1.
Sinjar District
–
The Sinjar District is a district of the Nineveh Governorate, Iraqi Kurdistan. The district seat is the town of Shingal, the district has two subdistricts, al-Shemal and al-Qayrawan. The district is one of two population centers for Yazidis, the other being Shekhan District. Sinjar District was created in 1934 by Royal decree, after the 1935 Yazidi revolt, the district was placed under military control. The al-Shamal district, originally formed in 1936, was abolished in 1987, Qayrawan was formed as a district in 1977, was also abolished in 1987, and was added to the district. In 1994, al-Shamal and Qayrawan were reformed as a sub-districts, in 2007, several explosions set off by al-Qaeda in Iraq killed hundreds of Yazidis in Shengal. The New York Times reported that ISIL killed dozens of Yazidi men, a Kurdish Peshmerga-led Sinjar offensive occurred from December 17 to 21,2014, which included the ending of the siege of Mount Sinjar and freeing the district from ISIL control. According to Kurdish sources, nine Yazidi mass graves had been found by the end of the offensive, eighteen Yazidi shrines have also been destroyed by ISIL militants since June 2014. PKK and YPG/YPJ joint forces were able to stop attacks on two more villages after Peshmerga fled the area. The district borders and is a point with Syria. The district is 136 km from Mosul city, the capital of the Nineveh Governorate, the Sinjar Mountains are located in the district. The districts economy is based on agriculture with the main crops being barley, figs, wheat. In the villages of Ain al-Ghazal and Hayali exist oil fields, natural gas and heavy minerals exist in the Sinjar Mountains
Sinjar District
–
Yezidi Temple on Sinjar, 2004.
2.
Mount Sinjar
–
The Sinjar Mountains are a 100-kilometre-long mountain range that runs east to west, rising above the surrounding alluvial steppe plains in northwestern Iraq to an elevation of 1,463 meters. The highest segment of mountains, about 75 km long. The western and lower segment of these lies in Syria which is about 25 km long. The city of Sinjar is just south of the range and these mountains are regarded as sacred by the Yazidis. The Sinjar Mountains are an example of a breached anticlinal structure. These mountains consist of an asymmetrical, doubly plunging anticline, which is called the Sinjar Anticline, with a steep northern limb, gentle southern limb and a northerly vergence. The northern side of the anticline is normally faulted, which results in the repetition of the sequence of sedimentary strata exposed in it, the deeply eroded Sinjar Anticline exposes a number of sedimentary formations ranging from Late Cretaceous to Early Neogene in age. The Late Cretaceous Shiranish Formation outcrops within the middle of the Sinjar Mountains, the flanks of this mountain range consist of outward dipping strata of the Sinjar and Aliji formations, Jaddala Formation, Serikagne Formation, and Jeribe Formation. Quantities are sufficient for agricultural and stock use, sinjarite, a hygroscopic calcium chloride formed as soft pink mineral, was discovered in braided wadi fill in limestone exposures near Sinjar. The Yazidis have historically used the mountains as a place of refuge, gertrude Bell wrote, in the 1920s, Until a couple of years ago the Yezidis were ceaselessly at war with the Arabs and with everybody else. In August 2014, an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 Yazidis fled to the following raids by Islamic State forces on the city of Sinjar. The Yazidi refugees on the mountain faced what a worker called a genocide by the radicals. Stranded without water, food, shade, or medical supplies, the Yazidis had to rely on supplies of water and food airdropped by American, British, Australian. Although thousands more remained stranded on the mountain as of August 12, yezidi girls allegedly raped by ISIS fighters committed suicide by jumping to their death from Mount Sinjar, as described in a witness statement. Yazidi genocide Ezidkhan Kurdification & Arabization Singara
Mount Sinjar
–
Satellite picture of Shingal Mountains
3.
Plain of Sinjar
–
Nineveh Plains is a region in Iraqs Nineveh Governorate to the north and east of the city Mosul, from which it is also known as the Plain of Mosul. It was formerly known as the Plain of Sanjar or Sinjar from its major medieval settlement and it was the location of al-Khwārizmīs determination of a degree during the reign of the caliph al-Mamun. Nineveh Plains lie to the east, northeast of the city of Mosul in the Iraqi Ninawa Province, the ancient city of Nineveh stood where the eastern outskirts of Mosul are today, on the bank of the Tigris river. The villages on the part of the plains are inhabited by minority religious groups that are non-Muslim. Most of these inhabitants are Assyrian Christians, peutingers map of the inhabited world known to the Roman geographers depicts Singara as located west of the Trogoditi. Persi. who inhabited the territory around Mount Sinjar, by the medieval Arabs, most of the plain was reckoned as part of the province of Diyār Rabīʿa, the abode of the Rabīʿa tribe. The plain was the site of the determination of the degree by al-Khwārizmī, Sinjar also boasted a famous Assyrian cathedral in the 8th century. Schools especially received much attention in this area and in Kurdish areas where Assyrian concentrated population lives, in addition, agriculture and medical clinics received financial help from the Assyrian diaspora. As attacks on Christians increased in Basra, Baghdad, Ramadi, more families turned northward to the extended family holdings in the Nineveh Plain. This place of refuge remains underfunded and gravely lacking in infrastructure to aid the ever-increasing internally displaced people population, in February 2010, the attacks against Assyrians in Mosul forced 4,300 Assyrians to flee to the Nineveh plains where there is an Assyrian-majority population. From 2012, it began receiving influxes of Assyrians from Syria owing to the civil war there. In August 2014 nearly all of the inhabitants of the southern regions of the Plains were driven out by the Islamic State of Iraq. There have been calls by some politicians inside and outside Iraq to create a region for Assyrian Christians in this area. The same article has used to proclaim an autonomous province for the Yezidi people. On January 21,2014, the Iraqi government had declared that Nineveh Plains would become a new province, the Nineveh Plains is the only region in Iraq where a plurality of inhabitants follow Syriac Christianity. Before ISIS invaded Nineveh, Assyrians made up around 40% of the population within the plains, other inhabitants are the Yazidis, Shabaks, Turkmens and Kurds. It is believed that this added incentive for absorption by the KRG of the region may lead to conflict with Sunni Arab tribes in the Mosul region itself. Assyrians claim that without Nineveh Plain autonomous administration, the indigenous Assyrian presence in its ancient homeland could well disappear, there are some oil reserves in Nineveh Plains
Plain of Sinjar
–
Singara in a detail from
Peutinger's map, a medieval copy of a 4th-century
Roman original.
Plain of Sinjar
–
Map of the three districts which constitute Nineveh plains overlaid over the
Ninawa Governorate map.
4.
Kurdish language
–
Kurdish is a continuum of Northwestern Iranian languages spoken by the Kurds in Western Asia. Kurdish forms three dialect groups known as Northern Kurdish, Central Kurdish, and Southern Kurdish, a separate group of non-Kurdish Northwestern Iranian languages, the Zaza–Gorani languages, are also spoken by several million Kurds. Recent studies estimate between 8 to 20 million native Kurdish speakers in Turkey, the majority of the Kurds speak Northern Kurdish. The literary output in Kurdish was mostly confined to poetry until the early 20th century, today, there are two principal written Kurdish dialects, namely Northern Kurdish in the northern parts of the geographical region of Kurdistan and Central Kurdish further east and south. Central Kurdish is, along with Arabic, one of the two languages of Iraq and is in political documents simply referred to as Kurdish. The Kurdish languages belong to the Iranian branch of the Indo-European family and they are generally classified as Northwestern Iranian languages, or by some scholars as intermediate between Northwestern and Southwestern Iranian. Martin van Bruinessen notes that Kurdish has a strong south-western Iranian element, whereas Zaza, windfuhr identified Kurdish dialects as Parthian, albeit with a Median substratum. The most argued hypothesis on the localisation of the territory of the Kurds remains D. N. Mackenzies theory. He has tried to reconstruct the alleged Persian-Kurdish-Baluchi linguistic unity presumably in the parts of Iran. Kurdish is divided into three groups, where dialects from different groups are not mutually intelligible without acquired bilingualism, Northern Kurdish is the largest dialect group, spoken by an estimated 15 to 20 million Kurds in Turkey, Syria, northern Iraq and northwestern Iran. Central Kurdish is spoken by an estimated 6 to 7 million Kurds in much of Iraqi Kurdistan, Sorani is a written standard of Central Kurdish developed in the 1920s and was later adopted as the standard orthography of Kurdish as an official language of Iraq. Southern Kurdish is spoken by about 3 million Kurds in Kermanshah and Ilam provinces of Iran, in historical evolution terms, Kurmanji is less modified than Sorani and Pehlewani in both phonetic and morphological structure. The Kermanshahi group has influenced by among other things its closer cultural proximity to Persian. Philip G. Kreyenbroek, a writing in 1992, says. Sorani is normally written in a form of the Arabic script. Reasons for describing Kurmanji and Sorani as dialects of one language are their common origin, for example, Sorani has neither gender nor case-endings, whereas Kurmanji has both. Differences in vocabulary and pronunciation are not as great as between German and English, but they are still considerable, according to Encyclopaedia of Islam, although Kurdish is not a unified language, its many dialects are interrelated and at the same time distinguishable from other Western Iranian languages. The same source classifies different Kurdish dialects as two groups, northern and central
Kurdish language
–
Road signs near
Diyarbakır showing the place names in Turkish and Kurdish
Kurdish language
–
Map of Kurdish-speaking areas of the Middle East
Kurdish language
–
Kurdish restaurant sign written in
Arabic script
5.
