Iraq

Iraq is a country in Western Asia, bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, Jordan to the southwest, Syria to the west, Kuwait to the southeast, and Saudi Arabia to the south. The capital and largest city is Baghdad. Iraq is home to various ethnic groups including Arabs, Kurds, Turkmens, Assyrians / Chaldeans, Yezidis, Persians, Shabaki, Armenians, Sabian Mandeans, Circassians, and Kavlians. About 95% of the 40 million citizens of the country are Muslims, there are also minorities of Christians, Yarsans, Yezidis and Mandeans. The official languages ​​of Iraq are Arabic and Kurdish, while other recognized regional languages ​​include English, Neo-Aramaic, Turkish and Armenian.

“Cradle of Civilization” is a general term for the territory of modern Iraq, as it was home to the earliest known civilization, the Sumerian civilization. Iraq has a 58 km (36 mi) coastline in the north of the Persian Gulf. It encompasses the Mesopotamian alluvial plain, the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, and the eastern Syrian Desert. Two large rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, flow south through Iraq and into the Shatt al-Arab near the Persian Gulf. These rivers provide Iraq with significant fertile land. The region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, historically known as Mesopotamia. Here, humanity first began to read, write, legislate, and live in cities ruled by an organized government - in particular, Uruk, from which "Iraq" originated. The area has been home to successive civilizations since the 6th millennium BC. Iraq was the center of the Akkadian, Sumerian, Assyrian and Babylonian empires. He was also part of the Media, Achaemenid, Hellenistic, Parthian, Sassanid, Roman, Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, Ayyubid, Seljuk, Mongol, Timurids, Safavid, Afsharid and Ottoman empires.

During the Ottoman occupation of Iraq until the partition of the Ottoman Empire in the 20th century, Iraq consisted of three provinces called vilayets in Ottoman Turkish: Mosul Vilayet, Baghdad Vilayet, and Basra Vilayet. In April 1920, the British Mandate in Mesopotamia was created under the rule of the League of Nations. The British-backed monarchy, which united these vilayets into one kingdom, was built in 1921 under Faisal I. The Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq gained independence from Great Britain in 1932. In 1958, the monarchy was overthrown and the Iraqi Republic was created. From 1968 to 2003, Iraq was controlled by the Baath Arab Socialist Party. In 1980, Iraq invaded Iran, triggering a protracted war that lasted almost eight years and ended in a dead end with devastating losses for both countries.

Following the invasion of the United States and its allies in 2003, Saddam Hussein's Baath party was ousted from power and multi-party parliamentary elections were held in 2005. The US presence in Iraq ended in 2011. Still, the Iraqi insurgency continued and intensified as Syrian civil war fighters flooded into the country. On December 9, 2017, then Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced victory over ISIS and announced the complete liberation of the borders with Syria from Islamic State militants.

Iraq is a federal parliamentary republic made up of 19 provinces, four of which make up the autonomous region of Kurdistan. The country's official religion is Islam, while other recognized religions include Christianity, Yezidism, and Mandeanism. Culturally, Iraq has a vibrant heritage and celebrates the achievements of its past in both pre-Islamic and post-Islamic times, and is renowned for its poets, painters and sculptors, some of the finest in the Arab world, some of which are world class, and also produces excellent handicrafts, including carpets and rugs. Iraq is one of the founders of the United Nations, OPEC, the Arab League, the OIC, the Non-Aligned Movement and the IMF.