In which country is the city of Kirkuk?

Kirkuk is a city in Iraq, serving as the capital of the Kirkuk Governorate, located 238 kilometres (148 miles) north of Baghdad. Kirkuk lies in a wide zone with an enormously diverse population and has been multilingual for centuries. There were dramatic demographic changes during Kirkuk's urbanization in the twentieth century, which saw the development of distinct ethnic groups. Kurds, Iraqi Turkmen, Arabs, and Assyrians lay conflicting claims to this zone, and all have their historical accounts and memories to buttress their claims.

The city sits on the ruins of the original Kirkuk Citadel, site of the ancient mid-3rd millennium BC, Akkadian city of Arrapha, and which sits near the Khasa River. The region became a part of the Akkadian empire (2335–2154 BC) which united all of the Akkadian and Sumerian speaking Mesopotamians under one rule.