Baghdad: Iraq, which on Sunday holding legislative elections, is rich in oil but has been damaged by war and conflict since the 1980s.
During ancient times, the land now consists of Iraq known as Mesopotamia – which means land “between Rivers”, Tigris and Euphrates.
Its extensive aluvial plains gave birth to some of the earliest civilizations in the world – including Sumer, Akkad, Babylon, and Assyria – which people owe writing, legal rules and the first cities.
Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the capital of the ancient Mesopotamia, is considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
The ruins of the city of Ur, where the Bible says Abraham was born, is one of Iraq’s oldest archaeological site.
Ruled by England after World War I, Iraq Merdeka in 1932.
The monarchy was abolished in 1958 after the military coup, and the Republic was established.
Saddam Hussein came to power in 1979 in another coup.
Soon the country plunged into the war with a larger neighbor who was Iran, the first of a series of conflicts last four decades.
The Iran-Iraq war blazed 1980-1988, followed by three years later by the first Gulf War over Kuwait and then the 2003 US leadership invasion that overthrew Saddam.
After the dictator dropped, the country dropped into the crisis.
Sectarian violence – especially between Shiites and Sunni Muslim communities – and jihad attacks left tens of thousands of people.
Iraq is very Muslim: explains Shia for around 60 percent of the population of 40.2 million people while Sunni makes 32-37 percent.
A secret system from the position of government reserves of representation of proportional to different Iraqi people, with Shia, which was previously overshadowed by the Minority Sunni Saddam, now dominates political and military institutions.
About 15 to 20 percent of Iraqi people are Kurds, non-Arabic ethnic groups living mainly in North autonomous.
A big “yes” in a controversial referendum in Kurdish independence held in 2017 ended in failure after Baghdad refused the voting and reclaimed the dispute area.
The Iraqi Christian community, which consisted of six percent of the population in 2003, now contributed less than one percent, after the exodus was requested by violence.
Iraq borders both majority in the Middle East rival: Sunni Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Shiite from Iran.
It is also a neighbor of Turkey, which was hit by a Syrian war, Kuwait and Jordan.
The relationship between Iraq and Iran has greatly improved since Saddam’s fall and emergence in Baghdad from the central government is dominated by Shia.
Since 2017, the relationship between Saudi Arabia and Baghdad also became better after years of tension.
Iraq, the eye acts as a regional mediator, has more than the last few months to host talks between officials from Tehran and Riyadh.
The relationship between two regional giants has been frozen since January 2016, with each other accusing others to destabilize the Middle East.
Iraq is OPEC’s second largest oil cartel and depends on oil for more than 90 percent of income.
But the state has an ordinary power outage that ignits social riots.
This is very dependent on Iran’s neighbors, which provide a third of the needs in gas and electricity.
One third of the life of the population in poverty, with a pandemic and the fall of crude oil prices in 2020 after worsening the situation, according to the United Nations.
The country is also disturbed by corruption which has been eaten by more than 410 billion euros ($ 474 billion) since 2003, according to official figures.