Geographic coordinate system
–
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
Geographic coordinate system
–
Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.
6.
Iraq
–
The capital, and largest city, is Baghdad. The main ethnic groups are Arabs and Kurds, others include Assyrians, Turkmen, Shabakis, Yazidis, Armenians, Mandeans, Circassians, around 95% of the countrys 36 million citizens are Muslims, with Christianity, Yarsan, Yezidism, and Mandeanism also present. The official languages of Iraq are Arabic and Kurdish, two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run south through Iraq and into the Shatt al-Arab near the Persian Gulf. These rivers provide Iraq with significant amounts of fertile land, the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, historically known as Mesopotamia, is often referred to as the cradle of civilisation. It was here that mankind first began to read, write, create laws, the area has been home to successive civilisations since the 6th millennium BC. Iraq was the centre of the Akkadian, Sumerian, Assyrian and it was also part of the Median, Achaemenid, Hellenistic, Parthian, Sassanid, Roman, Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, Ayyubid, Mongol, Safavid, Afsharid, and Ottoman empires. Iraqs modern borders were mostly demarcated in 1920 by the League of Nations when the Ottoman Empire was divided by the Treaty of Sèvres, Iraq was placed under the authority of the United Kingdom as the British Mandate of Mesopotamia. A monarchy was established in 1921 and the Kingdom of Iraq gained independence from Britain in 1932, in 1958, the monarchy was overthrown and the Iraqi Republic created. Iraq was controlled by the Arab Socialist Baath Party from 1968 until 2003, after an invasion by the United States and its allies in 2003, Saddam Husseins Baath Party was removed from power and multi-party parliamentary elections were held in 2005. The American presence in Iraq ended in 2011, but the Iraqi insurgency continued and intensified as fighters from the Syrian Civil War spilled into the country, the Arabic name العراق al-ʿIrāq has been in use since before the 6th century. There are several suggested origins for the name, one dates to the Sumerian city of Uruk and is thus ultimately of Sumerian origin, as Uruk was the Akkadian name for the Sumerian city of Urug, containing the Sumerian word for city, UR. An Arabic folk etymology for the name is rooted, well-watered. During the medieval period, there was a region called ʿIrāq ʿArabī for Lower Mesopotamia and ʿIrāq ʿajamī, for the region now situated in Central and Western Iran. The term historically included the south of the Hamrin Mountains. The term Sawad was also used in early Islamic times for the region of the plain of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. In English, it is either /ɪˈrɑːk/ or /ɪˈræk/, the American Heritage Dictionary, the pronunciation /aɪˈræk/ is frequently heard in U. S. media. Since approximately 10,000 BC, Iraq was one of centres of a Caucasoid Neolithic culture where agriculture, the following Neolithic period is represented by rectangular houses. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gypsum, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations
Iraq
–
Cylinder Seal, Old Babylonian Period, c.1800 BCE,
hematite. The king makes an animal offering to
Shamash. This seal was probably made in a workshop at
Sippar.
Iraq
–
Flag
Iraq
–
Victory stele of
Naram-Sin of Akkad
Iraq
–
Bill of sale of a male slave and a building in
Shuruppak, Sumerian tablet, circa 2600 BCE
7.
Governorates of Iraq
–
Iraq consists of 19 governorates, also known as provinces. Former President Saddam Hussein divided the country into eighteen governorates in the 1970s for reasons of ethnic manipulation, a portion of the Kurdish-inhabited area of the country was granted autonomy in 1970. In 2014 the decision was made to create the Halabja Governorate out of the Halabja District of Sulaymaniyah Governorate, on 21 January 2014, the Council of Ministers of the Government of Iraq approved in principle proposals to create more governorates. The Council announced that two new governorates Tal Afar and Tuz Khurmatu would be formed from the current Nineveh Governorate and Saladin Governorate, respectively. It was also announced that the city of Fallujah of the Al Anbar Governorate would become a separate governorate, kuwait Governorate Districts of Iraq List of places in Iraq ISO 3166-2, IQ
Governorates of Iraq
–
Iraqi Governorates المحافظات العراقية (
Arabic) پارێزگاکانی عێراق (
Kurdish)
8.
Nineveh Governorate
–
Nineveh Governorate is a governorate in northern Iraq that contains the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh. It was a part of Assyria from the 25th century BC to the 7th century AD, It has an area of 37,323 km2. 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, a massive offensive to retake the city, dubbed Operation We Are Coming, Nineveh, began in October 2016. 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 to Nineveh after the Battle of Fallujah in 2004, after the invasion, the military of the province was led by David Petraeus of the 101st Airborne Division and later by Carter Ham as the multi-national brigade for Iraq. During the American civil head of the 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 council and through members of the Kashmoula family. In June 2004, Osama Kashmoula became the governor of the province. He was succeeded as interim Governor by Duraid Kashmoula, who was elected governor in January 2005, in April 2009, Atheel al-Nujaifi, a hardline Arab nationalist and member of Al-Hadba, became governor. While the Kurdish list proposed Hassan al-Allaf, an Arab affiliated with the Islamic Party, 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. Neighboring Iraqi regions are Dohuk Governorate to the north, Erbil Governorate to the east, Saladin Governorate to the south-east, in the west it shares a border with Syria, mostly Al-Hasakah Governorate, and also Deir ez-Zor Governorate in the south. Now Makhmur District is part of Erbil Governorate, aqrah District and the northern part of Al-Shikhan District are parts of Dohuk Governorate. There are significant numbers of Arabs, Assyrians, Kurds, Turkmens as well as Yazidis both in towns and cities, and in their own villages and regions. There are also numbers of Armenians, Kawliya and Mandeans, Shabaks, in religion, the majority of Arabs are Sunni Muslim while Turkmen are mostly Shiite. Kurds are largely Sunni Muslim, although some follow the native Yarsan religion, Armenians are also exclusively Christian and mostly followers of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Yazidis, Shabaks and Mandeans follow their own beliefs, Shabakism, Yazidism. However, Arab Sunnis form a majority in the province, the main language spoken is Arabic
Nineveh Governorate
–
Nineveh Province governor
Atheel al-Nujaifi 2014 in the
Yezidian Academy in
Hanover
Nineveh Governorate
–
Nineveh Governorate (formerly Ninawa Province)
Nineveh Governorate
–
Districts of Nineveh
9.
Singara
–
Singara was a strongly fortified post at the northern extremity of Mesopotamia, which for a while, as appears from coins found, was occupied by the Romans as an advanced colony against the Persians. It was the camp of legio I Parthica and its position south-east of Nisibis was indifferently defined by ancient writers, with Stephanus of Byzantium calling it a city of Arabia near Edessa and Ptolemy placing it on the Tigris. There is no doubt, however, that it and its adjacent mountain were the predecessors of the modern Sinjar and Mount Sinjar in modern Iraqs Nineveh plains. The city was raised by Severus to the status of a Roman colony, as is attested by the legend found on some of the coins minted there during the reign of Gordian III, which is Greek script for the citys Latin name, Aurelia Septimia Colonia Singara. It remained one of the easternmost outposts of the Roman Empire throughout the 3rd century. It was the scene of a celebrated nocturnal conflict during a siege of the city in 344 by Sassanid King Shapur II, the result of which was so unsatisfactory that both sides claimed the victory. The country around it is stated by Ammianus Marcellinus and Theophylact Simocatta to have been extremely arid and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Smith, William, ed. article name needed. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography
Singara
–
Singara in a detail from
Peutinger's map, a medieval copy of a 4th century
Roman original.
10.
Ninawa Governorate
–
Nineveh Governorate is a governorate in northern Iraq that contains the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh. It was a part of Assyria from the 25th century BC to the 7th century AD, It has an area of 37,323 km2. 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, a massive offensive to retake the city, dubbed Operation We Are Coming, Nineveh, began in October 2016. 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 to Nineveh after the Battle of Fallujah in 2004, after the invasion, the military of the province was led by David Petraeus of the 101st Airborne Division and later by Carter Ham as the multi-national brigade for Iraq. During the American civil head of the 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 council and through members of the Kashmoula family. In June 2004, Osama Kashmoula became the governor of the province. He was succeeded as interim Governor by Duraid Kashmoula, who was elected governor in January 2005, in April 2009, Atheel al-Nujaifi, a hardline Arab nationalist and member of Al-Hadba, became governor. While the Kurdish list proposed Hassan al-Allaf, an Arab affiliated with the Islamic Party, 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. Neighboring Iraqi regions are Dohuk Governorate to the north, Erbil Governorate to the east, Saladin Governorate to the south-east, in the west it shares a border with Syria, mostly Al-Hasakah Governorate, and also Deir ez-Zor Governorate in the south. Now Makhmur District is part of Erbil Governorate, aqrah District and the northern part of Al-Shikhan District are parts of Dohuk Governorate. There are significant numbers of Arabs, Assyrians, Kurds, Turkmens as well as Yazidis both in towns and cities, and in their own villages and regions. There are also numbers of Armenians, Kawliya and Mandeans, Shabaks, in religion, the majority of Arabs are Sunni Muslim while Turkmen are mostly Shiite. Kurds are largely Sunni Muslim, although some follow the native Yarsan religion, Armenians are also exclusively Christian and mostly followers of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Yazidis, Shabaks and Mandeans follow their own beliefs, Shabakism, Yazidism. However, Arab Sunnis form a majority in the province, the main language spoken is Arabic
Ninawa Governorate
–
Nineveh Province governor
Atheel al-Nujaifi 2014 in the
Yezidian Academy in
Hanover
Ninawa Governorate
–
Nineveh Governorate (formerly Ninawa Province)
Ninawa Governorate
–
Districts of Nineveh
11.
