administrative devices as the appointment of governors and judges, the stationing of Janissaries in the provincial capitals, and the ordering of cadastral surveys. Timars (military fiefs), however, were few except in some areas in the north. Although the pasha of Baghdad was accorded a certain preeminence as governor of the most important city in Ottoman Iraq (as was the governor of Damascus in Syria), this in no way implied the unity of the five eyalets. History Iraq since 1918 British occupation and the mandatory regime The merging of the three provinces of Mosul, Baghdad, and Basra into one political entity and the creation of a nation out of the diverse religious and ethnic elements inhabiting these lands was accomplished after World War I. Action undertaken by the British military authorities during the war and the upsurge of nationalism after the war helped determine the shape of the new Iraqi state and the course of events during the postwar years, until Iraq finally emerged as an independent political entity in 1932. British control of Iraq, however, was short-lived. After the war, Britain debated both its general policy in Iraq and the specific type of administration to establish. Two schools of thought influenced policymakers in London. The first, advocated by the Colonial Office, stressed a policy of direct control to protect British interests in the Persian Gulf and India. Assessing British policy from India, this school may be called the Indian school of thought. The other school, hoping to conciliate Arab nationalists, advised indirect control. In Iraq itself, British authorities were divided on the issue. Some, under the influence of Sir Arnold Wilson, the acting civil commissioner, advocated direct control; others, alarmed by growing dissatisfaction with the British administration, advised indirect control and suggested the establishment of an indigenous regime under British supervision. Britain was still undecided on which policy it should follow in 1920 when events in other Arab countries radically changed conditions in Iraq. Early in 1920 the emir Faysal I, son of the sharif Husayn, who had led the Arab Revolt in 1916, established an Arab government in Damascus and was proclaimed king of Syria. Meanwhile, a group of Iraqi nationalists met in Damascus to proclaim the emir 'Abd Allah, older brother of Faysal, as king of Iraq. Under the influence of nationalist activities in Syria, nationalist agitation followed first in northern Iraq and then in the tribal areas of the middle Euphrates. By the summer of 1920 the revolt had spread to all parts of the country except the big cities of Mosul, Baghdad, and Basra, where British forces were stationed. In July 1920, Faysal came into conflict with the French authorities over control of Syria. France had been given the mandate over Syria and Lebanon in April and was determined to obtain Faysal's acceptance of the mandate. Nationalists urged Faysal to reject the French demands, and conflict ensued between him and the French, resulting in his expulsion from Syria. Faysal went to London to complain about the French action. Although the revolt in Iraq was suppressed by force, it prompted Iraq and Great Britain to reconcile their differences. In Britain a segment of public opinion wanted to get out of Mesopotamia and urged relief from further commitments. In Iraq the nationalists were demanding independence. In 1921 Britain offered the Iraqi throne to Faysal along with the establishment of an Arab government under British mandate. Faysal wanted the throne if it were offered to him by the Iraqi people. He also suggested the replacement of the mandate by a treaty of alliance. These proposals were accepted by the British government, and Winston Churchill, then colonial secretary, promised to carry them out. He was advised by T.E. Lawrence, known for his sympathy for the Arabs. In March 1921 a conference presided over by Churchill was held in Cairo to settle Middle Eastern affairs. Faysal was nominated to the Iraqi throne with the provision that a plebiscite be held to confirm the nomination. Sir Percy Cox, recently appointed a high commissioner for Iraq, was responsible for carrying out the plebiscite. A provisional government set up by Cox shortly before the Cairo Conference passed a resolution on July 11, 1921, declaring Faysal king of Iraq, provided that his Government shall be constitutional, representative and democratic. The plebiscite confirmed this proclamation, and Faysal was formally crowned king on Aug. 23, 1921. The establishment of the monarchy was the first step in the establishment of a national regime. Two other steps followed immediately: the signing of a treaty of alliance with Great Britain and the drafting of a constitution. It was deemed necessary that a treaty should precede the constitution and define relations between Iraq and Britain. The treaty was signed on Oct. 10, 1922. Without direct reference, it reproduced most of the provisions of the mandate. Iraq undertook to respect religious freedom and missionary enterprises