History UsefulNotes / Iraq

* '''[[UsefulNotes/{{Kurdistan}} Kurds]]''': A significant but frequently-forgotten-to-be-mentioned-in-the-media ethnic group who speak an Indo-European language related to Persian and to an extent, Pashto and Ossetian. Though they mostly adopted the same religion as the Arabs (i.e. Islam), they have a very different culture, including claiming Yazidis (a monotheistic Mesopotamian faith unrelated to the Abrahamic religions) as their cultural heritage and being more egalitarian. They were historically nomadic, but now seem to settle in permanent dwellings. They celebrate Nowruz, the Iranian New Year. The Kurds not only lived in Iraq but also northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey, and northwestern Iran, which resulted when the Great Powers foolishly drew the borders for the former Ottoman Empire after UsefulNotes/WorldWarI without considering the ethnic groups first; Kurds felt cheated by this and have since started rebellions in the regions in an attempt to unite [[UsefulNotes/Kurdistan]] or at least try to have an autonomy of their own. As you can see, Iraq is the only partial-success story for them by managing to recognize their autonomy and language. But Kurds aren't the only one who inhabit the "Kurdistan", because there's also:

* '''[[UsefulNotes/{{Kurdistan}} Kurds]]''': A significant but frequently-forgotten-to-be-mentioned-in-the-media ethnic group who speak an Indo-European language related to Persian and to an extent, Pashto and Ossetian. Though they mostly adopted the same religion as the Arabs (i.e. Islam), they have a very different culture, including claiming Yazidis (a monotheistic Mesopotamian faith unrelated to the Abrahamic religions) as their cultural heritage and being more egalitarian. They were historically nomadic, but now seem to settle in permanent dwellings. They celebrate Nowruz, the Iranian New Year. The Kurds not only lived in Iraq but also northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey, and northwestern Iran, which resulted when the Great Powers foolishly drew the borders for the former Ottoman Empire after UsefulNotes/WorldWarI without considering the ethnic groups first; the Kurds felt cheated by this and have since started rebellions in the regions in an attempt to unite "Kurdistan" or at least try to have an autonomy of their own. As you can see, Iraq is the only partial-success story for them by managing to recognize their autonomy and language. But Kurds aren't the only one who inhabit the "Kurdistan", because there's also:

* '''[[UsefulNotes/{{Kurdistan}} Kurds]]''': A significant but frequently-forgotten-to-be-mentioned-in-the-media ethnic group who speak an Indo-European language related to Persian and to an extent, Pashto and Ossetian. Though they adopted the same religion as the Arabs (i.e. Islam), they have a very different culture, including claiming Yazidis (a monotheistic Mesopotamian faith unrelated to the Abrahamic religions) as their cultural heritage and being more egalitarian. They were historically nomadic, but now seem to settle in permanent dwellings. They celebrate Nowruz, the Iranian New Year. The Kurds not only lived in Iraq but also northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey, and northwestern Iran, which resulted when the Great Powers foolishly drew the borders for the former Ottoman Empire after UsefulNotes/WorldWarI without considering the ethnic groups first; the Kurds felt cheated by this and have since started rebellions in the regions in an attempt to unite "Kurdistan" or at least try to have an autonomy of their own. As you can see, Iraq is the only partial-success story for them by managing to recognize their autonomy and language. But Kurds aren't the only one who inhabit the "Kurdistan", because there's also:

* There's also a plethora of other minority groups who adopted their own faiths, thus called "ethnoreligious group", including '''Assyrians''', the now Christian Aramaic-speaking descendants of the ancient Mesopotamians who practice a kind of Eastern Christianity called the Assyrian Church of the East who adopts Nestorian teachings (i.e. believing that UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}}' human and divine aspects are distinguishable), which have long since been discredited and condemned in the First Council of Nicaea and resulting the group being not in communion with any other church in the world. There's also '''Yazidis''', a subset of the Kurds who still practice their historical faith as mentioned above, and very small gnostic faiths like the '''Mandaenism''' and '''Manichaenism'''. While the Iraqi Turkmens are the Main/ButtMonkey, these groups are outright persecuted because of their faith (the Iraqi Turkmens are at least Muslim) and are sadly dwindling in number since the onset of the War on Terror.

