Landscape surrounding Sulaymaniyah
Clockwise: Jaff Tower, City of Sulaymaniyah, Dukan Lake, Piramagrun Mountain |
Iraqi Kurdistan is a region of Iraq located in the northeast of the country, in a mountainous area surrounded by Iran, Turkey, and Syria.
The weather is generally dry with the exception of a few weeks in winter and spring. Temperatures can be extreme, from 18℉ in winter to 112℉ in summer. It has a population of six million inhabitants, mainly Kurds, and a majority of Sunni Muslims with minority populations of Shiite Muslims, Christians, and Yezidis. Since 1991, it is an autonomous region with its own government, parliament, and army. Like the rest of Iraq, Kurdistan is very rich in oil and gas which are the main pillars of the economy along with some industry (construction materials factories) and little agriculture. From 2003-2013 Kurdistan enjoyed significant economic growth which allowed the region to build modern infrastructure and improve the living standards of its people. In 2014, ISIS invaded large portions of Iraqi territory up to the Kurdistan border. This created an influx of internally displaced persons from other regions of the country in addition to a large number of Syrian refugees fleeing the civil war and ISIS invasions. War expenditures and support given to the refugees, in addition to a significant drop in oil prices in 2015, have severely affected the economy of Iraqi Kurdistan and contributed to a drop in the purchasing power of its people. |