and the rights of foreigners, to treat all states equally, and to cooperate with the League of Nations. Britain was obligated to offer advice on foreign and domestic affairs, such as military, judicial, and financial matters (defined in separate and subsidiary agreements). Although the terms of the treaty were open to periodic revision, they were to last 20 years. In the meantime, Britain agreed to prepare Iraq for membership in the League of Nations as soon as possible. It soon became apparent that the substance, though not the form, of the mandate was still in existence and that complete independence had not been achieved. Strong opposition to the treaty in the press made it almost certain it would not be ratified by the Constituent Assembly. Nor was British public opinion satisfied with the commitments to Iraq. During the general elections of 1922 there was a newspaper campaign against British expenditures in Iraq. In deference to public opinion in both Britain and Iraq, a protocol to the treaty was signed on April 30, 1923, reducing the period of the treaty from 20 to 4 years. Despite the shortening of British tutelage, the Constituent Assembly demanded complete independence when the treaty was put before it for approval. Ratification of the treaty was accomplished on June 11, 1924, after Britain's warning that nonapproval would lead to the referral of the matter to the League of Nations. The Constituent Assembly then considered a draft constitution drawn up by a constitutional committee. The committee tried to give extensive powers to the king. Discussion on the draft constitution by the Constituent Assembly lasted a month, and, after minor modifications, it was adopted in July 1924. The Organic Law, as the constitution was called, went into effect right after it was signed by the king on March 21, 1925. It provided for a constitutional monarchy, a parliamentary government, and a bicameral legislature. The latter was composed of an elected House of Representatives and an appointed Senate. The lower house was to be elected every four years in a free manhood suffrage. The first Parliament met in 1925. Ten general elections were held before the downfall of the monarchy in 1958. The more than 50 Cabinets formed during the same period reflected the instability of the system. From the establishment of a national government, there was keen interest in organizing political parties. Three parties organized in 1921, one by the group in power and two by opposition parties, had similar social and economic views and essentially the same political objective: termination of the mandate and the winning of independence. They differed, however, on the means of achieving the objective. After the achievement of independence in 1932, these parties dissolved, because their raison d'tre had disappeared. It was only when social issues were discussed that new political groupings, even if not formally organized as political parties, began to emerge. The power struggle among these groups became exceedingly intense after World War II. The Iraqi nationalists, though appreciating the free expression of opinion permitted under a parliamentary system, were far from satisfied with the mandate. They demanded independence as a matter of right, as promised in war declarations and treaties, rather than as a matter of capacity for self-government as laid down in the mandate. Various attempts were made to redefine Anglo-Iraqi relations, as embodied in the 1926 and 1927 treaties, without fundamentally altering Britain's responsibility. The British treaties were viewed by the nationalists not only as an impediment to the realization of Iraq's nationalist aspirations but also as inimical to the economic development of the country. The nationalists viewed the situation as a perplexing predicament ( al-wad' ash-shadh)a term that became popular in Parliament and in the press. It referred to the impossibility of government by the dual authority of the mandate. The nationalists argued that there were two governments in Iraq, one foreign and the other national, and that such a regime was an abnormality that, though feasible in theory, was unworkable in practice. In 1929 Britain decided to end this stalemate and reconcile its interests with Iraq's national aspirations. It notified Iraq that the mandate would be terminated in 1932 and a new treaty of independence negotiated. A new government was formed, headed by General Nuri as-Sa'id, who helped in achieving Iraq's independence. The new treaty was signed on June 30, 1930. It provided for the establishment of a close alliance between Britain and Iraq with full and frank consultation between them in all matters of foreign policy which may affect their common interests. Iraq would maintain internal order and defend itself against foreign aggression, supported by Britain. Any dispute between Iraq and a third state involving the risk of war was to be discussed with Britain in the hope of a settlement in accordance with the Covenant of the League of Nations. In the event of an imminent threat