Nineveh Governorate

Nineveh Governorate (Arabic: محافظة نينوى‎,[3], Syriac: ܗܘܦܪܟܝܐ ܕܢܝܢܘܐ‎, romanized: Hoparkiya d’Ninwe[4][5], Kurdish: Parêzgeha Neynewa ,پارێزگای نەینەوا‎[6][7]) is a governorate in northern Iraq that contains the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh. It was an integral part of Assyria from the 25th century BC to the 7th century AD. It has an area of 37,323 km2 (14,410 sq mi) and an estimated population of 2,453,000 people in 2003. Its chief city and provincial capital is Mosul, which lies across the Tigris river from the ruins of ancient Nineveh. Tal Afar is the second-biggest city. Before 1976, it was called Mosul Province and included the present-day Dohuk Governorate, which is now part of the autonomous Kurdistan Region.[8]

Nineveh Governorate

محافظة نينوى (in Arabic)
Governorate
Coordinates: 36°0′N 42°28′E
Country Iraq
CapitalMosul
Government
 • GovernorNajim Al-Juburee
Area
 • Total37,323 km2 (14,410 sq mi)
Population
 (2011[1])
 • Total3,270,422
 • Density88/km2 (230/sq mi)
HDI (2017)0.664[2]
medium

An ethnically, religiously and culturally diverse region, it has been subject to attacks by the terrorist organization known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, with Mosul being captured on 10 June 2014, and many places of worship and historic ruins and monuments destroyed.[9] A massive offensive to retake the city, dubbed Operation "We Are Coming, Nineveh" (قادمون يا نينوى; Qadimun Ya Naynawa), began in October 2016.[10][11]

Recent history and administration
Former governor al-Nujaifi 2014 in the Yezidian Academy, Hanover, Germany

Its two cities endured the 2003 Invasion of Iraq and emerged unscathed. In 2004, however, Mosul and Tal Afar were the scenes of fierce battles between US-led troops and Iraqi insurgents. The insurgents moved to Nineveh after the Battle of Fallujah in 2004.

After the invasion, the military of the province was led by (then Major General) David Petraeus of the 101st Airborne Division and later by (then Brigadier General) Carter Ham as the multi-national brigade for Iraq. During the time, the American civil head of the local office of the Coalition Provisional Authority was a US Foreign Service Officer and former Kurdish refugee to the States. Mustafa administered her nominees on the provincial council and through members of the Kashmoula family.

In June 2004, Osama Kashmoula became the interim governor of the province and in September of the same year he was assassinated en route to Baghdad. He was succeeded as interim Governor by Duraid Kashmoula, who was elected governor in January 2005. Duraid Kashmoula resigned in 2009.[12] In April 2009, Atheel al-Nujaifi, a hardline Arab nationalist and member of Al-Hadba, became governor.[13] While al-Nujaifi's Arab Muttahidoon bloc lost its majority to the Kurdish Brotherhood and Coexistence Alliance List in the 2013 provincial election, al-Nujaifi was reelected as governor by a larger Sunni Arab coalition[14] that was later formalized as the Nahda Bloc.

In June 2014, insurgents from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (known as ISIS or ISIL) overran the capital Mosul, forcing an estimated 500,000 refugees to flee the area,[15] including governor al-Nujaifi,[16] who was subsequently deposed by the Iraqi Parliament.[17]

While the Kurdish list proposed Hassan al-Allaf, an Arab affiliated with the Islamic Party,[18] the provincial council elected Nofal Hammadi (formerly Loyalty to Nineveh List) with the votes of the Nahdha bloc.[19]

An offensive to retake Mosul from ISIL control began in October 2016, with Iraqi and Kurdish soldiers supported by a U.S.-led coalition of 60 nations.[11]

Provincial elections
Main article: 2013 Nineveh governorate election
  Summary of the 20 June 2013 Nineveh Governorate election results
Party/coalitionAllied national partiesLeaderSeatsChangeVotes%±%
Brotherhood and Coexistence Alliance ListKDP
PUK		111173,68729.87%2.39%
Muttahidoonal-Hadba
Iraqi Islamic Party		Usama al-Nujayfi814129,55622.28%27.54%
Loyalty to Nineveh ListIraqi National Dialogue Front
al-Hal		Ghanim al-Baso
Saleh al-Mutlaq
Jamal al-Karbouli		466,51711.44%
United NinevehAbdullah al-Yawer345,9717.91%
Iraqi Construction and Justice GatheringDildar Zebari339,1266.73%
Al Iraqia National and United CoalitionAyad Allawi231,2765.38%
Nineveh’s Bravery Coalition123,3614.02%
Nineveh’s National Alliance122,7343.91%
Oum Rabih Tribes’ National GatheringHassan Khulayf121,3493.67%
Al Shabak Freemen Council112,6892.18%
Yazidi Movement for Reform and Progress110,3971.79%1.17%
Chaldean Syriac Assyrian Gathering CoalitionGathered Force Movement
Chaldean National Council
Chaldean Syriac Assyrian Popular Council
Assyrian National Party
Rafidain List
National Bet-Nahrain Union		18,6351.49%
Iraqi People’s Coalition18,6331.48%
Iraq’s Benevolence and Generosity ListDr Rushdi Said18,0761.39%
Iraqi Freemen Coalition
Iraq’s Advocates for State Support
Reformers Gathering
National Moderation Front
United National Christian Assembly
Iraq’s Unified GatheringYounis al-Rammah
Oum Rabih National Independent Gathering
United Democratic ِArabic Movement
Yuhanna Youssef Tuma Buta
Future Path for Yazidis Party
Free Yazidi Gathering
Yazidi Democratic Front
Yazidi Progress Party
Shabak Independent Party
Total392581,449[20][21][22]

Human geography

Borders

Neighboring Iraqi regions are Dohuk Governorate to the north, Erbil Governorate to the east, Saladin Governorate to the south-east, and Al Anbar Governorate to the south. In the west it shares a border with Syria, mostly Al-Hasakah Governorate, and also Deir ez-Zor Governorate in the south.

