Kirkuk is again in top news. There was the 20th June 2009 a massive suicide bomb attack - once again. With my condolences to the families of the victims and my respect to the Kirkuk police, which battles against terrorism, I tell some good news from Kirkuk.
Like so many other Kurdish cities and towns, also Kirkuk has an ancient citadel. I visited it for the first time in May 2008; pictures from that journey are in Sahmaran the 23rd June 2008.
One year later in May 2009, I visited it again. There is at least one good news from Kirkuk: the reparation of the Citadel has started in a small scale.
The destruction done by Saddam Hussein is so huge, that it might be impossible to repair completely the Citadel before there is peace in Kurdistan, but this is good start. This is how the Old Town of Kirkuk still looks, after the visit of Saddam’s caterpillars.
Until the destruction of this area, Kurds and Turkmen lived in the Citadel, both groups in their own streets which had been inhabited for centuries.
To repair these houses is huge work which has not yet even started.
But the reparation of the religious monuments is going on.
See the how the minaret looked one year ago:
Now the minaret has been painted:
The history of Kirkuk is thousands years old and it is holy town for many religions, for example for Jews and Christians. Kirkuk was the home town of Prophet Daniel and his grave is supposed to be in Kirkuk. Well, no one knows where it exactly is, but this old building is built as the grave of Prophet Daniel to honour him.
Prophet Daniel's grave 2008:
Prophet Daniel's grave 2009:
Let’s hope that Kirkuk Citadel will be soon in the UNESCO World Heritage Program!
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