Sinjar Mountains
–
The Sinjar Mountains are a 100-kilometre-long mountain range that runs east to west, rising above the surrounding alluvial steppe plains in northwestern Iraq to an elevation of 1,463 meters. The highest segment of mountains, about 75 km long. The western and lower segment of these lies in Syria which is about 25 km long. The city of Sinjar is just south of the range and these mountains are regarded as sacred by the Yazidis. The Sinjar Mountains are an example of a breached anticlinal structure. These mountains consist of an asymmetrical, doubly plunging anticline, which is called the Sinjar Anticline, with a steep northern limb, gentle southern limb and a northerly vergence. The northern side of the anticline is normally faulted, which results in the repetition of the sequence of sedimentary strata exposed in it, the deeply eroded Sinjar Anticline exposes a number of sedimentary formations ranging from Late Cretaceous to Early Neogene in age. The Late Cretaceous Shiranish Formation outcrops within the middle of the Sinjar Mountains, the flanks of this mountain range consist of outward dipping strata of the Sinjar and Aliji formations, Jaddala Formation, Serikagne Formation, and Jeribe Formation. Quantities are sufficient for agricultural and stock use, sinjarite, a hygroscopic calcium chloride formed as soft pink mineral, was discovered in braided wadi fill in limestone exposures near Sinjar. The Yazidis have historically used the mountains as a place of refuge, gertrude Bell wrote, in the 1920s, Until a couple of years ago the Yezidis were ceaselessly at war with the Arabs and with everybody else. In August 2014, an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 Yazidis fled to the following raids by Islamic State forces on the city of Sinjar. The Yazidi refugees on the mountain faced what a worker called a genocide by the radicals. Stranded without water, food, shade, or medical supplies, the Yazidis had to rely on supplies of water and food airdropped by American, British, Australian. Although thousands more remained stranded on the mountain as of August 12, yezidi girls allegedly raped by ISIS fighters committed suicide by jumping to their death from Mount Sinjar, as described in a witness statement. Yazidi genocide Ezidkhan Kurdification & Arabization Singara
Sinjar Mountains
–
Satellite picture of Shingal Mountains
12.
Al-Jazira, Mesopotamia
–
Upper Mesopotamia is the name used for the uplands and great outwash plain of northwestern Iraq, northeastern Syria and southeastern Turkey, in the northern Middle East. This region is approximately correspondent with what was Assyria from the 25th century BC through to the mid-7th century AD and it extends down the Tigris to Samarra and down the Euphrates to Hit. The Khabur River runs for over 400 km across the plain, from Turkey in the north, the major settlements are Mosul, Deir ez-Zor, Raqqa, Al Hasakah, Diyarbakır and Qamishli. The western, Syrian part, is contiguous with the Syrian Al-Hasakah Governorate and is described as Syrias breadbasket. The eastern, Iraqi part, includes and extends slightly beyond the Iraqi Ninewa Governorate, in the north it includes the Turkish provinces of Şanlıurfa, Mardin, and parts of Diyarbakır Province. The name al-Jazira has been used since the 7th century CE by Islamic sources to refer to the section of Mesopotamia. The name means island, and at one time referred to the land between the two rivers, which in Aramaic is Bit Nahren. Historically the name referred to as little as the Sinjar plain coming down from the Sinjar Mountains, in pre-Abbasid times the western and eastern boundaries seem to have fluctuated, sometimes including what is now northern Syria to the west and Adiabene in the east. Al-Jazira is characterised as an outwash or alluvial plain, quite distinct from the Syrian Desert and lower-lying central Mesopotamia, however the area includes eroded hills, the region has several parts to it. In the northwest is one of the largest salt flats in the world, further south, extending from Mosul to near Basra is a sandy desert not unlike the Empty Quarter. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries the region has been plagued by drought and this is the area where the earliest signs of agriculture and domestication of animals have been found, and thus the starting point leading to civilization and the modern world. Al-Jazirah includes the mountain Karaca Dağ in southern Turkey, where the closest relative to modern wheat still grows wild, domestication of goats and sheep followed within a few generations, but didnt become widespread for more than a millennium. Weaving and pottery followed about two years later. Further surprises followed in the 1990s with the finds of the megalithic structures at Göbekli Tepe in south-eastern Turkey. The earliest of these apparently ritual buildings are from before 9000 BC—over five thousand years older than Stonehenge—and thus the absolute oldest known megalithic structures anywhere, as far as we know today no well-established farming societies existed at the time. Farming seemed to be experimental and only a smallish supplement to continued hunting and gathering. After all, Göbekli Tepe lies just 32 km from Karaca Dağ, the questions raised by Göbekli Tepe have led to intense and creative discussions among archeologists of the Middle East. Excavations at Göbekli Tepe continues, only about 5 percent has been revealed so far, Upper Mesopotamia is the heartland of ancient Assyria, founded circa the 25th century BC
Al-Jazira, Mesopotamia
–
Monumental stone buildings at
Göbekli Tepe, ca. 9000 BC
Al-Jazira, Mesopotamia
–
Al-Jazira—Upper Mesopotamia Region, within the
Middle East.
Al-Jazira, Mesopotamia
–
Uruk period (ca. 4000 to 3100 BCE).
Al-Jazira, Mesopotamia
–
Geography
13.
Limes
–
A limes was a border defence or delimiting system of Ancient Rome. It marked the boundaries and provinces of the Roman Empire, the word limes was utilized by Latin writers to denote a marked or fortified frontier. This was the definition and usage of the term. It is now common to accept that limes was not a term used by the Romans for the imperial frontier. This is a modern, anachronistic interpretation, the term became common after the 3rd century AD, when it denoted a military district under the command of a dux limitis. The limites represented the line of the Roman Empire at its greatest extent in the 2nd century AD. It stretched over 5,000 km from the Atlantic coast of northern Britain, through Europe to the Black Sea, the remains of the limites today consist of vestiges of walls, ditches, forts, fortresses and civilian settlements. Certain elements of the line have been excavated, some reconstructed, the two sections of the limes in Germany cover a length of 550 km from the north-west of the country to the Danube in the south-east. The 118 km long Hadrians Wall was built on the orders of the Emperor Hadrian c, AD122 at the northernmost limits of the Roman province of Britannia. It is an example of the organization of a military zone and illustrates the defensive techniques. The Antonine Wall, a 60 km-long fortification in Scotland, was started by Emperor Antoninus Pius in AD142 as a defense against the Barbarians of the north and it constitutes the northwestern-most portion of the Roman Limes. Limes Norici, the frontier of the Roman province Noricum, from the River Inn along the Danube to Cannabiaca in Austria, Limes Pannonicus, the frontier of the Roman province Pannonia, along the Danube from Klosterneuburg Austria to Taurunum in Serbia. A mediaeval limes is the Limes Saxoniae in Holstein, the stem of limes, limit-, which can be seen in the genitive case, limitis, marks it as the ancestor of an entire group of important words in many languages, for example, English limit. Modern languages have multiplied its abstract formulations, for example, from limit comes the abbreviation lim, used in mathematics to designate the limit of a sequence or a function, see limit. In metaphysics, material objects are limited by matter and therefore are delimited from each other, in ethics, men must know their limitations and are wise if they do. An etymology was given in detail by Julius Pokorny, Indogermanisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch. According to him, it comes from Indo-European el-, elei-, lei-, to bow, to bend, the Latin meaning was discussed in detail by W. Gebert. The sense is that a limit bends across one in some way, the limes was a cross-path or a cross-wall, which the Romans meant to throw across the path of invaders to hinder them
Limes
–
Reconstructed east gate at
Welzheim
Limes
Limes
–
Reconstructed wooden tower nearby
Rainau, Germany
14.
Roman Empire
–
Civil wars and executions continued, culminating in the victory of Octavian, Caesars adopted son, over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC and the annexation of Egypt. Octavians power was then unassailable and in 27 BC the Roman Senate formally granted him overarching power, the imperial period of Rome lasted approximately 1,500 years compared to the 500 years of the Republican era. The first two centuries of the empires existence were a period of unprecedented political stability and prosperity known as the Pax Romana, following Octavians victory, the size of the empire was dramatically increased. After the assassination of Caligula in 41, the senate briefly considered restoring the republic, under Claudius, the empire invaded Britannia, its first major expansion since Augustus. Vespasian emerged triumphant in 69, establishing the Flavian dynasty, before being succeeded by his son Titus and his short reign was followed by the long reign of his brother Domitian, who was eventually assassinated. The senate then appointed the first of the Five Good Emperors, the empire reached its greatest extent under Trajan, the second in this line. A period of increasing trouble and decline began with the reign of Commodus, Commodus assassination in 192 triggered the Year of the Five Emperors, of which Septimius Severus emerged victorious. The assassination of Alexander Severus in 235 led to the Crisis of the Third Century in which 26 men were declared emperor by the Roman Senate over a time span. It was not until the reign of Diocletian that the empire was fully stabilized with the introduction of the Tetrarchy, which saw four emperors rule the empire at once. This arrangement was unsuccessful, leading to a civil war that was finally ended by Constantine I. Constantine subsequently shifted the capital to Byzantium, which was renamed Constantinople in his honour and it remained the capital of the east until its demise. Constantine also adopted Christianity which later became the state religion of the empire. However, Augustulus was never recognized by his Eastern colleague, and separate rule in the Western part of the empire ceased to exist upon the death of Julius Nepos. The Eastern Roman Empire endured for another millennium, eventually falling to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, the Roman Empire was among the most powerful economic, cultural, political and military forces in the world of its time. It was one of the largest empires in world history, at its height under Trajan, it covered 5 million square kilometres. It held sway over an estimated 70 million people, at that time 21% of the entire population. Throughout the European medieval period, attempts were made to establish successors to the Roman Empire, including the Empire of Romania, a Crusader state. Rome had begun expanding shortly after the founding of the republic in the 6th century BC, then, it was an empire long before it had an emperor
Roman Empire
–
The
Augustus of Prima Porta (early 1st century AD)
Roman Empire
–
Aureus of
Augustus, the first
Roman Emperor.
