Khalid Ridha spends most of his time in his home studio getting lost in his favourite colours.
He says his art, which he describes as melancholy, has given him a sense of control over his life, even if only fleeting, two decades after a US-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein and brought a fresh wave of turmoil to his home province of Kirkuk in northern Iraq.
Kirkuk had already suffered from decades of instability as a region disputed between Iraqi Arabs and Kurds, but Saddam Hussein’s iron grip kept a lid on the tension until his removal sparked an outpouring of demands for justice and revenge among rival communities.
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January 29, 2002: US President George Bush identifies Iraq, Iran and North Korea as part of an 'axis of evil' in his State of the Union address. 'States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger,' he says. Getty -
February 15, 2002: Thousands of people gather in Hyde Park in London after finishing a protest against war in Iraq. The march is believed to be the UK's biggest ever peace protest. Getty -
March 18, 2003: US and British forces move into position before a possible military strike near the Kuwait-Iraq border. A day prior, Mr Bush gave Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his sons 48 hours to leave the country or face war. Getty -
March 21, 2003: Fires burn in and around Saddam's Council of Ministers during the first wave of US-led coalition airstrikes on Iraq in Baghdad. 'These are the opening stages of what will be a broad and concerted campaign,' he says in an address. The attack begins with a massive air strike campaign named 'shock and awe'. Getty -
March 29, 2003: A man and child walk on a road near the entrance of the besieged city of Basra as oil fires burn in the distance. Baath Party loyalists take up positions in Basra, Iraq's second largest city, making it a target of the US-led war on Iraq. Getty -
April 9, 2003: Iraq’s capital, Baghdad, falls to US forces. Saddam’s regime loses control as American troops enter the city centre. On May 1, US President George W Bush prematurely declares the end of major combat in Iraq. Reuters -
August 30, 2003: A burnt-out car is removed from outside Najaf’s Imam Ali Mosque, the holiest Shiite shrine in Iraq, a day after 87 people were killed in a car bomb attack. The attack raises sectarian tension as thousands of Iraqi Shiites, some of them backed by Iran, demand the right to form militias. Reuters -
December 13, 2003: Ousted president Saddam Hussein is found by US troops in a cellar south of Tikrit, near his hometown. 'Ladies and gentlemen, we got him,' says US ambassador Paul Bremer, who was appointed to lead the Coalition Provisional Authority. AFP -
March 31, 2004: A car burns in the aftermath of an insurgent attack on Fallujah, in which four Blackwater private security contractors were killed and their mutilated, burnt bodies were left hanging from a bridge. Reuters -
May 3, 2004: Coffins of US military personnel killed in Iraq are prepared to be offloaded at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. Days later, Al Qaeda beheaded US businessman Nicholas Berg and recorded his killing. Reuters -
June 28, 2004: US administrator in Iraq Paul Bremer (R), Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi (C) and the country's most senior judge Midhat Mahmoud (L) smile as the US transfers sovereignty to Iraq in Baghdad. Mr Allawi calls the event 'a historic day' and says that Iraq was 'capable of controlling the security situation'. Reuters -
January 30, 2005: Iraqis vote in the first parliamentary elections of the post-Saddam era. Sunnis largely boycott the vote, while most Shiite parties coalesce into a sectarian bloc, cementing divisions within the country. Getty -
April 7, 2005: Veteran Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani raises his hands after being sworn in as Iraq's first democratically elected president. Later that month, Shiite Islamist Ibrahim Al Jaafari takes office as prime minister, hailing from the exiled Dawa Party. Getty -
July 24, 2005: Burnt-out vehicles at the scene of a lorry bombing outside a police station that killed 22 people in south-east Baghdad. The explosion also injured 25 people, destroyed 22 cars and 10 shops. AFP -
October 19, 2005: Saddam’s trial begins. Prosecutors focus on a massacre in the village of Dujail, 100 kilometres north of Baghdad, where about 150 people, including children, were killed following an assassination attempt against the former dictator. Many other charges relate to a genocidal campaign against Kurds during the 1980s, during which Saddam ordered a chemical attack on the town of Halabja, killing up to 5,000 people. Getty -
February 23, 2006: Iraqis clean up debris after an Al Qaeda bombing at Al Askariya holy Shiite shrine in Samarra, Iraq. Shiite police and militia members — in many cases indistinguishable — responded by rampaging through Sunni-majority areas, in an onslaught that coalition forces appeared powerless to halt. Getty -
June 8, 2006: Maj Gen Bill Caldwell speaks during a press conference as satellite images are shown of a US air strike that killed the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, in a joint US-Iraqi raid. Getty -