of war, the two parties would take a common defense position. Iraq recognized that the maintenance and protection of essential British communications was in the interest of both parties. Air-base sites for British troops were therefore granted near Basra and west of the Euphrates, but these forces shall not constitute in any manner an occupation, and will in no way prejudice the sovereign rights of Iraq. This treaty, valid for 25 years, was to come into effect after Iraq joined the League of Nations. On Oct. 3, 1932, Iraq was admitted to the League of Nations as an independent state. Independence, 193239 Since conflict among Iraq's political leaders centred essentially on how to end the mandate rather than on the right of independence, King Faysal sought the cooperation of opposition leaders after independence. Shortly after Iraq's admission to the League, General Nuri, who had been prime minister since 1930, resigned. After an interim administration, King Faysal invited Rashid 'Ali al-Gaylani, one of the opposition leaders, to form a new government. For a short while it seemed that all the country's leaders would close ranks and devote all their efforts to internal reforms. But internal dissension soon developed. The first incident was the Assyrian uprising of 1933. The Assyrians, a small Christian community living in Mosul province, were given assurances of security by both Britain and Iraq. When the mandate was ended, the Assyrians began to feel insecure and demanded new assurances. Matters came to a head in the summer of 1933 when King Faysal was in Europe. The opposition, now in power, wanted to impress the public through a high-handed policy toward a minority group. In clashes with the Iraqi troops, several hundred Assyrians were brutally killed. The incident was brought to the attention of the League of Nations less than a year after Iraq had given assurances that it would protect minority rights. Had King Faysal been in the country, he would have counseled moderation. Upon his hasty return to Baghdad, he found deep-seated divisions and a situation beyond his control. Suffering from heart trouble, he returned to Switzerland, where he died in September 1933. The Assyrian incident brought about the fall of Rashid 'Ali and his replacement by a moderate government. Faysal was succeeded by his son, King Ghazi (191239), who was young and inexperienceda situation that gave political leaders an opportunity to compete for power. Without political parties to channel their activities through constitutional processes, politicians resorted to extraconstitutional, or violent, methods. One method was to embarrass those in power by press attacks, palace intrigues, or incidents that would cause Cabinet dissension and force the prime minister to resign. The first five governmental changes after independence, from 1932 to 1934, were produced by these methods. Another tactic was to incite tribal uprisings in areas where there were tribal chiefs unfriendly to the group in power. Tribes, though habitually opposed to authority, had been brought under control and remained relatively quiet after 1932. When opposition leaders began to incite them against the government in 1934, however, they rebelled and caused the fall of three governments from 1934 to 1935. A third method was military intervention. The opposition tried to obtain the loyalty of army officers, plan a coup d'tat, and force those in power to resign. This method, often resorted to by the opposition, proved to be the most dangerous, because once the army intervened in politics it became increasingly difficult to reestablish civilian rule. From 1936 until 1941, when it was defeated in a war with Britain, the army dominated domestic politics. The army again intervened in 1958, and it continues to dominate the political scene. Two different sets of opposition leaders produced the first military coup d'tat in 1936. The first group, led by Hikmat Sulayman, was a faction of old politicians who sought power by violent methods. The other was the Ahali group, composed mainly of young men who advocated socialism and democracy and sought to carry out reform programs. It was Hikmat Sulayman, however, who urged General Bakr Sidqi, commander of an army division, to stage a surprise attack on Baghdad in cooperation with another military commander and forced the Cabinet to resign. Apparently King Ghazi was also disenchanted with the group in power and so allowed the government to resign. Hikmat Sulayman became prime minister in October 1936, and Bakr Sidqi was appointed chief of the general staff. Neither the Ahali group nor Hikmat Sulayman could improve social conditions, however, because the army gradually dominated the political scene. Supported by opposition leaders, a dissident military faction assassinated Bakr Sidqi, but civilian rule was not reestablished. This first military coup introduced a new factor in politics. Lack of leadership after the assassination of Bakr Sidqi left the army divided, while jealousy among leading army officers induced each faction