Roman Empire
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A segment of the ruins of Hadrian's Wall in northern England
Roman Empire
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A 5th-century
papyrus showing a parallel Latin-Greek text of a speech by
Cicero
15.
Sasanian Empire
–
The Sasanian Empire was founded by Ardashir I, after the fall of the Parthian Empire and the defeat of the last Arsacid king, Artabanus V. According to a legend, the vexilloid of the Sasanian Empire was the Derafsh Kaviani, in many ways, the Sasanian period witnessed the peak of ancient Iranian civilization. Persia influenced Roman culture considerably during the Sasanian period, the Sasanians cultural influence extended far beyond the empires territorial borders, reaching as far as Western Europe, Africa, China and India. It played a prominent role in the formation of both European and Asian medieval art, much of what later became known as Islamic culture in art, architecture, music and other subject matter was transferred from the Sasanians throughout the Muslim world. Conflicting accounts shroud the details of the fall of the Parthian Empire, the Sassanid Empire was established in Estakhr by Ardashir I. Papak was originally the ruler of a region called Khir, however, by the year 200, he managed to overthrow Gochihr, and appoint himself as the new ruler of the Bazrangids. His mother, Rodhagh, was the daughter of the governor of Pars. Papak and his eldest son Shapur managed to expand their power all of Pars. The subsequent events are unclear, due to the nature of the sources. It is certain, however, that following the death of Papak, Ardashir, sources reveal that Shapur, leaving for a meeting with his brother, was killed when the roof of a building collapsed on him. By the year 208, over the protests of his brothers who were put to death. Once Ardashir was appointed shahanshah, he moved his capital further to the south of Pars, the city, well supported by high mountains and easily defendable through narrow passes, became the center of Ardashirs efforts to gain more power. The city was surrounded by a high, circular wall, probably copied from that of Darabgird, in a second attempt to destroy Ardashir, Artabanus V himself met Ardashir in battle at Hormozgan, where Artabanus V met his death. Following the death of the Parthian ruler, Ardashir I went on to invade the provinces of the now defunct Parthian Empire. Ardashir was aided by the geography of the province of Fars, in the next few years, local rebellions would form around the empire. Nonetheless, Ardashir I further expanded his new empire to the east and northwest, conquering the provinces of Sistan, Gorgan, Khorasan, Margiana, Balkh and he also added Bahrain and Mosul to Sassanids possessions. In the west, assaults against Hatra, Armenia and Adiabene met with less success, in 230, he raided deep into Roman territory, and a Roman counter-offensive two years later ended inconclusively, although the Roman emperor, Alexander Severus, celebrated a triumph in Rome. Ardashir Is son Shapur I continued the expansion of the empire, conquering Bactria, invading Roman Mesopotamia, Shapur I captured Carrhae and Nisibis, but in 243 the Roman general Timesitheus defeated the Persians at Rhesaina and regained the lost territories
Sasanian Empire
–
Normal domains
Sasanian Empire
–
Derafsh Kaviani
Sasanian Empire
–
Ghal'eh Dokhtar (or "The Maiden's Castle") in present-day
Fars,
Firuzabad,
Iran, built by Ardashir in 209, before he was finally able to defeat the Parthian empire.
16.
Islamic State of Iraq
–
The Islamic State of Iraq was a militant Islamist group that aimed to establish an Islamic state in Sunni, Arab-majority areas of Iraq during the Iraq War. It was formed on 15 October 2006 from the merger of a number of Iraqi insurgent groups, including Al-Qaeda in Iraq and its Mujahideen Shura Council allies. At their height in 2006–2008, ISI had military units or strongholds in Mosul and in the governorates of Baghdad, Al Anbar and Diyala, in April 2013, ISI transformed itself into the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which is still active today. Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi started a group called Jamaat al-Tawhid wal-Jihad in 1999, although they are believed to have assassinated US diplomat Laurence Foley in 2002, they became notorious for their violent campaign in Iraq, which began in August 2003. In January 2006, AQI united with five smaller Sunni Islamist groups into the Mujahideen Shura Council, in June 2006, Zarqawi was killed by the US, and AQI’s leadership passed onto the Egyptian Abu Ayyub al-Masri. In 2005, under its name Al Qaeda in Iraq, its goals were, expelling the US from Iraq, turning Iraq into a Islamic state or caliphate and these continued to be its goals when it became the Islamic State of Iraq. When ISI was formed in October 2006, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi was presented as its leader or emir, however, US military officials later came to believe that the Baghdadi role had been taken by an actual ISI leader. Abu Ayyub al-Masri, was the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq from June 2006, officially, he was the Islamic State of Iraqs military commander, al-Masri and Omar al-Baghdadi were both reported killed on 18 April 2010 in a raid by Iraqi and US forces. On 16 May 2010, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was announced as the new leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, in April 2007, the ISI declared a ‘cabinet’ of ten ‘ministers’, under its leader Abu Omar al-Baghdadi. The ‘ministers’ included, Abdullah al-Janabi, Minister of Security, was wanted by the Iraqi Criminal Court since 2005. In 2014 he was still a prominent militant in Fallujah, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, Minister of War, was already wanted by Iraqi and US-coalition authorities since 2005, and was killed by US/Iraqi forces in April 2010. He was succeeded by Abu Suleiman al-Naser, according to American authorities, the group lost considerable funding sources and popular support from 2007 onwards. A2008 report on the groups finding reported that its most lucrative source of income was stolen oil in the region of Bayji, in addition, jihadists in Saudi Arabia and Syria and other elements outside Iraq provided funding. Only 5% of the came from outside donations. By the end of 2009, AQI was, according to US and Iraqi officials, for speculations about its later management structure, see section 2010, revival ISI. In 2007, estimates of the groups strength ranged from just 850 to several thousand full-time fighters, between the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq in late 2011, and late 2012, estimates of its strength more than doubled, from 1,000 to 2,500 fighters. The Washington Post reported that AQI came to control parts of Iraq between 2005 and 2008. In Autumn 2006, AQI had taken over Baqubah, the capital of Diyala Governorate, in 2006, AQI/ISI had strongholds in Al Anbar Governorate, from Fallujah to Qaim, and were the dominant power there, according to the US
Islamic State of Iraq
–
US Marines in
Ramadi, May 2006, conducting a snap vehicle checkpoint patrol to disrupt insurgent activity
Islamic State of Iraq
–
Flag
Islamic State of Iraq
–
US soldiers and Sunni Arab tribesmen scan for enemy activity in a farm field in southern
Arab Jibor, January 2008
17.
Yazidis
–
The Yazidis are an ethnically Kurdish religious community or an ethno-religious group indigenous to northern Mesopotamia who are strictly endogamous. Their religion, Yazidism is linked to ancient Mesopotamian religions and combines aspects of Zoroastrianism, Islam, Christianity, Yazidis who marry non-Yazidis are automatically considered to be converted to the religion of their spouse and therefore are not permitted to call themselves Yazidis. They live primarily in the Nineveh Province of Iraq, additional communities in Armenia, Georgia, Turkey, Iran, and Syria have been in decline since the 1990s as a result of significant migration to Europe, especially to Germany. The Yazidis cultural practices are observably Kurdish, and almost all speak Kurmanji. The Yazidis are monotheists, believing in God as creator of the world, which he has placed under the care of seven holy beings or angels, the chief of whom is Melek Taus, the Peacock Angel. This belief has been linked by some people to Sufi mystical reflections on Iblis, persecution of Yazidis has continued in their home communities within the borders of modern Iraq, under fundamentalist Sunni Muslim revolutionaries. On 7 April 2007 a crowd of up to 2000 Yazidi stoned 17-year-old Iraqi of the Yazidi faith Dua Khalil Aswad to death, rumors that the stoning was connected to her alleged conversion to Islam prompted reprisals against Yazidis by Sunnis, including the 2007 Mosul massacre. Beginning in August 2014, the Yazidis were targeted by the Islamic State of Iraq, historically, the Yazidis lived primarily in communities in locales that are in present-day Iraq, Turkey, and Syria, and also had significant numbers in Armenia, Georgia and Iran. However, events since the 20th century have resulted in considerable demographic shift in these areas as well as mass emigration, as a result, population estimates are unclear in many regions, and estimates of the size of the total population vary. The bulk of the Yazidi population lives in Iraq, where make up an important minority community. Estimates of the size of these vary significantly, between 70,000 and 500,000. They are particularly concentrated in northern Iraq in the Nineveh Province, the two biggest communities are in Shekhan, northeast of Mosul, and in Sinjar, at the Syrian border 80 kilometres west of Mosul. In Shekhan is the shrine of Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir at Lalish, during the 20th century, the Shekhan community struggled for dominance with the more conservative Sinjar community. The demographic profile has changed considerably since the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003. Yazidis in Syria live primarily in two communities, one in the Al-Jazira area and the other in the Kurd-Dagh, population numbers for the Syrian Yazidi community are unclear. In 1963, the community was estimated at about 10,000, according to the national census, there may be between about 12,000 and 15,000 Yazidis in Syria today, though more than half of the community may have emigrated from Syria since the 1980s. Estimates are further complicated by the arrival of as many as 50,000 Yazidi refugees from Iraq during the Iraq War, the Kurdish Yazidi community of Turkey declined precipitously during the 20th century. By 1982, the community had decreased to about 30,000, most of them have immigrated to Europe, particularly Germany, those who remain reside primarily in their former heartland of Tur Abdin
Yazidis
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Yazidis on the mountain of
Shingal, Iraqi-Syrian border, 1920s.