December 30, 2006: Saddam is executed by hanging. The execution and taunting of Saddam before his death is secretly filmed by a witness, stirring further tension within Iraq. Getty -
January 11, 2007: US officers watch Mr Bush's speech announcing that another 20,000 soldiers will be sent to Iraq, at Camp Ramadi in Iraq's violent Anbar province. The approach becomes known as the 'Surge,' and envisages a closer partnership between US and Iraqi forces and tribes, as well as American forces being stationed closer to Iraqi communities. Getty -
July 12, 2007: Two Reuters photographers and five civilians are killed by a US Apache helicopter in Baghdad. US video footage of the incident would later be released by Wikileaks. EPA -
December 14, 2008: Mr Bush makes his final visit to Iraq to sign a co-operation agreement between Iraq and the US known as the Strategic Framework Agreement. At a press conference with Nouri Al Maliki, Munthadar Al Zaidi, a journalist, throws his shoes at Mr Bush. Mr Al Zaidi is severely beaten and jailed for six months. Reuters -
February 27, 2009: US President Barack Obama announces Washington’s decision to withdraw most American troops by August 31, 2010. Mr Obama says 50,000 troops will remain for smaller missions and to train Iraqi soldiers. EPA -
April 23: At least 80 people are killed in three suicide bombings in Baghdad, making it the biggest daily death toll since early 2008. A woman standing in a group of other women and children receiving aid reportedly set off one of the bombs. EPA -
December 21, 2010: Iraqi Prime Minister Mr Al Maliki (L) and members of his newly formed cabinet attend a voting session at the Iraqi Parliament in Baghdad, Iraq. The new government was unanimously approved, ending nine months of deadlock. Getty -
JANUARY 8, 2011: Populist Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr returns to Iraq after four years of self-imposed exile in Iran. In his first public statement, he urges his followers to resist the 'occupiers' of Iraq. EPA -
February 25, 2011: A 'day of rage' is declared as tens of thousands of Iraqis protest against Mr Al Maliki’s government. At least 23 people are killed and hundreds injured in a sign of Mr Al Maliki’s growing authoritarianism. Getty -
December 17, 2011: The last of the US Troop Brigade board a plane to depart Iraq at Camp Adder, now known as Imam Ali Base, near Nasiriyah, Iraq. Two days prior, the US military formally declared the end of the Iraq War in a ceremony in Baghdad. Getty -
December 23, 2012: Protests against harsh security crackdowns break out in Fallujah, Ramadi and Tikrit. Sunni protesters say men are being arbitrarily jailed without evidence while the government holds back pensions for former army officers. The demonstrations last until December 2013 when the Iraqi army tries to break up protest camps. EPA -
July 22, 2013: Mourners pray at the coffin of a victim killed during an attack on a prison in Taji, during a funeral at the Imam Ali shrine in Najaf. Reuters -
December 22, 2013: Funeral proceedings for a major general of the Iraqi army’s 7th division in Anbar. The division's leadership were killed when a house they are raiding explodes after being rigged with bombs. The mixed Sunni-Shiite group is seen as one of the last non-sectarian units in the Iraqi army. Reuters -
June 11, 2014: ISIS fighters stand guard at a checkpoint in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. Days prior, the militants seized Iraq's second biggest city of Mosul as well as Tikrit, hometown of former dictator Saddam Hussein, and other towns and cities north of Baghdad. Reuters -
July 9, 2014: Al Nuri Mosque in Mosul before it was destroyed by ISIS militants during their retreat three years later. On June 29, Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, leader of ISIS, appeared for the first time in public at the mosque to declare the caliphate. EPA -
October 18, 2014: Smoke rises over Syrian town of Kobani after an air strike. Three days prior, Washington launched a campaign called Operation Inherent Resolve. Over the next year, the US military conducts more than 8,000 air strikes in Iraq and Syria. Reuters -
November 13, 2015: Kurdish forces seized Sinjar from ISIS after a prolonged siege, in the largest urban battle undertaken by the Kurdish Peshmerga. Getty -
October 16, 2006: Iraq launches US-backed campaign to liberate Mosul from ISIS. EPA -
October 21, 2016: Fire at an oil field that was set on fire by retreating ISIS fighters before the Mosul offensive in Qayyarah, Iraq. Getty -
July 2, 2017: While retreating from Mosul, ISIS destroys Al Nuri mosque. Iraqi forces encounter stiff resistance from ISIS with improvised explosive devices, car bombs, suicide bombers, heavy mortar fire and snipers hampering their advance. Getty -
July 9, 2017: Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi declares victory over ISIS in Mosul. In December, he declares full victory over ISIS. AFP
Amid this tragic history, the canvas is a world Ridha can influence with his own brush, as opposed to the uncertain life that surrounds him.
“I get a very deep feeling, it’s like living in another world, when I am done painting. I just sit down for half an hour and enjoy looking at it, it keeps me away from many things: the problems of life, the problems of the country, of people, of Kurdistan. It’s a very good medicine,” he says.
