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Group Identities, Oil, and the Local Political Domain in Kirkuk

2012/07/05 by Arbella Bet-Shlimon · 14 citations
Engineering · Social Sciences · #Arabic #Archaeology #Context (archaeology) #Domain (mathematical analysis) #Engineering #Ethnic group #Government (linguistics) #History #Islamic Studies and History #Law #Newspaper #Petroleum industry #Political science #Politics #Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East #Sociology #Turkey's Politics and Society

paper · doi:10.1177/0096144212449143

published in Journal of Urban History 38(5), 914-931 (SAGE Publishing)

openalex publication_date 2012/07/05 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21

Abstract

Using materials from British government and oil company archives, as well as magazine articles, newspaper articles, and other published sources in English and Arabic, this article addresses the group identities of the ethnic communities of Kirkuk, Iraq, in the context of the city’s growth as a result of the presence of the Iraqi oil industry. It contends that in the early to mid-twentieth century, Kirkuk developed a distinct domain of urban politics in which previously fluid ethnic identities hardened and in which Kirkukis, at one time more reliant on external patronage, became deeply invested. These circumstances led to intercommunal tensions and violence in the city in Iraq’s post-1958 revolutionary era.

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