The Re-establishment of the University of Kirkuk on a New Basis

24 August 2003
KurdishMedia.com - By Dr Nouri Talabany


The establishing of the University of Kirkuk some years ago by the Ba’athist regime must be regarded with suspicion, for it was founded by a regime which, for the previous 35 years, had systematically practised a policy of ethnic cleansing in this city and its environs which was contrary to all human principles. It was not from a desire to create a seat of learning or to develop the region of Kirkuk that the university was founded, but from a determination to extend and enforce its policy of ethnic cleansing there.

The first Faculty to be opened was that of Law. We all know that the one thing, above all else, for which that regime had no respect, was the law. This Faculty was staffed by so-called professors of law who were all Baa’athists, as were most, if not all, of the students. Its obvious purpose was to act as an instrument of propaganda for Ba’athist ideology in the region and to create a framework for Ba’athist operations there.

Normally, no university anywhere in the world is opened until a detailed study has been made of the city or area of its proposed location. Such a study takes into consideration every aspect of the life of the area, especially the social, economic and cultural aspects, and the role of the university is to develop all of these. But the Ba’athist regime, especially in the Kirkuk region where it had pursued a policy of ethnic cleansing for decades, saw the founding of the university as a means of intensifying this policy. We should question why a Faculty of Law should take priority over one that would serve the purposes of the oil industry. Kirkuk is, after all, the main city of the oil industry and needs such a Faculty. The same question could be asked about a Faculty of Agriculture. The area boasts hundreds of thousands of acres of fertile land between the Lower Zab and the Sirwan rivers and the agricultural industry there needs to be developed and modernised. The city and region of Kirkuk was in far greater need of Faculties to serve the oil and agriculture industries than of a Faculty of Law which was only created for ideological purposes.

As a Professor of Law I was, naturally, delighted to find a Faculty of Law in my city. However, I could accept neither the reasons for its founding nor the way in which it was staffed by Ba’athists. I constantly criticized the universities of Iraqi Kurdistan for opening many Faculties without properly qualified, specialist professors and technicians, and without adequate laboratories. Since 1991, I have also opposed the opening of a private Faculty of Law in liberated Iraqi Kurdistan as the Ba’athists had done elsewhere. The one existing Faculty of Law at the University of Salahadin in Arbil was already under-staffed. When two more universities were founded in Sulaimani and Dohuk, some Faculties were opened with insufficient staff. Sadly, the reason for the rapid founding of all these Faculties was the conflict between the two main political parties who were dividing the liberated part of Iraqi Kurdistan.

I believe it to be vital that, following the unification of the two Kurdish administrations, a special committee be set up to examine all these Faculties and to try to make Kurdish the language of instruction in the Faculties of Law. In the Faculties of the Human Sciences, e.g. medicine, pharmacy, engineering, etc. English must continue to be used.

For this reason, I propose that no new students should be accepted into the Faculty of Law of the University of Kirkuk and that existing students should be diverted to other such Faculties. This was done at the University of Basra when its Faculty of Law was closed at the beginning of the seventies. In the future, when we have properly qualified professors of law to staff it, it may be possible to open a new Faculty of Law that will produce highly qualified professionals.

While proposing the creation of two new Faculties in Kirkuk University for the oil industry through all its stages of production, and for agriculture, in which English will be the language of instruction, I propose, also, the setting up of a Faculty of Languages. We are all aware that the city of Kirkuk is home to communities of Kurds, Turkmans, Arabs and Assyrio/Chaldeans. The children of these communities have the right to receive a proper education in their own languages. In my opinion, the Faculty of Languages should include Departments for the study of all these tongues so as to prepare teachers for their schools. It must also include a Department of English, as it will be taught as a foreign language in the schools.

Perhaps I may remind you that, after the uprising of March 1991 in Iraqi Kurdistan, in a written proposal to the ‘Kurdistan Front’, which was the umbrella for all the political parties in Iraqi Kurdistan, I made the following suggestions:

1. The name of the University of Salahadin in Arbil, which was the only university in Iraqi Kurdistan at that time, should be changed to the University of Kurdistan and all faculties concerned with pure science should remain there.

2. All the Faculties of Human Science, such as Literature, Law, Economics and Administration at the University of Salahadin should be transferred to the city of Sulaimani to form the basis for a new university specialising in the Human Sciences. Throughout history, Sulaimani has been a centre of Kurdish culture with a reputation for the correct use of the Kurdish language. Basing these Faculties there would encourage the proper use of Kurdish as the main language of instruction. At present, in every university in Iraqi Kurdistan, teaching in most Faculties of Human Science is still conducted in Arabic.

3. The Faculty of Agriculture at Salahadin University, which was closed by the Ba’athist regime, should be re-opened and should form the basis of a new university in the city of Dohuk specialising in agriculture, forestry, irrigation and the tobacco industry. Tobacco is one of the main products of Iraqi Kurdistan.

4. On the liberation of Kirkuk city, a new Technical University should be established there, as Kirkuk is the centre of the oil industry. In 1991, even though Kirkuk was still controlled by the Ba’athist regime, was not a part of the Safe Haven and was still subject to the Ba’athist’s policy of ethnic cleansing, I dreamt of a time when it would be liberated.

We do not need another university in Kirkuk, which operates in exactly the same way as the other Iraqi universities. As Kirkuk is the centre of the oil industry, it needs a university with Faculties specialising mainly in oil and agriculture.

The development of Iraqi Kurdistan requires such specialised universities, able to undertake intensive research into the economic, social, cultural and scientific aspects of life there and to form links with universities in more developed countries, especially in the west. These universities should make contact with Kurdish academics in the outside world who could return, either permanently, or for visits, and contribute to the development of the universities of Iraqi Kurdistan. They have a great deal of knowledge and expertise to offer and could forge links between the Kurdish universities and their own universities or academic establishments.

It is to be hoped that the reconstructing of the University of Kirkuk on a new basis and the use of English as the language of instruction will make a major contribution to the reconstruction of the Kirkuk region that is now the most under-developed part of Iraqi Kurdistan. We hope, also, that the new university will contribute to establishing a new relationship between all the communities of Kirkuk.


* An extract from this article was published, in Kurdish, in the newspaper ‘Kurdistani Nwe’ on 18th June 2003.