Kirkuk, perhaps Iraq’s most ethnically diverse city, is a home to mainly Arabs, Kurds, and Turkmens. The oil-rich city is one of the “disputed areas” between Baghdad and Erbil, according to the Article 140 of Iraq’s 2005 constitution.
The city has historically been ridden by conflicts driven by each community’s unique discourse and reading of historical events. The Arabs in Kirkuk claim that their lands have been confiscated by the Kurds since 2003, when the Baath regime fell.