The first city-states in history developed around the Euphrates and Tigris. On its shores, most of Iraq’s cities grew large and prosperous over the centuries. In the past century, increasing urbanization also posed challenges for nature.
History & State
The Mesopotamian is the cradle of numerous cultures. Archaeological finds from Mesopotamia are dated to the 11th millennium BC. dated. The first languages and scripts develop in the 4th millennium BC. Sumerian, Akkadian, Assyrian and Babylonian cities and empires are developing geographically close and not always free from territorial conflicts. They give themselves administrative structures, laws and constitutions.
Economy & Development
Despite numerous reconstruction efforts, the overall development of the economy remains far below the expectations and plans of the Iraqi government. The greatest challenge is still the lack of security.
Independence Day: 10/03/1932
Head of state: Barham Salih
Head of government: Mustafa Al-Kazemi
Political system: Parliamentary democracy
Democracy Status Index (BTI): Rank 97 of 137 (2020)
Corruption Index (CPI): Rank 162 of 180 (2019)
Ecological problems
According to programingplease, Iraq faces a variety of ecological problems. The wars of the past 50 years and the attempt of the Baath regime to shape nature, including the course of rivers, according to one’s own ideas, have left their mark on nature. Pollution, drought and the decline in arable land are major consequences. The Tigris Dam in Turkey deprives the country of essential livelihoods. With the filling of the Ilisu Dam, Iraq finds itself in a water supply crisis. The Iraqi side complains that the river level is said to have been decimated by half. Baghdad also fears that the dam will serve as an additional political pressure. And finally, there are regional and global climate phenomena that are troubling Iraq. The lack of accountability since the end of the Iraq war in 2003 has exacerbated the partly industrial pollution and according to its own information leads to 17,000 infections due to water pollution in larger cities such as Basra.
Iraq has only a handful of closed forest systems that are located in a few places in the Zagros Mountains. There are also open or fragmented forest areas in the same area as well as in Maysan Province. Freestanding trees and shrubs and shrubs are only found in heaped form at the foot of the Zagros Mountains. In addition, on the banks of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and in the southern marshland. As far as the closed forest areas are concerned, many of them were cut down by Saddam’s armed forces at the end of the 1960’s in order to deprive the Kurdish guerrillas of their natural cover and the Shiites an important livelihood. As a result of the so-called fratricidal war between the Kurdish parties PUK and KDP, when a starving population had neither fuel nor enough food, forests were cut down. They are missing today as air filters, as humidity regulators,
There are programs for reforestation both by the Kurdish regional government and from Baghdad. The problem, however, is that they will only work tomorrow against a problem that is already serious today: desertification. Therefore, in April 2013 the central government decided on a comprehensive countermeasure package. We are talking about the equivalent of US $ 10.4 million. How much of this will actually flow into concrete measures and how sustainable the success will be in the end remains to be seen. Because some factors that contribute to desertification have also become more effective. The drought is increasing continuously in the entire region. Sandstorms from the Arabian desert are now blowing into northern Kurdistan. In all areas of Iraq this not only exacerbates desertification and a loss of agricultural land.
In addition, Syria is increasingly drawing water from the Euphrates, and Turkey is regulating the flow of water in the two rivers Euphrates and Tigris through its Ataturk Dam and 21 other dam projects in southeastern Anatolia. Iraq sees itself at the end of the pipeline, so to speak, and fears that there will be enough water for its lifeline, the Euphrates.
National symbols
Iraq has two flags with sovereignty: the Iraqi one and that of the Kurdistan Region.
Iraq’s national flag was last adjusted on January 22nd, 2008. The three green stars previously in the middle part have been removed. They were supposed to indicate the desired unification of Egypt, Syria and Iraq – that is, symbolize a pan-Arab ideal. The color red represents the Arab revolution during the First World War. White stands for the future, black for the past. The green inscription in front of the white background translates as “God is greater”. The inscription was first inserted in the alleged handwriting of Saddam Hussein in 1991 in order to ensnare religious forces between the wars. After the fall of the Ba’ath regime, the originally Iraqi, angular Kufi script was adopted.
The national coat of arms of Iraq is the eagle of the national hero Salahuddin Al-Ayyubi. The heraldic animal bears the inscription: “Allahu Akbar!” (God is great!). In the claws of the eagle “Iraqi Republic” is written on a green background. The coat of arms is actually as old as the Republic of Iraq and was introduced when it was proclaimed in 1958. The most important change in the coat of arms was the removal of the three green stars in 2018. These stood for the desire to join Syria and Egypt in an alliance.
The national hyme of Iraq since 2004 is a statement of secularism and integration into the region. Mautini is a hymn by the Palestinian poet Ibrahim Touqan, popular among Arab secularists, set to music by the Lebanese musician Mohamed Flayfel.
The meaning of the Kurdish flag has not been clarified beyond doubt. Depending on how far back you date their origin, there are sometimes different interpretations. Their identity-creating importance is undisputed among Kurds. In all positions of the Kurdistan Regional Government it is partly hoisted next to the Iraqi flag and partly alone.
The Kurdistan region also has its own national anthem, here a version with text, and an instrumental version.