Ridha had a talent for art from an early age and was always encouraged to pursue it by his schoolteachers. When he graduated from school, he applied to Baghdad’s Fine Arts Academy in 1975 and was accepted after taking practical exams.
But disappointment soon came as he was ordered by the Iraq Students’ Union to obtain a document confirming his membership of the Baath party.
Without it, Iraqis under the former regime were barred from many public sector jobs and higher education institutions, and could face scrutiny from the country’s notorious secret police services, who were widely condemned for torturing suspects.
“They told me, ‘you are accepted’, but they said we need documents. I asked, ‘what kind of documents?’ When they said party membership, I couldn’t, I was not a Baathist,” he noted.
“It was hard for me to do that at the time, to be honest, so I didn’t get the documents and didn’t go to the academy,” he said.
He recalls spending summer nights the previous year writing slogans in Arabic on the walls of Kirkuk with his friends, condemning the regime and calling for an end to “Arabisation and the forced Baathism process in the Kurdish areas”. he says.
Arabisation controversy
The former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein launched several campaigns to Arabise Kirkuk, forcing Kurdish families out of their houses and giving them to people from southern Iraq, changing Kirkuk’s demography.
Government laws, such as Order 369 of 1976, confiscated Kurdish land and moved tens of thousands of people out of the governorate. The process became worse in the 1980s, when Saddam ordered a full-scale campaign against the Kurds, which included genocide known as the Anfal campaign, killing about 100,000.
Kirkuk city lies at the border between the autonomous Kurdish region and federal Iraq. One of the biggest oil reservoirs in Iraq is also in and around the city, estimated to hold as much as nine billion barrels.
Years of conflict and erratic management of the disputed oilfield, which is already 90 years old, mean much of that may not be recoverable.
But this potential wealth has only added to tensions since the US-led invasion of 2003. The city fell within so-called disputed areas and responsibility for administration and security was shared between Iraqi and Kurdish authorities.
Growing up, Ridha saw displacement and poverty. To provide for his family, he became employed at the health directorate of Nasriyah, Dhi Qar in 1976, when he knew the Art Academy was not an option. Then he was displaced to Iran in 1991 after a massive failed uprising against the Baathists.
Ridha watched the invasion unfold from his rooftop and live on TV.
“We were very happy, we said everything will change,” he said. After a short pause, he reflects on how things are now. “This situation is not what we want.”
Despite the crimes Saddam committed against his people, for Ridha Iraq’s art scene was more developed and artists were more respected.
Misty eyed over this forgotten era, he has started painting again at the age of 70. His paintings exhibit what he calls a tragic theme. “It’s a tragedy, the people are not comfortable, they are not secure, this democracy is just slogans, it’s not real,” he said.
When Kirkuk was officially recognised as a disputed territory in Iraq’s new constitution of 2005 after the fall of Saddam, Article 140 was written to address the issues of land disputes between the Kurdish and Iraqi governments, calling for a referendum on the final status of the governorate.
After the regime fell, thousands of locals who had been displaced demanded compensation for their lost land and homes, sometimes staging violent protests. Tensions were heightened, while anti-government Sunni fighters, including Al Qaeda, began a campaign of attacks.
Swapping oppression for more violence
Hadi, a former journalist and now an expert on Kirkuk’s troubled history, says that post-2003 there was life in Kirkuk again, but a life that was “full of pain”, with frequent terrorist attacks. He has not disclosed his full name due to security threats to commentators based in the region.
Twenty years on, Kirkuk still suffers from the power struggle between Baghdad and the semi-autonomous Kurdish Regional Government. Article 140 remains on paper, but there has been no progress towards its implementation.
“We always see Kurdish farmers around the province of Kirkuk in the news saying that the Iraqi government brings Arab tribes to occupy land belonging to the Kurds. That’s why this challenge, especially the land issue and returning it to their original owners, has entered a frightening stage,” Hadi says.
The city underwent another politically complicated process nine years ago. Iraqi forces abandoned their posts after they failed to defend the city against ISIS in 2014, and Kirkuk was then taken by Kurdish forces, who overwhelmed ISIS.
The Kurdish Peshmerga fighters were given a deadline by the Iraqi government to withdraw, but refused. Iraqi forces then retook Kirkuk in a bloody fight in October 2017 after Kurdish political parties said they would annex the province in a referendum, claiming it was rightfully Kurdish.
Despite the continuing upheaval caused by this dispute, after so many decades the Kirkukis have not lost hope that a better day will come.
“Although a lot of blood has been spilt in Kirkuk, the people have hope that this situation will be solved ... how will it be solved, we don’t know,” Hadi said.