Yazidis
Yazidis
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Yazidi leaders and
Chaldean clergymen meeting in
Mesopotamia, 19th century.
Yazidis
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Yazidi men
18.
Northern Iraq offensive (August 2014)
–
Between 1 and 15 August 2014, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant expanded northern Iraqi territories under their control. 50,000 of Sinjars Yazidis took refuge in the adjacent Sinjar Mountains,35,000 to 45,000 of them were evacuated within several weeks, after the United States bombarded ISIL positions and efforts from Kurdish PKK, YPG and/or Peshmerga forces assisted their escape. Some ISIL-controlled territory was retaken, a subsequent Kurdish counter-attack recaptured the Mosul Dam, the Peshmerga fought off ISIL, killing 100 ISIL fighters, according to Kurdish sources, but also losing 14 Peshmerga fighters. 2–3 August Sunday 3 August, ISIL, with heavy weaponry seized from the Iraqi federal army, in the darkness of morning seized first the town of Zumar and then Sinjar, and the surrounding Sinjar area. ISIL routed from those towns the Kurdish peshmerga troops that since June more or less controlled the region, a spokesman of citizens fled from Sinjar said, that 250 peshmerga in Sinjar had withdrawn from Sinjar in the night, leaving the civilians unprotected. ISIL on 3 August also took control of the oil facility in Zumar subdistrict, later that day, ISIL also captured the town of Wana between Zumar and Mosul. There were conflicting reports whether the Mosul Dam was still in Kurdish hands or captured by ISIL. 4 August ISIL surrounded the village of Kocho near the Sinjar Mountains,6 August ISIL on 6 August advanced up to 40 km southwest of Erbil, the capital of autonomous region Iraqi Kurdistan. Kurdish forces had retreated from Qaraqosh and surrounding area, which caused civilians to flee in panic, the Chaldaic archbishop of Kirkuk and Sulaymaniyah, Joseph Thomas, stated that “all inhabitants” of those four cities were fleeing their town. ISIL also captured the town of Makhmour, between Mosul and Kirkuk,20 miles from Erbil. There were conflicting remarks—in one newspaper—as to whether ISIL had ‘seized’ the Mosul Dam or was making ‘efforts to seize’ it and that week, ISIL also overran other towns in northwest Iraq, chasing Kurdish Peshmerga troops away. At this time, the U. S. started airdropping food, 8–9 August On 8 August, the U. S. started to conduct airstrikes on ISIL, firstly around Erbil to stop ISIL’s advancemant on the city. Starting on 9 August, airstrikes also took place around the Sinjar Mountains, by this time, ISIL had also seized the Mosul Dam,40 km northwest of Mosul on the Tigris river. On 5 August, the United States began with directly supplying munitions to the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces and, with Iraq’s agreement, on 10 August, encouraged by American airstrikes, Kurdish peshmerga forces retook the strategic towns Gwer and Makhmour, both about 20 miles from Erbil. On 15 August, ISIL moved into the village Kocho, which they had held surrounded since 4 August, shot 80 Yazidi men dead with assault rifles, and abducted their wives and children. From 16 until 18 August, the U. S. conducted 35 air strikes against ISIL positions at the strategically critical Mosul Dam and that facilitated Kurdish and Iraqi forces to move swiftly and in good cooperation around Mosul Dam. On the morning of 17 August, Kurdish forces, supported by U. S. and Iraqi air strikes and they quickly captured the eastern part of the dam, but fighting continued. By the evening, Kurdish and Iraqi forces had recaptured most of the facility, U. S. warplanes destroyed or damaged 19 ISIL vehicles and one checkpoint during the battle
Northern Iraq offensive (August 2014)
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Demonstration in Paris 23 August 2014, to support Kurds and Yazidis threatened by ISIL
Northern Iraq offensive (August 2014)
–
Gray – Insurgent-controlled territory
19.
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
–
ISIL gained global prominence in early 2014 when it drove Iraqi government forces out of key cities in its Western Iraq offensive, followed by its capture of Mosul and the Sinjar massacre. This group has been designated a terrorist organisation by the United Nations, ISIL is widely known for its videos of beheadings of both soldiers and civilians, including journalists and aid workers, and its destruction of cultural heritage sites. The United Nations holds ISIL responsible for human rights abuses and war crimes, ISIL originated as Jamaat al-Tawhid wal-Jihad in 1999, which pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda and participated in the Iraqi insurgency following the 2003 invasion of Iraq by Western forces. The group proclaimed itself a caliphate and began referring to itself as Islamic State or IS in June 2014. As a caliphate, it claims religious, political, and military authority over all Muslims worldwide and its adoption of the name Islamic State and its idea of a caliphate have been widely criticised, with the United Nations, various governments, and mainstream Muslim groups rejecting its statehood. As of 2015, ISIL is estimated to have a budget of more than USD$1 billion. In April 2013, having expanded into Syria, the group adopted the name ad-Dawlah al-Islāmiyah fī l-ʿIrāq wa-sh-Shām, while the use of either one or the other acronym has been the subject of debate, the distinction between the two and its relevance has been considered not so great. Of greater relevance is the name Daesh, which is an acronym of ISILs Arabic name al-Dawlah al-Islamīyah fī al-ʻIrāq wa-al-Shām. This name has been used by ISILs Arabic-speaking detractors, although – and to a certain extent because – it is considered derogatory, as it resembles the Arabic words Daes. Within areas under its control, ISIL considers use of the name Daesh punishable by flogging or cutting out the tongue, in late June 2014, the group renamed itself ad-Dawlah al-Islāmiyah, declaring itself a worldwide caliphate. The name Islamic State and the claim to be a caliphate have been widely rejected, with the UN, various governments. Frances Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said This is a terrorist group, I do not recommend using the term Islamic State because it blurs the lines between Islam, Muslims, and Islamists. The Arabs call it Daesh and I will be calling them the Daesh cutthroats, the group is very sensitive about its name. They will cut your tongue out even if you call them ISIS – you have to say Islamic State, the Islamic State is mocked on social media websites such as Twitter and YouTube, with the use of hashtags, mock recruiting ads, fake news articles and YouTube videos. ISIL is a theocracy, proto-state and a Salafi or Wahhabi group and it follows an extremist interpretation of Islam, promotes religious violence, and regards Muslims who do not agree with its interpretations as infidels or apostates. According to some observers, ISIL emerged from the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood and it adheres to global jihadist principles and follows the hard-line ideology of al-Qaeda and many other modern-day jihadist groups. However, other sources trace the roots to Wahhabism. For their guiding principles, the leaders of the Islamic State, are open and clear about their almost exclusive commitment to the Wahhabi movement of Sunni Islam
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
–
A joint US–
Iraqi Army training exercise
near Ramadi in November 2009. The Islamic State of Iraq had declared the city to be its capital.
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
–
Flag
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
–
Yazidi refugees and American aid workers on Mount Sinjar in August 2014
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
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Coalition airstrike on ISIL position, October 2014
20.
Peshmerga
–
Peshmerga are the military forces of the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan. The overall formal head of the peshmerga is the President of Iraqi Kurdistan, efforts are under way to gather the entire force under the Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs. Peshmerga forces are responsible for defending the land, people and institutions of Iraqi Kurdistan, because the Iraqi Army is forbidden by law from entering Iraqi Kurdistan, the peshmerga, along with other Kurdish security subsidiaries, are responsible for the security of the Kurdish Region. These subsidiaries include Asayish, Parastin u Zanyarî and and the Zeravani, in 2003, during the Iraq War, peshmerga were said to have played a key role in the mission to capture Saddam Hussein. In 2004, they captured key al Qaeda figure Hassan Ghul, who revealed the identity of Osama Bin Ladens messenger, which led to Operation Neptune Spear. However, the term peshmerga was only coined in the mid-20th century, Peshmerga means one who confronts death or one who faces death. Pesh means to stand in front of while merga means death, historically the peshmerga existed only as guerilla organizations, but under the self-declared Republic of Mahabad, the peshmerga led by Mustafa Barzani became the official army of the republic. In Iraq, most of these peshmerga were led by Mustafa Barzani of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, in 1975 the peshmerga were defeated in the Second Iraqi-Kurdish War. Jalal Talabani, a member of the KDP, left the same year to revitalize the resistance. This event created the baseline for the discontent between the KDP and PUK that to this day divides peshmerga forces and much of Kurdish society in Iraqi Kurdistan. After Mustafa Barzanis death in 1979, his son Masoud Barzani took his position, as tension increased between KDP and PUK, most peshmerga fought to keep a region under their own partys control, while also fighting off Iraqi Army incursions. Following the First Persian Gulf War, Iraqi Kurdistan saw the Kurdish Civil War between the two parties, the KDP and the PUK, and peshmerga forces were used to fight each other. The civil war ended in September 1998, when Barzani and Talabani signed the Washington Agreement establishing a formal peace treaty. In the agreement, the agreed to share revenue and power, deny the use of northern Iraq to the Kurdistan Workers Party. By then, around 5,000 had been killed on both sides, and many more had been evicted for being on the wrong side. In the years after, tension remained high, but both moved towards each other and in 2003 they both took part in the overthrowing of the Baathist regime as part of the Iraq War. They remained on good terms, forming a government of Iraqi Kurdistan, unlike other militia forces, the peshmerga were never prohibited by Iraqi law. In 2015, for the first time, peshmerga soldiers received urban warfare and military training from foreign trainers
Peshmerga
–
Mustafa Barzani was the primary political and military leader of the Kurdish cause, until his death in 1979
Peshmerga
–
The flag of Kurdistan which peshmerga uses as their emblem.