to support a different set of civilian leaders. The army became virtually the deciding factor in Cabinet changes from 1936 to 1941. Despite political instability, material progress continued during King Ghazi's short reign. The Kut al-'Amarah irrigation project, begun in 1934, was completed, and other projects, to be financed by oil royalties, were planned. The pipelines from the Kirkuk oil fields to the Mediterranean were opened in 1935. The railroads, still under British control, were purchased in 1935, and the Ba'iji-Tal Kk section, the only missing railway link between the Persian Gulf and Europe, was completed in 1938. There was also a noticeable increase in construction, foreign trade, and educational facilities. Several disputes with neighbouring countries were settled, including the dispute with Iran over the Shatt al-'Arab and the dispute over the boundary with Syria, which was settled in Iraq's favour; Iraq thereafter possessed the Jabal Sinjar. A nonaggression pact, called the Sa'dabad Pact, between Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, and Iraq was signed in 1937. In 1939, shortly before the outbreak of World War II, King Ghazi was killed in a car accident, and his son Faysal II ascended the throne. As Faysal was only four years old, his uncle, Emir 'Abd al-Ilah, was appointed regent and served in this capacity for the next 14 years. The economy Iraq had an almost exclusively agricultural economy until the 1950s. Since the 1958 revolution, economic development has been strong, and Iraq now has the second largest economy in the Arab world, after Saudi Arabia, and the third largest in the Middle East. Oil is the most important sector of the economy. Oil contributes approximately half the gross domestic product (GDP), industry and agriculture about 10 percent each, and services about a third. Massive oil revenues, particularly since 1973, have enabled the government to set ambitious development goals, including industrial diversification, reduction of imported manufactured goods, agricultural self-sufficiency, and a large increase in non-oil exports. At the same time, investment in infrastructure has been high, notably in water projects, roads and railways, and rural electrification. During the 1980s, however, the Iran-Iraq War delayed many projects and caused widespread deterioration and destruction of infrastructure. The economy faces a number of problems, including a huge foreign debt accumulated through continuing high military spending, a shortage of labour (although this has been partially offset by greater participation of women in the labour force), and the movement of the population away from agriculture. The economy is dominated by the state, with strict bureaucratic controls and centralized planning. Since 1987 there has been some liberalization of the economy in an attempt to encourage private investment, particularly in small industrial and commercial enterprises. Resources Oil is Iraq's most valuable mineral; the country has the world's second largest known reserves and was the world's second largest oil exporter in 1980, before the war with Iran. As a founding member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Iraq is obliged to comply with agreed production quotas. Oil was first discovered in 1927 near Kirkuk by the foreign-owned Turkish Petroleum Company (renamed the Iraq Petroleum Company in 1929). Discoveries at Mosul and Basra followed. Several new fields were discovered and put into production in the 1940s and '50s. The IPC was nationalized in 1972, and by 1975 all foreign-owned oil companies had been nationalized. Although the northern fields, notably Kirkuk, Jambur, and Bay Hasan, have produced the most oil, the southern fields, which include North Rumaylah, Zubayr, Rumaylah, and Nahr 'Umar, have the largest reserves. The Rumaylah field was the subject of a dispute with Kuwait in 1990. Oilfields in the Mosul region are smaller and lower-grade. New fields are still being discovered and developed, including some in central Iraq; the East Baghdad field began production in 1989. Originally oil from the south was exported directly from tanker terminals on the gulf, while oil from northern fields was pumped to the Mediterranean by pipeline. In 1976 a strategic pipeline with a reversible pumping facility was opened linking northern and southern fields so that oil could be transported in either direction. Iraq has large reserves of natural gas, almost all of which is associated with oil. Some two-thirds of it is utilized; the rest is flared. Exploitation of other minerals has lagged far behind oil and gas. There is a Directorate of Mineral and Geological Survey to develop mineral production. It seems likely that Iraq has a good range of minerals, including coal, iron, lead, and copper. Huge rock sulfur reserves are being exploited at Mishraq, near Mosul, and in the early 1980s phosphate production began at Akashat, near the Syrian border; the phosphates are used in a large fertilizer plant at Al-Qa'im. Construction materials, including stone