Nineveh Governorate

Nineveh Governorate (formerly Ninawa Province)
Governorate

Coordinates: 36°0′N 42°28′E / 36.000°N 42.467°E / 36.000; 42.467Coordinates: 36°0′N 42°28′E / 36.000°N 42.467°E / 36.000; 42.467
Country	Iraq
Capital	Mosul
Governor	Atheel al-Nujaifi
Area
• Total	37,323 km² (14,410 sq mi)
Population (2011^[1])
• Total	3,270,422
Website	www.ninava.gov.iq

Nineveh Province governor Atheel al-Nujaifi 2014 in the Yezidian Academy in Hanover

Nineveh Governorate (Arabic: نینوى‎ Nīnewē, Kurdish: مووسڵ‎ Mûsil, Syriac: ܢܝܢܘܐ‎ Nīnwē) is a governorate in northern Iraq, which contains the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh, was an integral part of Assyria from the 25th century BC to 7th century AD, and still retains an indigenous Assyrian community to this day. It has an area of 37,323 square kilometres (3.7323×10¹⁰ m²) 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 also a major city within the region. Before 1976, it was called Mosul Province and it included the present-day Dohuk Governorate.

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.^[2]

Recent history and administration

Its two cities endured the 2003 Invasion of Iraq and emerged unscathed. In 2004, Mosul and Tal Afar were fierce between US-led Iraqi insurgency. The insurgents moved 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 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.^[3] In April 2009, Atheel al-Nujaifi, a hardline Arab nationalist and member of Al-Hadba, became governor.^[4]

In June 2014, insurgents from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (known as ISIS or ISIL) overran the capital Mosul, deposing governor al-Nujaifi.^[5] The seizure of Mosul prompted an estimated 500,000 refugees to flee the area.^[6]

Demographics

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

In religion, the majority of Arabs are Sunni Muslim while Turkmen are mostly Shi'ite, Kurds are largely secular Sunni Muslim, although some follow the native Yarsan religion and a few are Christians, Assyrians are exclusively Christian, with most following the Assyrian Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church and Assyrian Pentecostal Church, Armenians are also exclusively Christian and mostly followers of the Armenian Orthodox Church, and with Yazidism and Shabaks and Mandeans following their own religious beliefs. Arab Sunnis form a majority in the province.

The main language spoken is Arabic. Minority languages include Neo-Aramaic dialects spoken by the Assyrians, Kurdish (to include dialects of Kurmanji, Shengali), Shabaki, Turkoman, Mandic and Armenian.

Administrative Districts

Districts of Nineveh

Nineveh Governorate comprises 30 districts, listed below with their areas^[7] and populations as estimated in 2003:^[8]

District	Name in Arabic	Area in sq. km	Population in 2003
Al-Mosul	الموصل	4,471	1,432,230
Al-Hamdaniya	الحمدانية	1,155	125,665
Tel Kaif	تلكيف	1,244	167,647
Sinjar	سنجار	2,928	166,466
Tel Afar	تلعفر	4,453	300,878
Al-Shikhan	الشيخان	1,333	58,132
Al-Hadar	الحضر	9,738	37,655
Al-Ba'aj	البعاج	9,172	88,401
Makhmur	مخمور	2,759	76,042
Total		37,323	2,453,116

Aqrah District (formerly part of Nineveh Governorate) and the northern part of Al-Shikhan District are currently under the Kurdistan Regional Government control, as Mosul has no control over these districts.

Provincial politics

Provincial elections

Since no real census has been taken for decades, the election results are the only indicator of the province's ethnic distribution. It should be noted that many Assyrians and Yazidis claim that ballot papers were denied them; in addition, many members of ethnic groups voted for mainstream parties or ethnic parties that were attached to mainstream Arab or Kurdish led parties.^[9]

2005 December

Sunni Arab Group, 324,518 (47%)
Democratic Patriotic Alliance of Kurdistan, 156,476 (19%)
Allawi's Multi-ethnic Group, 91,661 (11%)
Sunni Group, 81,976 (10%)
Shia Arab Group, 61,083 (7%)
Yezidi Group, 18,618 (1%)
Assyrian Group, 12,323 (1%)

2005 January

Sunni Group, 56,000
Democratic Patriotic Alliance of Kurdistan, 42,000
Shia Group, 23,000
Allawi's Multi-ethnic Group, 21,000
Assyrian Group, 3,500
Yezidi Group, 3,200
Turkman Group, 1,800

Proposed Assyrian autonomous region

Main article: Nineveh Plains

Many Assyrian leaders advocate an autonomous Assyrian homeland within Nineveh Province for the indigenous Assyrians. Most National Iraqi leaders have not taken this plan seriously, but it has a strong proponent in the Kurdistan Regional Government Minister of Finance Sarkis Aghajan, himself an Assyrian and a prominent figure in the Kurdish dominated government. Minister Sarkis has claimed that the autonomous region he envisions would stretch from the Syrian border to the north at Peshkabur to Bakhdida. He says it would have its own parliament, executive council, constitution, budget, logo, and flag.^[10]

Notes and references

↑ Citypopulation.de
↑ al-Lami, Mina (21 July 2014). "Iraq: the minorities of Nineveh Plain". BBC World News. Archived from the original on 24 July 2014.
↑ Parker, Ned (22 January 2009). "Iraq governor looks back on troubled tenure". Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, California). Archived from the original on 13 February 2012.
↑ Sly, Liz (23 June 2009). "In Nineveh, tensions between Iraqi Kurds and Arabs simmer". Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, California). Archived from the original on 13 February 2012.
↑ "Iraqi insurgents 'seize new city'". BBC News. 11 June 2014. Archived from the original on 11 June 2014.
↑ Robertson, Nic and 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.
↑ COSIT (Central Organization for Statistics and Information Technology), Baghdad.
↑ NGO Co-ordination Committee.
↑ "Iraqi Community in San Diego California: Discussion of the 2005 Iraqi Election". Ankawa.com. 8 March 2005. Archived from the original on 8 March 2012.
↑ Belz, Mindy (1 October 2008). "Demanding full autonomy". Iraq Updates. Archived from the original on 4 October 2008.