Yes or No : Are Ethnic Kurds part of the minority in Iraq? |
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Yes . Ethnic Kurds make up 22 million people in six countries, 10 million in Turkey, 5.5 million in Iran, 3.5 million in Iraq, and small numbers in Syria, Azerbaijan, and Armenia. They speak mainly Farsi. Most of them are Sunni Muslim.
| Who was the Head of State in Iraq from 1979 to 2003? |
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Saddam Hussein . This president came to power on July 16, 1979.
| Which is the third largest city in Iraq? |
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Mosul. Mosul is close to the Tigris River. It has oil deposits and trade center. Its population is estimated at 1,250,000.
| Which is the main religion in Iraq? |
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Islam. Muslim make up 95 percent in Iraq. Shiite Muslim (60 percent) live in the south. Sunni Muslim (40 percent) in the north. Christians make up the largest non-Muslim religious group. Yazidis and Sabaeans (Baptists) are smaller religious groups and usually belong to the Kurd groups.
| Which dispute in 1979 between Iran and Iraq eventually led to a war (1980-88)? |
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Shatt al-Arab waterway dispute. Iraq has had many disputes with Iran but in 1980, Iraq invaded Iran following Iraq’s aim to gain control of the Shatt al-Arab waterway, a 200km channel, and then perhaps to take the Iranian oil fields.
| Which continent does Iraq lie in? |
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Asia. Iraq is bordered by six countries; Syria in the west, Turkey in the north, Iran in the east, Kuwait in the south-east, Saudi Arabia in the south, and Jordan in the south-west.
| When did Saddam come into power? |
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1979. In 1979, Saddam's cousin Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr, former President of Iraq, resigned due to ill health and Saddam took power.
| What is the official language of Iraq? |
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Arabic. Kurdish (official in Kurdish regions), Assyrian, Armenian are also spoken in some regions of Iraq.
| What is the monetary unit of Iraq? |
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Iraqi dinar. The dinar is a currency which is used throughout the Middle-east, as is the rial/riyal.
| What is the capital city of Iraq? |
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Baghdad. Tehran is the capital city of Iran, Amman is the capital city of Jordan, and Ankara is the capital city of Turkey.
| What is Iraq's main economic resource? |
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Petroleum. Wheat, barley and rice are the most important of the main crops. Livestock raising is particularly important, along with that of hand-made leather and metal crafts, and the textile industry. However, petroleum is the resource that places Iraq in such a position of economic importance.
| What did Saddam study at university? |
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Law. Saddam studied law in Cairo, Egypt in 1962, but returned to Iraq after Qassem was ousted in a February 1963 BaÂ’ath Party coup.
| Tigris is an important river. What is the other major river iraq? |
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Euphrates. Both rivers flow from northwestern to southeastern Iraq.
| Iraq gained independence from which European administration in 1932? |
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Britain. Iraq gained independence from under British administration on the 3rd of October 1932, as a result of a League of Nations mandate.
| Iraq borders with how many countries? |
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6. Turkey and Syria border Iraq to the N & NW, Jordan to the W, Iran to the E and Saudi Arabia to the South.
| In which year did the Republic of Iraq become independent? |
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1932. An Arab dominated government was established in 1922, but a Iraq remained a British League of Nations mandate (trust territory) till 1932. Complete independence for Iraq came in October 1932 when Britain supported Iraq's admission to the League of Nations as an independent state.
| In what year did Iraq invade Arvand Rood and Khuzestan's oil field in Iran? |
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1980. Iraq first attacked Iranian airfields on September 22, 1980. It was Saddam Hussein's idea to gather as much oil as they wanted. It drew Iran into the war.
| In 1917-18 Iraq became independent from which Empire? |
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Ottoman. In 1258 the Mongols invaded the region. The Ottoman Turks won back the territory in 1638 and the region remained a part of the Ottoman Empire until the end of World War I, in 1918. The Sumerians, Babylonians & Assyrians developed great empires in the region prior to the Ottoman Turks.
| At the age of 20, Saddam joined which movement whose goal was to unite all Arabs in one nation? |
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Ba'ath Party. Saddam joined the Ba'ath Party as Vice President after a successful coup in 1968. The Populist Socialist Party (1951) and the Jaffar Pasha (1923) were two of hundreds of populist movements in the arab world. Al Qaida is a relatively young movement, created by Osama Bin Laden in the late 1980Â’s initially to bring Arabs together to fight against the Soviet Union occupation in Afghanistan. |
