Identification of property

The Kurdistan Region of Iraq comprises parts of the three governorates of Erbil, Sulaimani and Duhok. It borders Syria to the west, Iran to the east, and Turkey to the north, lying where fertile plains meet the Zagros mountains. It is traversed by the River Sirwan and the Tigris and its tributaries, the Great Zab and the Little Zab.

The mountains of the Kurdistan Region have an average height of about 2,400 metres, rising to 3,000–3,300 metres in places. The highest peak, Halgurd, is near the border with Iran and measures 3,660 metres. The highest mountain ridges contain the only forestland in the region.

The climate of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq is semi-arid continental: very hot and dry in summer, and cold and wet in winter.

The people living in the Kurdistan Region are Kurds, as well as Assyrians, Chaldeans, Turkmens, Armenians and Arabs. The Region has a young and growing population, with 36% aged 0-14 years, and only 4% aged over 63. The median age in Kurdistan is just over 20, meaning more than 50% are 20 or less.

The Kurdistan Region’s demography has changed considerably in the last few decades, mainly because of forced migration by the previous Iraqi government, which is one of the main reasons for the movement from the countryside to towns and cities. By 2001, at least 600.000 people had been internally displaced, mainly because of the previous Iraqi regime’s policies since the 1970s. This included more than 100,000 people expelled in November 1991 alone from Kirkuk by the Iraqi government. According to a United Nations Development Program (UNDP) survey, 66% of the people living in Duhok province have been forced to change their residence due to war at some point in their lives, while the figures in Sulaimani and Erbil are 31% and 7%, respectively.

Traditionally, the majority of people in the Kurdistan Region lived in villages and subsisted on farming and animal husbandry of mainly sheep and goats, thanks to the land’s fertile soil. The Region was known as the breadbasket of Iraq. Today this situation has been reversed, with the majority living and working in the three cities of Erbil, Duhok andSulaimani and working in the government, construction, and trade. In the 1980s, Saddam Hussein’s regime destroyed over 4,000 villages and forcibly moved their residents to collective towns. Many of these villages have now been rebuilt. After 1991, the Kurdistan Regional Government rebuilt 2,620 of about 4,000 destroyed villages.