Administrative districts

Nineveh Governorate comprises 30 districts, listed below with their areas[23] and populations as estimated in 2003:[24]

District Name
in Arabic		 Area in
sq. km		 Population
in 2003
Sinjarسنجار2,928166,466
Al-Ba'ajالبعاج9,17288,401
Al-Hadar (Hatra)الحضر9,73837,655
Al-Mosulالموصل4,4711,432,230
Tel Afarتلعفر4,453300,878
Tel Kaifتلكيف1,244167,647
Al-Hamdaniyaالحمدانية1,155125,665
Al-Shikhanالشيخان1,33358,132
Total37,3232,453,116


Demographics

Nineveh Province is multiethnic. There are significant numbers of Arabs, Turkmens, Assyrians, Kurds as well as Yazidis both in towns and cities, and in their own specific villages and regions. There are also many Armenians, Kawliya, Mandeans and Shabaks.

The majority are Sunni Muslim. 80% of the Arabs are Sunni Muslim, the Turkmens mostly are Sunni Muslim, and the Kurds are mostly Sunni Muslim. About 5–10% of the population is Christian. Generally, Yazidis, Shabaks and Mandeans are followers of their respective heritage religions, Yazidism, Shabakism, and Mandaeism.

The primary spoken language is Arabic. Minority languages include Turkman, Neo-Aramaic dialects spoken by the Assyrian People, Kurdish (predominately Kurmanji), Shabaki, and Armenian.

Proposed Assyrian autonomous region
Main article: Proposals for Assyrian autonomy in Iraq

Many Assyrian leaders advocate an autonomous Assyrian homeland within Nineveh Province for the indigenous Assyrians.[25] Most National Iraqi leaders have not taken this plan seriously.

See also

Notes and references
  1. Citypopulation.de
  2. "Sub-national HDI – Area Database – Global Data Lab". hdi.globaldatalab.org. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  3. "محافظة نينوى". ninava.gov.iq (in Arabic). Retrieved 21 December 2019.
  4. "Bahra Magazine" (PDF). http://www.zowaa.co.uk/bahra/s145-1.pdf (in Syriac). Retrieved 27 April 2020. External link in |website= (help)
  5. Gregorius bar Hebraeus, “” based upon Jean Baptiste Abbeloos and Thomas Joseph Lamy (eds.), Gregorii Barhebræi (Louvain: Peeters, 1872-1877), Digital Syriac Corpus, last modified May 4, 2018, https://syriaccorpus.org/373.}}
  6. "PDK û rewşa Civata Parêzgeha Neynewa di perlemana Îraqê de". Kurdistan24 (in Kurdish). Retrieved 21 December 2019.
  7. "ئەنجوومەنی پارێزگای نەینەوا: پارێزگار دەستیلەکارکێشایەوە و پەسەندمان کرد" (in Kurdish). 19 November 2019. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
  8. "Ninewa - NCCI Governorate Profile" (PDF). 2010. p. 4. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
  9. al-Lami, Mina (21 July 2014). "Iraq: the minorities of Nineveh Plain". BBC World News. Archived from the original on 24 July 2014.
  10. "العبادي يطلق على عمليات تحرير نينوى تسمية "قادمون يا نينوى" أمن". Al Sumaria. 17 October 2016. Retrieved 21 October 2016.
  11. Winter, Charlie (20 October 2016). "How ISIS Is Spinning the Mosul Battle". The Atlantic. Retrieved 21 October 2016.
  12. Parker, Ned (22 January 2009). "Iraq governor looks back on troubled tenure". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 14 February 2012.
  13. Sly, Liz (23 June 2009). "In Nineveh, tensions between Iraqi Kurds and Arabs simmer". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 14 February 2012.
  14. Abdullah Salem (22 August 2013). "Voter's Revolution in Ninawa – Local minorities take over Provincial government". Niqash. Archived from the original on 22 July 2015.
  15. Robertson, Nic & Smith-Spark, Laura (11 June 2014). "Fresh off Mosul victory, militants in Iraq wrest control of Tikrit". CNN. Archived from the original on 12 June 2014.
  16. "Iraqi insurgents 'seize new city'". BBC News. 11 June 2014. Archived from the original on 11 June 2014.
  17. Hamza Mustafa (29 May 2015). "Iraq: Nineveh governor sacked following ISIS advances". Asharq al-Awsat. Archived from the original on 11 February 2016.
  18. "Member of Nineveh's Council: Two Candidates For The Post Of The Governor And Negotiations To Select One Of Them". NINA. 21 June 2015. Archived from the original on 17 February 2016.
  19. "Nofal Hammadi of al-Nahetha bloc elected as Governor of Nineveh succeeding al-Nujaifi". Shafaq. 5 October 2015. Archived from the original on 17 February 2016. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
  20. Ali, Ahmed. "2013 Iraq Update #25: The Ninewa and Anbar Elections and the future of Iraq's Sunni Leadership". Institute for the Study of War. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
  21. "Ninewa Final Results" (PDF). Independent High Electoral Commission. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
  22. "IHEC list of political coalitions" (PDF) (in Arabic). Retrieved 27 May 2015.
  23. COSIT (Central Organization for Statistics and Information Technology), Baghdad.
  24. NGO Co-ordination Committee.
  25. Marco Gombacci. "Iraqi Christians ask EU to support the creation of a Nineveh Plain Province". europeanpost.co.

Further reading


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.