* '''Kurds''': A significant but frequently-forgotten-to-be-mentioned-in-the-media ethnic group who speak an Indo-European language related to Persian and to an extent, Pashto and Ossetian. Though they adopted the same religion as the Arabs (i.e. Islam), they have a very different culture, including claiming Yazidis (a monotheistic Mesopotamian faith unrelated to the Abrahamic religions) as their cultural heritage and being more egalitarian. They were historically nomadic, but now seem to settle in permanent dwellings. They celebrate Nowruz, the Iranian New Year. The Kurds not only lived in Iraq but also northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey, and northwestern Iran, which resulted when the Great Powers foolishly drew the borders for the former Ottoman Empire after UsefulNotes/WorldWarI without considering the ethnic groups first; the Kurds felt cheated by this and have since started rebellions in the regions in an attempt to unite "Kurdistan" or at least try to have an autonomy of their own. As you can see, Iraq is the only partial-success story for them by managing to recognize their autonomy and language. But Kurds aren't the only one who inhabit the "Kurdistan", because there's also:

* There's also a plethora of other minority groups who adopted their own faiths, thus called "ethnoreligious group", including '''Assyrians''', the now Christian Aramaic-
speaking descendants of the ancient Mesopotamians who practice a kind of Eastern Christianity called the Assyrian Church of the East who adopts Nestorian teachings (i.e. believing that UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}}' human and divine aspects are distinguishable), which have long since been discredited and condemned in the First Council of Nicaea and resulting the group being not in communion with any other church in the world. There's also '''Yazidis''', a subset of the Kurds who still practice their historical faith as mentioned above, and very small gnostic faiths like the '''Mandaenism''' and '''Manichaenism'''. While the Iraqi Turkmens are the Main/ButtMonkey, these groups are outright persecuted because of their faith (the Iraqi Turkmens are at least Muslim) and are sadly dwindling in number since the onset of the War on Terror.

Contrary to modern depictions, not all of Iraq is [[Main/{{Crossing The Desert}} covered in desert]]. In fact, Kurdistan is pretty mountainous and snowy. Sure, half of the country is an uninhabitable bed of sand, but the other half is not something to be overlooked, especially since the cradle of civilization had its base there. Basically, there are four different parts of Iraq, all of which are crossed by the two rivers that originated from the mountains of southern UsefulNotes/{{Turkey}}, the Euphrates and Tigris, which gave Iraq its ancient name, Mesopotamia ("land between two rivers").

* '''Kurds''': A significant but frequently-forgotten-to-be-mentioned-in-the-media ethnic group who speak an Indo-European language related to Persian and to an extent, Pashto and Ossetian. Though they adopted the same religion as the Arabs (i.e. Islam), they have a very different culture, including claiming Yazidis (a monotheistic Mesopotamian faith unrelated to the Abrahamic religions) as their cultural heritage and being more egalitarian. They celebrate Nowruz, the Iranian New Year. The Kurds not only lived in Iraq but also northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey, and northwestern Iran, which resulted when the Great Powers foolishly drew the borders for the former Ottoman Empire after UsefulNotes/WorldWarI without considering the ethnic groups first; the Kurds felt cheated by this and have since started rebellions in the regions in an attempt to unite the "Kurdistan" or at least try to have an autonomy of their own. As you can see, Iraq is the only partial-success story for them by managing to recognize their autonomy and language. But Kurds aren't the only one who inhabit the "Kurdistan", because there's also:

* There's also a plethora of other minority groups who adopted their own faiths, thus called "ethnoreligious group", including '''Assyrians''', a ''very old'' Christian group who practices a kind of Eastern Christianity called the Assyrian Church of the East who adopts Nestorian teachings (i.e. believing that UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}}' human and divine aspects are distinguishable), which have long since been discredited and condemned in the First Council of Nicaea and resulting the group being not in communion with any other church in the world. There's also '''Yazidis''', a subset of the Kurds who still practice their historical faith as mentioned above, and very small gnostic faiths like the '''Mandaenism''' and '''Manichaenism'''. While the Iraqi Turkmens are the Main/ButtMonkey, these groups are outright persecuted because of their faith (the Iraqi Turkmens are at least Muslim) and are sadly dwindling in number since the onset of the War on Terror.

Contrary to modern depictions, not all of Iraq is [[Main/{{Crossing The Desert}} covered in desert]]. Sure, half of the country is an uninhabitable bed of sand, but the other half is not something to be overlooked, especially since the cradle of civilization had its base there. Basically, there are four different parts of Iraq, all of which are crossed by the two rivers that originated from the mountains of southern UsefulNotes/{{Turkey}}, the Euphrates and Tigris, which gave Iraq its ancient name, Mesopotamia ("land between two rivers").

