Nineveh Governorate, is a governorate in northern Iraq, which contains the ancient Assyrian
city of Nineveh.
It has an area of 37,323 square kilometres and an estimated population of 2,453,000 people
in 2003.
Its chief city and provincial capital is Mosul, which lies across the Tigris river from the
ruins of ancient Nineveh.
Tal Afar is also a major city within the region.
Before 1976, it was called Mosul Province and it included the present-day Dohuk Governorate.
An ethnically and culturally diverse region, it has been subject to attack by the self-declared
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, with Mosul being captured on 10 June 2014, and
many places of worship destroyed.
Recent history and administration 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 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 local 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 provincial council and through members of the Kashmoula
family.
In June 2004, Osama Kashmoula became the interim governor of the province and in September
of the same year he was assassinated en route to Baghdad.
He was succeeded as interim Governor by Duraid Kashmoula, who was elected governor in January
2005.
Duraid Kashmoula resigned in 2009.
In April 2009, Atheel al-Nujaifi, a hardline Arab nationalist and member of Al-Hadba, became
governor.
In June 2014, insurgents from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant overran the capital
Mosul, deposing governor al-Nujaifi.
The seizure of Mosul prompted an estimated 500,000 refugees to flee the area.
Demographics Nineveh Province is multiethnic.
There are significant numbers of Arabs, indigenous Assyrians, Kurds, both in towns and cities,
and in their own specific villages and regions.
There are also numbers of Shabaks, Turkmen and Armenians.
In religion, the majority of Arabs are Sunni Muslim while Turkmen are mostly Shi'ite, Assyrians
and Armenians are exclusively Christian, and Yazidis, Shabaks following their own religious
beliefs.
Ninawa is an Arab Sunni-majority province.
The main language spoken is Arabic, minorities languages like Neo-Aramaic, Kurdish, South
Azeri and Armenian.
Provincial politics Provincial elections
Since no real census has been taken for decades, the election results are the only indicator
of the province's ethnic distribution.
It should be noted that many Assyrians and Yazidis claim that ballot papers were denied
them; in addition, many members of ethnic groups voted for mainstream parties or ethnic
parties that were attached to mainstream Arab or Kurdish led parties.
2005 December Sunni Arab Group, 324,518
Democratic Patriotic Alliance of Kurdistan, 156,476
Allawi's Multi-ethnic Group, 91,661 Sunni Group, 81,976
Shia Arab Group, 61,083 Yezidi Group, 18,618
Assyrian Group, 12,323 2005 January
Sunni Group, 56,000 Democratic Patriotic Alliance of Kurdistan,
42,000 Shia Group, 23,000
Allawi's Multi-ethnic Group, 21,000 Assyrian Group, 3,500
Yezidi Group, 3,200 Turkman Group, 1,800
Proposed Assyrian autonomous region
Many Assyrian leaders advocate an autonomous region within Nineveh Province.
National Iraqi leaders have not taken this plan seriously, but it has a strong proponent
in Kurdistan Regional Government Minister of Finance Sarkis Aghajan, himself an Assyrian
and a prominent figure in the Kurdish government.
Minister Sarkis has claimed that the autonomous region he envisions would stretch from the
Syrian border to the north at Fishkabor to Hamdaniyah.
He says it would have its own parliament, executive council, constitution, budget, logo,
and flag.
Districts
Al-Ba'aj Al-Hamdaniya
Al-Hadar Mosul
Sinjar Tall Afar
Tel Kaif Al-Shekhan
Akra Akra and the northern part of Shekan are currently
under the Kurdistan Regional Government control, as Mosul has no control over these districts.
References ^ Citypopulation.de
^ al-Lami, Mina.
"Iraq: the minorities of Nineveh Plain".
BBC World News.
^ Parker, Ned.
"Iraq governor looks back on troubled tenure".
Los Angeles Times.
Archived from the original on 13 February 2012.
Retrieved 13 February 2012.
^ Sly, Liz.
"In Nineveh, tensions between Iraqi Kurds and Arabs simmer".
Los Angeles Times.
Archived from the original on 13 February 2012.
Retrieved 13 February 2012.
^ "Iraqi insurgents seize city".
11 June 2014.
^ "Militant group seizes cities in Iraq".
11 June 2014.
^ Iraqi Community in San Diego California: Discussion of the 2005 Iraqi Election, Ankawa.com
^ "Demanding full autonomy".
iraqupdates.com. 2009-01-30.
Retrieved 01-10-2008.
See also Ninawa governorate council election, 2005
Nineveh Nineveh plains
List of churches and monasteries in Nineveh Iraq Inter-Agency Information & Analysis Unit
Reports, Maps and Assessments of Iraq from the UN Inter-Agency Information & Analysis