Peshmerga
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Peshmerga special unit near the Syrian border on June 23, 2014
Peshmerga
–
Peshmerga soldier with his modified M16 rifle
21.
Sinjar massacre
–
The Sinjar massacre was the killing of 5,000 Yazidi men in Sinjar city and Sinjar District in Iraqs Nineveh Governorate by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in August 2014. This event started with ISIL attacking and capturing Sinjar and neighboring towns on 3 August, according to Abdulrahman, ISIL wanted to push most of the Kurds out of this strategic Yazidi areas and bring in Arabs, obedient to ISIL. On 8 August 2014, the United States reacted with airstrikes on ISIL units and convoys in northern Iraq, the assistance of PKK and YPG enabled the majority of the 50,000 Yazidis who fled into the Sinjar Mountains to be evacuated. On 17 December 2014, the Kurdish Peshmerga, PKK and YPG forces started the December 2014 Sinjar offensive with the support of US airstrikes, Sinjar was predominantly inhabited by Yazidis before the ISIL takeover. On 29 June 2014, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant declared itself a caliphate in areas of Syria and Iraq, while Iraqi federal military forces fled from the advancing ISIL troops, Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighters took control of a wide territory in northern Iraq. On the morning of 3 August 2014, ISIL forces captured the city of Sinjar as well as the Sinjar area. As ISIL attacked Sinjar and neighboring cities,11.000 Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces in Sinjar withdrew in the night from those cities, ISIL then destroyed a Shiite Zainab shrine in Sinjar, executed resisters, and demanded the residents to swear allegiance or be killed. In surrounding villages, many residents fled immediately, according to Yazidis, ISIL fighters asked the remaining Yazidis to convert to Islam or face death, and ISIL Twitter accounts posted images of murders on individuals in the Sinjar area. Almost 200,000 civilians, mostly Yazidis along with Shia, about 50,000 of those Yazidis fled into the Sinjar Mountains, where they were trapped without food, water or medical care, facing starvation and dehydration. The U. S. government, Kurdish Peshmerga forces, tahseen Said, the emir of the Yazidis, on 3 August 2014 issued an appeal to world leaders, asking for humanitarian help in the plight and difficult conditions of his people being attacked by ISIL. On 4 August, Kurdish fighters reportedly battled ISIL to retake Sinjar, the New York Times reported on 7 August 2014 that ISIL had executed dozens of Yazidi men in Sinjar city and had taken their wives for unmarried jihadi fighters. It was also reported that ISIL fighters executed over ten caretakers of Shia Sayeda Zeinab shrine in Sinjar before blowing it up, while the siege of Mount Sinjar was continuing, ISIL killed hundreds of Yazidis in at least six of the nearby villages. 250–300 men were killed in the village of Hardan,200 between Adnaniya and Jazeera, 70–90 in Qiniyeh, and on the out of al-Shimal witnesses reported seeing dozens of bodies. Hundreds of others had also killed for refusing to convert to Islam. On 15 August 2014, in the Yazidi village of Khocho, south of Sinjar, after the population had received the jihadist ultimatum to convert or be killed. On the same day, up to 200 Yazidi men were executed for refusing conversion in a Tal Afar prison. The massacres took place at least until 25 August when ISIL executed 14 elderly Yazidi men in Sheikh Mand Shrine in Jidala, western Sinjar, a civilian reported that on 3 August 2014 alone,2000 Yazidis had been killed throughout the Sinjar District. From the findings of a joint October 2014 report of OHCHR and UNAMI, the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government estimated in December 2014 that the total number of killed or missing Yazidi men, women and children from Sinjar since August amounted to around 4000
Sinjar massacre
–
An image of the mountainside of Mount Sinjar
Sinjar massacre
–
President Obama meeting with his national security advisors on 7 August
22.
United Nations
–
The United Nations is an intergovernmental organization to promote international co-operation. A replacement for the ineffective League of Nations, the organization was established on 24 October 1945 after World War II in order to prevent another such conflict, at its founding, the UN had 51 member states, there are now 193. The headquarters of the UN is in Manhattan, New York City, further main offices are situated in Geneva, Nairobi, and Vienna. The organization is financed by assessed and voluntary contributions from its member states, the UNs mission to preserve world peace was complicated in its early decades by the Cold War between the US and Soviet Union and their respective allies. The organization participated in actions in Korea and the Congo. After the end of the Cold War, the UN took on major military, the UN has six principal organs, the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Secretariat, the International Court of Justice, and the UN Trusteeship Council. UN System agencies include the World Bank Group, the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, UNESCO, the UNs most prominent officer is the Secretary-General, an office held by Portuguese António Guterres since 2017. Non-governmental organizations may be granted consultative status with ECOSOC and other agencies to participate in the UNs work, the organization won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001, and a number of its officers and agencies have also been awarded the prize. Other evaluations of the UNs effectiveness have been mixed, some commentators believe the organization to be an important force for peace and human development, while others have called the organization ineffective, corrupt, or biased. Following the catastrophic loss of life in the First World War, the earliest concrete plan for a new world organization began under the aegis of the US State Department in 1939. It incorporated Soviet suggestions, but left no role for France, four Policemen was coined to refer to four major Allied countries, United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and China, which emerged in the Declaration by United Nations. Roosevelt first coined the term United Nations to describe the Allied countries, the term United Nations was first officially used when 26 governments signed this Declaration. One major change from the Atlantic Charter was the addition of a provision for religious freedom, by 1 March 1945,21 additional states had signed. Each Government pledges itself to cooperate with the Governments signatory hereto, the foregoing declaration may be adhered to by other nations which are, or which may be, rendering material assistance and contributions in the struggle for victory over Hitlerism. During the war, the United Nations became the term for the Allies. To join, countries had to sign the Declaration and declare war on the Axis, at the later meetings, Lord Halifax deputized for Mr. Eden, Wellington Koo for T. V. Soong, and Mr Gromyko for Mr. Molotov. The first meetings of the General Assembly, with 51 nations represented, the General Assembly selected New York City as the site for the headquarters of the UN, and the facility was completed in 1952. Its site—like UN headquarters buildings in Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi—is designated as international territory, the Norwegian Foreign Minister, Trygve Lie, was elected as the first UN Secretary-General
United Nations
–
1943 sketch by Franklin Roosevelt of the United Nations' original three branches: The
Four Policemen, an executive branch, and an international assembly of forty UN member states.
United Nations
–
Flag
United Nations
–
The
Chilean delegation signing the
UN Charter in San Francisco, 1945
United Nations
–
Dag Hammarskjöld was a particularly active Secretary-General from 1953 until his death in 1961.
23.
December 2014 Sinjar offensive
–
In August 2014, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant launched an offensive in Northern Iraq and pushed into Kurdish held areas of the Nineveh Province, capturing the city of Sinjar, among others. Some 50,000 Yazidis fled to and remained in the Sinjar Mountains, by the end of August, the majority of those 50,000 Yazidis had left the mountains, although several thousands stayed there. ISIL held onto Sinjar city and the entrance of the Sinjar Mountains. On 21 October 2014, ISIL seized terrain north of the mountains, the Yazidi militias then withdrew from there into the Sinjar Mountains, where the number of Yazidi civilian refugees was estimated at 2, 000–7,000. An American source called this new situation a partial ISIL siege of the mountain range, about 8,000 Peshmerga forces started advancing westward from Zummar, which had been recaptured by the Peshmerga in October 2014. A total of 45 airstrikes had been conducted by the US-led Coalition by end of the day, the Peshmerga were supported with training and equipment by a British Army training team. According to a statement from the Kurdish command, large numbers of ISIL militants were fleeing, westward into Syria, a total of 53 airstrikes had been carried out as of Thursday evening 18 December. According to the U. S. Pentagon, the airstrikes near Sinjar had targeted ISIL storage units, bulldozers, guard towers, vehicles, Kurdish officials said on 19 December that, so far, more than 100 ISIL militants had been killed in this Kurdish Sinjar offensive. On 19 December, one day after the retaking of Mount Sinjar, the new offensive was launched at 8 AM, with the aim of further clearing the area north of Mount Sinjar. Simultaneously, Peshmerga forces on Mount Sinjar started pushing northward and captured Snuny, on 19 December, Peshmerga were closing in on Tal Afar, firing artillery at ISIL positions nearby, residents reported. Kurdish forces entered the city of Sinjar on the night of 20 December, the Kurdish advance on Tal Afar was stalled before 22 December, as Kurdish forces faced fierce resistance from ISIL militants inside the city of Sinjar. On 21 December,1,500 Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, backed by local militia units, by this time, Kurdish forces had recaptured more than 500 square miles of mostly desert and highway. On the morning of 22 December, Peshmerga took control of much of Sinjar city, according to him, some of the Peshmerga entered Sinjar without orders to do so, after seeing ISIL militants on the run. The Rojavas army, known as Peoples Protection Units, announced on 19 December that they were moving south towards the Iraqi border to reopen a corridor connecting Mount Sinjar to the Syrian border. The YPG had first opened that corridor in August 2014 to relieve tens of thousands of Yazidis stranded on Mount Sinjar. Two days later, the YPG said they had captured three villages on the Syrian side of the border and four villages on the Iraqi side, the Kurdish forces took control of a large area of the Sinjar mountains. ISIS still control 80% of the Sinjar city and on 3 November 2015, ISIS brought hundreds of fighters, on the third day of the offensive, it was reported that a Yazidi mass grave containing 70 bodies had been found. According to Kurdish sources, nine Yazidi mass graves had been found by the end of the offensive,18 Yazidi shrines have also been destroyed by ISIL militants since June 2014
December 2014 Sinjar offensive
–
A Yazidi shrine; 18 such shrines had been destroyed by ISIL by the end of 2014
December 2014 Sinjar offensive
–
Map of the Sinjar offensive
24.