* '''The Highlands''': Located in the northeast, it's a dramatically different world than the other parts of the country. As the name implies, it's mountainous, being part of the Zagros range that expands from the extreme southeast of Turkey to northwestern UsefulNotes/{{Iran}}, some of which are covered in snow. The area is part of '''Iraqi Kurdistan''', an autonomous region also known as "South Kurdistan" which elects a separate President and Prime Minister, as per an agreement with the Arabs in the 1990s. It's the most stable region of the country and serves as a safe haven whenever war breaks out in the lowlands. It is often described as being safer than Europe. It's also very diverse in term of population, being settled by Sunni Kurds, Iraqi Turkmens, Yazidis, and Assyrians, to name a few. Major cities include Erbil (Hawler in Kurdish and Arbela in Syriac, the capital, the fourth-largest city, and the largest city having a non-Arab majority), Sulaymaniya, Dohuk (Nohadra in Syriac), and Halabja.

* '''Kurds''': A significant but frequently-forgotten-to-be-mentioned-in-the-media ethnic group who speak an Indo-European language related to Persian. Though they adopted the same religion as the Arabs (i.e. Islam), they have a very different culture, including claiming Yazidis (a monotheistic Mesopotamian faith unrelated to the Abrahamic religions) as their cultural heritage and being more egalitarian. The Kurds not only lived in Iraq but also northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey, and northwestern Iran, which resulted when the Great Powers foolishly drew the borders for the former Ottoman Empire after UsefulNotes/WorldWarI without considering the ethnic groups first; the Kurds felt cheated by this and have since started rebellions in the regions in an attempt to unite the "Kurdistan" or at least try to have an autonomy of their own. As you can see, Iraq is the only partial-success story for them by managing to recognize their autonomy and language. But Kurds aren't the only one who inhabit the "Kurdistan", because there's also:

* '''Upper Mesopotamia''': A valley enclosed by the two rivers located to the northwest of Baghdad. Also known as '''Al-Jazirah''' ("the island") since the Arab conquests. It's much more arid and can be said as desert-lite. Assyria was based here after its breakup from the Akkadian Empire. It's mainly populated by Arabs professing the Sunni faith, with Kurds and Iraqi Turkmens populating the farthest north. Major cities include Mosul, the third-largest and the largest Sunni-majority city in Iraq, Kirkuk, the fifth largest city and is currently contested by the Kurds, who claims the historically Kurd-majority city as part of their autonomous region, and Samarra, once a capital of the Arab empires (yes, it's the same Samarra where Death wants to make an appointment with that inspired ''Appointment in Samarra''),

* '''The Highlands''': Located in the northeast, it's a dramatically different world than the other parts of the country. As the name implies, it's mountainous, being part of the Zagros range that expands from the extreme southeast of Turkey to northwestern UsefulNotes/{{Iran}}, some of which are covered in snow. The area is part of '''Iraqi Kurdistan''', an autonomous region also known as "South Kurdistan" which elects a separate President and Prime Minister, as per an agreement with the Arabs in the 1990s. It's the most stable region of the country and serves as a safe haven whenever war breaks out in the lowlands. It's also very diverse in term of population, being settled by Sunni Kurds, Iraqi Turkmens, Yazidis, and Assyrians, to name a few. Major cities include Erbil (the capital, the fourth-largest city, and the largest city having a non-Arab majority), Sulaymaniya, Dohuk, and Halabja.

* ''Series/SEALTeam's'' eleventh episode takes place during the battle of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Qa%27im_(town) Al-Qaim]] in late 2017 as they try to recover the hard drive from a crashed Air Force drone that has been captured by ISIS fighters.

Iraq ('''Arabic:''' ''العراق‎ al-‘Irāq''), also known as the Republic of Iraq ('''Arabic:''' ''جمهورية العراق Jumhūriyyat al-‘Irāq''; '''Kurdish:''' ''كۆماری عێراق'') is a southwest Asian country bordering Usefulnotes/{{Iran}}, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan and Kuwait. Historically, the region has been known as Mesopotamia, and is the site of the world's oldest civilization, Sumer. Nowadays, the country is a constitutional electoral Islamic republic on its way to securing its territory.

