“Today Stems from Yesterday”: A Kirkuk-Centric Analysis of Central Periphery Relationship of Baghdad and Iraqi Kurds
“Today Stems from Yesterday”: A Kirkuk-Centric Analysis of Central Periphery Relationship of Baghdad and Iraqi Kurds

Summary/Abstract: Kirkuk, the oil rich northern governorate of Iraq with symbolic meaning, has been sitting at the epicenter of inflammatory nationalist debates of Iraqi Kurds and Baghdad. The difficulty in the accommodation of different historical narratives, and thus, political objectives, has exacerbated the complexity of the problem. The Iraqi Kurds have argued that Kirkuk is their Jerusalem and have been applying “creating facts on the ground” strategy to achieve their goals. On the other hand, for Baghdad, Kirkuk has been the symbol of unity and sovereignty of Iraq. Baghdad has also concerns of the likelihood of violence if a resolution for Kirkuk is forced too soon. These two competing approaches, in fact, not only draw the attentions to the fact of escalating tension between the Iraqi Kurds and Baghdad on the contested status of Kirkuk but also provide insights for this decades-old problematic marriage of Iraqi Kurds and Baghdad. This article, therefore, aims to present a Kirkuk-centric analysis of the history of Iraq so as to lay out the conflicting historical perspectives on Kirkuk, and endeavors to derive conclusions concerning the central periphery relationship between Baghdad and the Iraqi Kurds thorough the lens of the contested status of Kirkuk. Lastly, it intends to provide insights for the future through the evolution of Iraqi politics over the course of the 20th century.

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