IRAK
GENERAL
Iraq is the 58th-largest country in the world, after Morocco. It is comparable in size to the US state of California, and somewhat larger than Paraguay. Iraq was historically known as Mesopotamia, which literally means "between the rivers" in Greek.
Since most of you probably know the current events happenning in Iraq, I tried to find some background information, so that you will be able to get a clearer picture of reasons for today`s situation.
There are a number of ethnic minority groups in Iraq: Kurds, Assyrians, Mandeans, Iraqi Turkmen, Shabaks and Roma. Seventy-five to eighty percent of Iraq's population are Arabs; the other major ethnic groups are the Kurds at 15-20%, Assyrians, Iraqi Turkmen and others (5%), who mostly live in the north and northeast of the country. These groups have not enjoyed equal status with the majority Arab populations throughout Iraq's eighty-five year history.
According to most western sources the majority of Iraqis are Shi'ite Arab Muslims (around 60%), and Sunnis represent about 40% of the population made up of Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen.
HISTORY
Before the Ottoman empire, Iraq was part of Persia. The border disputes between Persia and the Ottomans never ended. Between 1555 and 1918, Persia and the Ottoman empire signed no fewer than 18 treaties delineating their disputed borders. Modern Iraq, however, was created with British involvement in the region and the final collapse of the Ottoman empire. This is why Irak at that time inherited all the disputes with Persia (or today`s Iran). Iraq was under Baath Party rule from 1968 to 2003; Saddam Hussein was a leading member of the revolutionary Ba'ath Party. This party espoused (zagovarjati, podpirati):
- secular pan-Arabism,
- economic modernization, and
- socialism.
Through the 1970s, Saddam cemented his authority over the apparatuses of government as Iraq's economy grew at a rapid pace. As president, Saddam maintained power through the Iran-Iraq War and the first Persian Gulf War.
The Iran-Iraq War, also known as the Iraqi Imposed War was a war between the armed forces of Iraq and Iran lasting from September 1980 to August 1988. It was commonly referred to as the The First Persian Gulf War. More precisely, the origins of the Iran-Iraq war go back to the question of sovereignty over the resource-rich province of Khuzestan. Iraqi forces attacked Iranian military personnel and civilians and even used chemical weapons, but the war ended in stalemate (pat position). Here we have to mention that at the time, Iraq received full support from the US, due to the fear that revolutionary Iran would defeat Iraq and export its Islamic Revolution to other Middle Eastern nations.
Massive expenditures in the eight-year war with Iran caused damage to oil export facilities. A combination of low oil prices, repayment of war debts (estimated at around US$3 billion a year) and the costs of reconstruction resulted in a serious financial crisis which was the main short term motivation for the invasion of Kuwait.
In 1990 Iraq invaded Kuwait resulting in the Gulf War, and the United Nations imposed economic sanctions at the urging of the U.S. Hostilities commenced in January 1991, resulting in a decisive victory for the coalition forces, which drove Iraqi forces out of Kuwait with minimal coalition deaths.
Following the 1991 Gulf War, the United Nations mandated that Iraqi chemical, biological, nuclear, and long range missile programs be verifiably halted and all such weapons verifiably destroyed. (Res. 687) U.N. weapons inspectors inside Iraq were able to verify the destruction, but substantial issues remained unresolved after they left Iraq in 1998 due to the lack of cooperation by the Iraqi government. Since then the American president George Bush repeatedly backed demands for unfettered (prost, neomejen) inspection and disarmament with threats of invasion.
Iraq reluctantly agreed to new inspections in late 2002. The inspectors didn't find any weapons of mass destruction but they did not view Iraqi declarations as credible either.
After rather tough negotiations between the members of Security Council UN, the U.S. government in March 2003 announced that "diplomacy has failed" and that it would proceed with a coalition of allied countries, named "coalition of the willing", to rid Iraq of its alleged weapons of mass destruction. The U.S.-led coalition overthrew Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and occupied Iraq in an attempt to establish a new governmental regime. However, the coalition was unsuccessful at restoring order to the entire country, leading to asymmetric warfare with the Iraqi insurgency and civil warfare between Sunni and Shia Iraqis.
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INSTITUTIONAL TRANSITION
In 2004, the Coalition Provisional Authority transferred the "sovereignty" of Iraq to a caretaker government (začasna vlada), whose first act was to begin the trial of Saddam Hussein. The new government began the process of moving towards open elections, though the insurgency and the lack of cohesion within the government itself, had led to delays.
In
January 2005, an election for a government to draft a permanent constitution
took place. Although some violence and lack of widespread Sunni Arab
participation marred the event, most
of the eligible Kurd and Shia populace participated. Following the ratification
of the Constitution of Iraq on October 15,
The beginning of 2006 was marked by government creation talks, growing sectarian violence, and continuous anti-coalition attacks.
The current government of Iraq took office on May 20, 2006 following approval by the members of the Iraqi National Assembly.
Saddam Hussein, captured in December 2003, was hanged on December 30, 2006 after being found guilty of crimes against humanity.
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After daily attacks and bomb explosions we can see on TV it is almost impossible to foresee or predict how the war will end and we can only hope the coalition forces will be able to stop the violence before it spreads to other regions and causes even more damage.