* ''Series/GenerationKill'', which follows a group of [[YanksWithTanks US]] [[SemperFi Marines]] during the 2003 invasion and through daily life in post-Saddam Iraq.

* ''GenerationKill'', which follows a group of [[YanksWithTanks US]] [[SemperFi Marines]] during the 2003 invasion and through daily life in post-Saddam Iraq.

Iraq has long been one of the centers of Arabic-language culture, and Arab identity is fairly heavily ingrained among the Arabic-speaking community (to the point where Iraq was the only country not to border Israel to participate in all three [[ArabIsraeliConflict Arab-Israeli Wars]] (1948, 1967, and 1973). The joke in Arab high culture is that [[UsefulNotes/ModernEgypt Egypt]] writes, UsefulNotes/{{Lebanon}} publishes, and Iraq reads. It ''is'' the centerpiece of the Main/ArabianNightsDays after all, and the capital Baghdad really was a city of wonder and secrets before it gained its current reputation as a [[Main/{{CrapsackWorld}} Crapsack City]] that eats explosives for breakfast.

* Oran, one of the heroes (well, {{Anti Hero}}es) of ''BrokenSaints'', hails from Baghdad. Interestingly enough, unlike most other instances, Oran was introduced well ''before'' the second Gulf War, and was actually written in response to the Western interference in the Middle-East during the 90s. And unlike with most other instances, it is his deep religiosity which causes him ''to have doubts'' about his [[YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters violent actions]].

* '''Kurds''': A significant but frequently-forgotten-to-be-mentioned-in-the-media ethnic group who speak an Indo-European language related to Persian. Though they adopted the same religion as the Arabs (i.e. Islam), they have a very different culture, including claiming Yazidis (a monotheistic Mesopotamian faith unrelated to the Abrahamic religions) as their cultural heritage and being more egalitarian. The Kurds not only lived in Iraq but also northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey, and northwestern Iran, which resulted when the Great Powers foolishly drew the borders for the former Ottoman Empire after Main/WorldWarI without considering the ethnic groups first; the Kurds felt cheated by this and have since started rebellions in the regions in an attempt to unite the "Kurdistan" or at least try to have an autonomy of their own. As you can see, Iraq is the only partial-success story for them by managing to recognize their autonomy and language. But Kurds aren't the only one who inhabit the "Kurdistan", because there's also:

->The flag employs the red, white, black, and green Pan-Arab colors. At the center is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3ttkb4eBow "Allahu Akbar" ("God is Great").]]
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->The flag employs the red, white, black, and green Pan-Arab colors. At the center is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zq9mbB-X0Bc "Allahu Akbar" ("God is Great").]]

->The flag employs the red, white, black, and green Pan-Arab colors. At the center is [["Allahu Akbar" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zq9mbB-X0Bc]] ("God is Great").

->The flag employs the red, white, black, and green Pan-Arab colors. At the center is [["Allahu Akbar" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zq9mbB-X0Bc ("God is Great").]]

->The flag employs the red, white, black, and green Pan-Arab colors. At the center is [["Allahu Akbar"]] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zq9mbB-X0Bc ("God is Great").

->The flag employs the red, white, black, and green Pan-Arab colors. At the center is [["Allahu Akbar" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zq9mbB-X0Bc ("God is Great"). ]]

->The flag employs the red, white, black, and green Pan-Arab colors. At the center is [["Allahu Akbar" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zq9mbB-X0Bc ("God is Great").]]

->The flag employs the red, white, black, and green Pan-Arab colors. At the center is "Allahu Akbar" ("God is Great").

As in most of the Arab states, the majority faith of the population is Islam, though of the Shia denomination, due to the previous hegemony of the Safavids. Historically the nation had been ruled by leaders with a Sunni background (e.g. UsefulNotes/SaddamHussein), an opposite of its neighbor, {{UsefulNotes/Syria}} (Sunni majority ruled by a Shia leader (well, technically an [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alawites Alawi]]), but otherwise the two sects had lived side-by-side for centuries....at least until Saddam came along. Since the onset of Main/TheWarOnTerror, Saddam's fall, and the US occupation, the Prime Ministers have been successively selected from the Shia community, though the (largely ceremonial) Presidents remain a Sunni. Other than Islam, Iraq hosts various minority religions, including Assyrian Church of the East, who uses Aramaic as a liturgical language with some even speaking a modern descendant of the language, Mandeanism, Manichaenism, Yazidis (the historical faith of the minority Kurds), and Judaism. Their numbers have sadly been dwindling since Saddam came to power and the War on Terror.