Yazidi genocide
–
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant is recognized by the UN as the perpetrator of a genocide of Yazidis in Iraq. The genocide has led to the expulsion, flight and effective exile of the Yazidis from their lands in Northern Iraq. ISILs persecution of the Yazidis gained international attention and it led to the American-led intervention in Iraq. Additionally, the US, UK, and Australia made emergency airdrops to Yazidis who had fled to a range and provided weapons to the Kurdish Peshmerga defending them alongside PKK. ISILs actions against the Yazidi population resulted in approximately 500,000 refugees, the Yazidis are monotheists who believe in a benevolent peacock angel and practice an ancient gnostic faith. In August 2014, more than 300 Yazidi families were threatened and forced to choose between conversion to Sunni Islam or death. In April 2007, a bus in Mosul was hijacked, Muslims and Christians were told to get off, the remaining 23 Yazidi passengers were driven to an eastern Mosul location and murdered. In August 2007, two Yazidi communities, in Qahtaniyah and Jazeera, near Mosul, were hit by a total of four vehicle bombs carrying two tons of explosives, leaving 336–500 dead and 1,500 injured. Perpetrators are unknown, the U. S. saw “al-Qaeda as the prime suspect” because of the scale, on 3 August 2014, ISIL militants attacked and took over Sinjar in northern Iraq, a Kurdish-controlled town that was predominantly inhabited by Yazidis, and the surrounding area. They were trapped on Mount Sinjar, facing starvation and dehydration, on 4 August 2014, Prince Tahseen Said, Emir of the Yazidi, issued a plea to world leaders calling for assistance on behalf of the Yazidi facing attack from ISIL. On August 3, ISIL killed the men from the area, ten Yazidi families fleeing were attacked by ISIL. On August 4, ISIL fighters attacked Jabal Sinjar, killed 30 Yazidi men,60 more Yazidi men were killed in the village of Hardan. On the same day, Yazidi community leaders stated that at least 200 Yazidis had been killed in Sinjar and those who escaped across the Tigris River into Kurdish-controlled areas of Syria on 10 August gave accounts of how they had seen individuals also attempting to flee who later died. On 15 August, in the Yazidi village of Kojo, south of Sinjar, after the population had received the jihadist ultimatum to convert or be killed. Between 24 and 25 August,14 elderly Yazidi men were executed by ISIL in the Sheikh Mand Shrine, and the Jidala village Yazidi shrine was blown up. According to an OHRCR/UNAMI report on 26 September, by the end of August,1, 600–1,800 or more Yazidis who had murdered, executed. In early October, Matthew Barber, a scholar of Yazidi history at the University of Chicago, in October 2014, a UN report revealed that ISIL had massacred 5,000 Yazidi men in northern Iraq in August 2014. In May 2015, the Yazidi Progress Party released a statement in which said that 300 Yazidi captives were killed on 1 May by ISIL in the Tal Afar
Yazidi genocide
–
Images from top, left and right: Yazidi refugees receiving support from the
International Rescue Committee. A member of the U.S. Mt. Sinjar Assessment Team being greeted by locals near Sinjar, Iraq. Bundles of water inside of a
C-17 Globemaster III before a humanitarian airdrop by the
United States Air Force.
Yazidi genocide
–
Defend International reached out to Yazidi refugees in Iraqi Kurdistan, providing humanitarian aid in December 2014
Yazidi genocide
–
Demonstration in
Paris against persecution of Kurds and Yazidis.
25.
Military intervention against ISIL
–
Later, there were also minor interventions by some states against ISIL-affiliated groups in Nigeria and Libya. In mid-June 2014, Iran, according to American and British information, started flying drones over Iraq, simultaneously, the United States ordered a small number of troops to Iraq and started flying crewed aircraft over Iraq. In August 2014, the US and Iran separately began a campaign of airstrikes on ISIL targets in Iraq, since then, fourteen countries in a US-led coalition have also executed airstrikes on ISIL in Iraq and in Syria. In September 2015, Russian forces, with the permission of the Syrian government, began hundreds of bombing raids against ISIL, al-Nusra Front, since the airstrikes started, ISIL has been losing ground in both Iraq and Syria. There have been accounts of civilian deaths from the airstrikes. In mid-2016, the US and Russia planned to begin to coordinating their airstrikes, however, on the margins of the 4/5 September 2014 NATO summit in Wales, U. S. Those nine countries agreed to do so by supporting anti-ISIL forces in Iraq and Syria with supplies and air support, according to a statement that day from Kerry and U. S. Secretary of Defense Hagel. On 3 December 2014, at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, on 30 September 2015, Russia began its air campaign on the side and in support of the Syrian government. Russia was also reported to have reached agreements on co-ordination of operations in Syria with Jordan, on 14 March 2016, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial withdrawal from Syrian territory, citing the success of the ongoing ceasefire and greater security of the Syrian government. Until July 2015, the Turkish government attacked ISIL only once, in September 2014 Turkey joined a US-led coalition ‘to fight ISIL’. Turkish tanks shelled the village the day of the ground operation. The operation reportedly lasted over an hour and killed over 100 ISIL militants, the Turkish General Staff neither confirmed nor denied the special forces foray but did confirm shelling the village. On 24 July, a report appeared on a Turkish newspaper website stating that the United States had agreed with Turkey on a ‘partial no-fly zone’ in northern Syria. On 24 and 25 July launched an operation entitled ‘Operation Martyr Yalçın’ against both ISIL in Syria and the Kurdistan Workers Party in Iraq, deploying at least 70 F-16 fighter jets. Later that month Iran started flying drones over Iraq, and by August, according to sources like Reuters, One war correspondent suggested that Iran joined the air war against ISIL on 21 June. In July, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Iran sent several Su-25 aircraft to Iraq, in early August, those Su-25s began combat against ISIL, according to Business Insider. By September, according to Business Insider, Iranian Quds Force personnel were deployed to Samarra, Baghdad, Karbala, and the abandoned U. S. military post formerly known as Camp Speicher. At the end of November 2014, an Israeli website claimed to have seen Iranian F-4 Phantom II jet-fighters bombing ISIL in eastern Iraq, in March and May 2015, American commentators indicated Qasem Soleimani was leading Iraqs military strategy against ISIL
Military intervention against ISIL
Military intervention against ISIL
–
Bottled water containers are loaded on a U.S. Air Force C-17 for an
airdrop on 8 August 2014.
Military intervention against ISIL
–
U.S. Navy aircraft carrier
USS George H.W. Bush sailing with Royal Navy destroyer
HMS Defender in the Persian Gulf on 1 October 2014.
Military intervention against ISIL
–
U.S. Navy launching Tomahawk missiles from the
Persian Gulf and the
Red Sea against ISIL targets in Syria, 23 September 2014
26.
Kurdification
–
Intensified tensions between Kurds and Sunni Arabs have led violent clashes between both of them since Saddams Arabization. During the Iraqi civil war, Iraqi army troops flee from their positions around the Nineveh Plains during ISIS attacks, later, the KRG forces with the support of coalition airstrikes captured those areas back from ISIS. Since then, there have been disputes between pro-government Assyrians and Kurds, as the former ones have asked the Kurds to either leave or promise them autonomy, however, later the president of KRG announced that those areas will be returned to the Iraqi government. The Iraqi president and US ambassador also confirmed this, in 2011, some Yazidis activists had claimed about their concern over forced assimilation into Kurdish identity. Some have accused the Kurdish and Iraqi parties of diverting US $12 million reconstruction funds allocated for Yazidi areas in Jebel Sinjar to a Kurdish village and marginalizing them politically. David Ghanim also claimed that the Kurdish authorities are working hard to impose Kurdish identity on two of the most vulnerable minorities in Iraq, the Yazidis and the Shabaks, the Iraqi government voted against the proposition. There have been reports that some Arabs are being displaced in previously mixed Kurdish-Arab villages in Northern Iraq, the Assyrian activist from the Assyrian Patriotic Movement claimed that the entire Assyrian Triangle has been occupied by Kurdish intruders. Some Assyrians in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq also complained that construction plans are aimed at affecting a demographic change that divides Assyrian blocs. The Assyrian International News Agency claimed that the KDP Peshmergas have annexed Assyrian, Yazidi and Shabak villages, AINA also added that in Iraqi Kurdistan, Assyrian politicians of some towns have been replaced with Kurdish ones. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum published news in which was claimed that the Yazidis have frequently been pressured to assimilate to both Arab and Kurdish ethnicities, sources have mentioned that Yazidis already speak Northern Kurdish which is one of the two major dialects of Kurdish language. Cultural assimilation Iraqi minorities Kurdistan Regional Government Iraqi Turkmens Yazidis in Armenia Shabak people Social exclusion Assyria Ezidkhan Turkmeneli A. Bazzaz, turkmen
Kurdification
Kurdification
–
Map of
Iraqi Kurdistan
27.