and gypsum, are plentiful, but timber resources are scarce and rather inaccessible. Afforestation projects have met with limited success. In spite of the many dams on Iraq's rivers, hydroelectric generating capacity is below its potential, and there are plans to harness water resources more effectively. The largest hydroelectric plant is at Wadi Ath-Tharthar on the Tigris. Iraq also enjoys abundant solar energy, with 320 days of sunshine a year in many parts, which the Solar Energy Research Centre is planning to use to heat and cool homes and public buildings. The land Relief Iraq's relief can be divided into four physiographic regions: the alluvial plains of the central and southeastern parts of the country; Al-Jazirah, an upland region in the north between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers; deserts in the west and south; and the highlands in the northeast. Each of these regions extends into neighbouring countries, although the alluvial plains lie largely within Iraq. Alluvial plains The alluvial plains of lower Mesopotamia extend southward some 375 miles from Balad on the Tigris and Ar-Ramadi on the Euphrates to the Persian Gulf. They cover more than 51,000 square miles, almost a third of the country, and are characterized by low elevation, below 300 feet (100 metres), and poor natural drainage. Large areas are subject to widespread seasonal flooding, and there are extensive marshlands, some of which dry up in the summer to become salty wastelands. Near Al-Qurnah, where the Tigris and Euphrates converge to form the Shatt al-'Arab, there are inhabited marshes. The alluvial plains contain extensive lakes. The swampy Lake Al-Hammar (Hawr al-Hammar) extends 70 miles from Basra (Al-Basrah) to Suq ash-Shuyukh; its width varies from 8 to 15 miles. Lake As-Saniyah lies west of the Tigris and extends some 75 miles southward from 'Ali al-Gharbi. The people Ethnic composition The ancient Semitic peoples of Iraq, the Babylonians and Assyrians, and the non-Semitic Sumerians were long ago assimilated by successive waves of immigrants. The Arab conquests of the 7th century brought about the Arabization of central and southern Iraq. A mixed population of Kurds and Arabs inhabit a transition zone between these and Iraqi Kurdistan. More than three-fourths of Iraq's people are Arabs, about a fifth are Kurds, and the remainder consists of small minority groups. Kurds The Kurds are reckoned to be the fourth largest ethnolinguistic group in the Middle East, although population estimates vary. There are important Kurdish minorities in Iraq, Turkey, Syria, and Iran. In Iraq the Kurds constitute a separate and distinctive cultural group. They are mostly Sunnite Muslims who speak a language related to Farsi. They have a strong clan structure and distinctive costume, music, and dance. The Kurds are concentrated in the relatively inaccessible mountains of northeastern Iraq in the area called Iraqi Kurdistan. The Kurdish people were thwarted in their ambitions for statehood after World War I, and the Iraqi Kurds resisted inclusion in the state of Iraq. From 1961 to 1975 they were intermittently in open rebellion against the Iraqi government, aided by military support from Iran. At times they were in undisputed control of large tracts of territory. All attempts to reach a compromise with the Kurds in their demands for autonomy have ended in failure. The best chance came in 1970 with the government's recognition of Iraq's binational character and an agreement to allow Kurdish political and cultural autonomy in an area to be decided by census. Delays in implementing the agreement and a split in the Kurdish leadership resulted in renewed fighting on an unprecedented scale. About 130,000 Kurds fled to Iran. In 1974 the government unilaterally created a Kurdish Autonomous Region of some 14,690 square miles, incorporating the governorates of Dahuk, Irbil, and As-Sulaymaniyah, about half the area demanded by the Kurds. In particular, the oil-rich Kirkuk area was excluded. The Kurdish rebellion collapsed abruptly in 1975 when an agreement, favourable to Iran, over the Shatt al-'Arab boundary led to the termination of Iranian support for the Kurds. In 1976 the government began compulsory evacuation of 800 Kurdish villages in a 5- to 20-mile-wide zone along the Iran-Iraq border, while Arabs were encouraged to settle in Kurdish areas. War with Iran (198088) brought some respite for the Iraqi Kurds, as supplies from Iran resumed and the Iraqi army moved south. Once more the Kurds claimed to control some 4,000 square miles of territory. After the war, however, brutal repression of the Kurds resumed, with further village destruction and resettlement of Kurds. At least 300,000 Kurds were deported from hundreds of villages, not only in the border zone, effectively depopulating one-third of Iraqi Kurdistan. Chemical weapons were used against civilians at Halabjah. Many Kurds fled into Turkey and Iran, and more than 15,000 Kurdish fighters were killed. By 1990 these operations had effectively broken Kurdish opposition.