* '''Lower Mesopotamia''': A flat, fertile plain that extends from the point where the two main rivers narrows before expanding and ultimately meeting at the Persian Gulf. It starts with Baghdad, the capital city, which is located right in the middle of where the rivers narrow, and goes from there. The cradle of the world civilization, Sumer, was based here, as did Babylonia after its breakup from the Akkadian Empire. Some of the holiest cities in Shia Islam are located here, including Karbala (where Imam Hussein was martyred) and Najaf (the location of Imam Ali's shrine). Accordingly, it's mainly populated by Shia Arabs, though the area around Baghdad has significant Sunni communities too.
* '''Upper Mesopotamia''': A valley enclosed by the two rivers located to the northwest of Baghdad. Also known as '''Al-Jazirah''' ("the island") since the Arab conquests. It's much more arid and can be said as desert-lite, though it's still in the same flat zone as the fertile plains. It also encompasses the regions where the rivers flowed before: Syria, and then Turkey. Assyria was based here after its breakup from the Akkadian Empire. It's mainly populated by Arabs professing the Sunni faith, with Kurds and Iraqi Turkmens populating the farthest north. Major cities include Mosul, the third-largest and the largest Sunni-majority city in Iraq, and Samarra, once a capital of the Arab empires (yes, it's the same Samarra where Death wants to make an appointment with that inspired ''Appointment in Samarra'').
* '''The Desert''': The region everyone knows about. It's where the sandy dune-Arabian Desert meets with the rocky Syrian Desert. Very sparsely populated (mainly by Sunni Arabs), the only major population center is Rutbah, which serves as a staging point between Iraq and neighboring UsefulNotes/{{Jordan}}. The western part of the desert stands on a plateau that rises higher than both parts of the Mesopotamia.
* '''The Highlands''': Located in the northeast, it's a dramatically different world than the other parts of the country. As the name implies, it's mountainous, being part of the Zagros range that expands from the extreme southeast of Turkey to northwestern UsefulNotes/{{Iran}}, some of which are covered in snow. The area is part of '''Iraqi Kurdistan''', an autonomous region also known as "South Kurdistan" which elects a separate President and Prime Minister, as per an agreement with the Arabs in the 1990s. It's the most stable region of the country and serves as a safe haven whenever war breaks out in the lowlands. It's also very diverse in term of population, being settled by Sunni Kurds, Iraqi Turkmens, Yazidis, and Assyrians, to name a few. Major cities include Erbil (the capital), Sulaymaniya, and Kirkuk.

* '''Upper Mesopotamia''': A valley enclosed by the two rivers located to the northwest of Baghdad. Also known as '''Al-Jazirah''' ("the island") since the Arab conquests. It's much more arid and can said as desert-lite, though it's still in the same flat zone as the fertile plains. It also encompasses the regions where the rivers flowed before: Syria, and then Turkey. Assyria was based here after its breakup from the Akkadian Empire. It's mainly populated by Arabs professing the Sunni faith, with Kurds and Iraqi Turkmens populating the farthest north. Major cities include Mosul, the second-largest and the largest Sunni-majority city in Iraq, and Samarra, once a capital of the Arab empires (yes, it's the same Samarra where Death wants to make an appointment with that inspired ''Appointment in Samarra'').

Contrary to modern depictions, not all of Iraq is [[Main/{{Crossing The Desert}} covered in desert]]. Sure, half of the country is an uninhabitable bed of sand, but the other half is not something to be overlooked, especially since the cradle of civilization had its base there. Basically, there are four different parts of Iraq, all of which are crossed by the two rivers that originated from the mountains of southern UsefulNotes/{{Turkey}}, the Euphrates and Tigris, which gave Iraq its ancient name, Mesopotamia ("land of two rivers").

Contrary to modern depictions, not all of Iraq is [[Main/{{Crossing The Desert}} covered in desert]]. Sure, half of the country is an uninhabitable bed of sand, but the other half is not something to be overlooked, especially since the cradle of civilization had its base there. Basically, there are three different parts of Iraq, all of which are crossed by the two rivers that originated from the mountains of southern UsefulNotes/{{Turkey}}, the Euphrates and Tigris, which gave Iraq its ancient name, Mesopotamia ("land of two rivers").