Assyrian homeland
–
The Assyrian homeland or Assyria refers to a geographic and cultural region inhabited since the 25th century BC traditionally by the indigenous Assyrian people, who call it Assyria or variations of. Politically, the historically Assyrian populated areas are located within the borders of northern Iraq, southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran and this is where some Assyrian groups seek to create an independent nation state or autonomous region for Assyria. Upper Mesopotamia having had a structure of dioceses by AD500 following the introduction of Christianity from the 1st to 3rd centuries AD. After the fall of the Neo Assyrian Empire by 605 BC Assyria remained an entity for over 1200 years under Babylonian, Achamaenid Persian, Seleucid Greek, Parthian, Roman and Sassanid Persian rule. It was only after the Arab-Islamic conquest of the half of the 7th century AD that Assyria as a named region was dissolved. Since the fall of the Iraqi Baath Party in 2003, and in the face of violence against the indigenous Assyrian Christian community, the Assyrian homeland is located within the borders of Turkey, Iraq, and Iran. Some Chaldean Catholic populated villages are located in Hakkari, and some Syriac Orthodox still live in the Nineveh Plains, Assyrian communities established in Syria are largely Syriac Orthodox transplants from Tur Abdin who fled the Assyrian Genocide, or Assyrians from Iraq who came after the Simele Massacre. Most Assyrians nowadays live in northern Iraq, with the community in Northern Hakkari being completely decimated, and this is where some Assyrian groups seek to create an independent nation state or autonomous region for Assyria. Assyrian populations are distributed between the Assyrian homeland and the Assyrian diaspora, since the 2003 Iraq War, Iraqi Assyrians have been dislocated to Syria in significant but unknown numbers. Since the Syrian Civil War began in 2011, Syrian Assyrians have been dislocated to Turkey in significant, the indigenous Assyrian homeland areas are part of todays northern Iraq, southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran and northeastern Syria. The Assyrian communities that are left in the Assyrian homeland are in Syria, Iraq, Iran. As of November 1,2013, the population accounted for roughly 2.7 million people, the largest Assyrian diaspora communities being found in the United States, Jordan, Sweden. Assyrians are eastern Aramaic-speaking, descending from pre-Islamic inhabitants of Upper Mesopotamia, the Syriac language evolved in Achaemenid Assyria during the 5th century BC. Syriac Christianity took hold amongst the Assyrians between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD with the founding in Assyria of the Church of the East together with Syriac literature and this split owed just as much to the politics of the day as it did to theological orthodoxy. Ctesiphon, which was at the time the Sassanid capital, eventually became the capital of the Church of the East, after the Council of Chalcedon in 451, many Syriac Christians within the Roman Empire rebelled against its decisions. The Patriarchate of Antioch was then divided between a Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian communion, the Chalcedonians were often labelled Melkites, while their opponents were labelled as Monophysites and Jacobites. The Maronite Church found itself caught between the two, but claims to have remained faithful to the Catholic Church and in communion with the bishop of Rome. The Assyrians suffered a significant persecution with the religiously motivated large scale massacres conducted by the Muslim Turco-Mongol ruler Tamurlane in the 14th century AD
Assyrian homeland
–
The "Assyrian triangle"
28.
International Standard Book Number
–
The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
International Standard Book Number
–
A 13-digit ISBN, 978-3-16-148410-0, as represented by an
EAN-13 bar code
29.
Sputnik News
–
Sputnik is a news agency, news websites and radio broadcast service established by the Russian government-controlled news agency Rossiya Segodnya. Headquartered in Moscow, Sputnik has regional offices in Washington, Cairo, Beijing, London. It focuses on politics and economics and is geared towards a non-Russian audience. Sputnik has been accused of bias, disinformation and being a Russian propaganda outlet. Sputnik currently operates news websites, featuring reporting and commentary, in over 30 languages including English, Spanish, Polish, Serbian, the websites also house over 800 hours of radio broadcasting material each day and its newswire service runs around the clock. Alongside its news content, Sputnik also produces photo essays, live streaming, infographics, Sputnik News is a successor to Russian state-owned RIA Novostis international branch, which became defunct in 2013. Whereas RIA Novostis output tended to emanate from a more concentrated base in Moscow, RIA Novosti was Russias international news agency until 2013, and it continues to be the name of a state-operated domestic Russian-language news agency. On 9 December 2013, RIA Novosti entered liquidation and a new Russian international news agency Rossiya Segodnya was created, Dmitry Kiselev, an anchorman of the Russia-1 channel was appointed to be the first president of the new agency. Sputnik replaces the RIA Novosti news agency and Voice of Russia on an international stage, within Russia itself, however, Rossiya Segodnya continues to operate its Russian language news service under the name RIA Novosti. According to its chief Dmitry Kiselyov, Sputnik was intended to counter the propaganda that is now being fed to the world. In 2015, Sputnik announced their intention to locate the agencys new UK Radio studio in Scotlands capital Edinburgh. The agency subsequently established its radio studio and bureau in the city and launched its current affairs and news programme, World in Focus, at a press conference on 10 August 2016. In March 2016, access to Sputniks online content was blocked by Turkish authorities, the website was subsequently unblocked later that same year. It is also available on various satellite transponders, including a 24 hour English service audible in North America via the Galaxy-19 satellite, beating a predictable drum of anti-Western rhetoric. Such views were voiced by the Washington DC-based think tank Center for European Policy Analysis. For instance, CEPA argues that Sputnik invites only a group of commenting politicians. German journalist and author Michael Thumann has described Sputnik as being part of what he calls Russias digital information war against the West, alexander Podrabinek, a Russian journalist who works for Radio France Internationale and Radio Liberty has accused Sputnik of disseminating Russian state propaganda abroad. The federal agency of Rossotrudnichestvo and the Russkiy Mir Foundation were also seen as tools for Russian propaganda in this report, according to a study by Masaryk University, Sputnik is one of the major sources of Russian propaganda in the Czech Republic
Sputnik News
–
Sputnik
30.
Daily Telegraph
–
It was founded by Arthur B. Sleigh in 1855 as The Daily Telegraph and Courier, the papers motto, Was, is, and will be, appears in the editorial pages and has featured in every edition of the newspaper since April 19,1858. The paper had a circulation of 460,054 in December 2016 and its sister paper, The Sunday Telegraph, which started in 1961, had a circulation of 359,287 as of December 2016. The Daily Telegraph has the largest circulation for a newspaper in the UK. The two sister newspapers are run separately, with different editorial staff, but there is cross-usage of stories, articles published in either may be published on the Telegraph Media Groups www. telegraph. co. uk website, under the title of The Telegraph. However, critics, including an editor, accuse it of being unduly influenced by advertisers. The Daily Telegraph and Courier was founded by Colonel Arthur B, Sleigh in June 1855 to air a personal grievance against the future commander-in-chief of the British Army, Prince George, Duke of Cambridge. Joseph Moses Levy, the owner of The Sunday Times, agreed to print the newspaper, the paper cost 2d and was four pages long. Nevertheless, the first edition stressed the quality and independence of its articles and journalists, however, the paper was not a success, and Sleigh was unable to pay Levy the printing bill. Levy took over the newspaper, his aim being to produce a newspaper than his main competitors in London. The same principle should apply to all other events—to fashion, to new inventions, in 1876, Jules Verne published his novel Michael Strogoff, whose plot takes place during a fictional uprising and war in Siberia. In 1937, the newspaper absorbed The Morning Post, which espoused a conservative position. Originally William Ewart Berry, 1st Viscount Camrose, bought The Morning Post with the intention of publishing it alongside The Daily Telegraph, for some years the paper was retitled The Daily Telegraph and Morning Post before it reverted to just The Daily Telegraph. As an result, Gordon Lennox was monitored by MI5, in 1939, The Telegraph published Clare Hollingworths scoop that Germany was to invade Poland. In November 1940, with Fleet Street subjected to almost daily bombing raids by the Luftwaffe, The Telegraph started printing in Manchester at Kemsley House, Manchester quite often printed the entire run of The Telegraph when its Fleet Street offices were under threat. The name Kemsley House was changed to Thomson House in 1959, in 1986 printing of Northern editions of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph moved to Trafford Park and in 2008 to Newsprinters at Knowsley, Liverpool. During the Second World War, The Daily Telegraph covertly helped in the recruitment of code-breakers for Bletchley Park, the ability to solve The Telegraphs crossword in under 12 minutes was considered to be a recruitment test. The competition itself was won by F. H. W. Hawes of Dagenham who finished the crossword in less than eight minutes, both the Camrose and Burnham families remained involved in management until Conrad Black took control in 1986
Daily Telegraph
–
The Sunday Telegraph
Daily Telegraph
–
The Daily Telegraph front page on 29 June 2015
Daily Telegraph
–
In 1882 The Daily Telegraph moved to new
Fleet Street premises, which were pictured in the
Illustrated London News.
Daily Telegraph
–
The Daily Telegraph building in 1974
Iraq
