Iraq (Alternative 2014)

Iraq (Arabic: العراق‎ al-‘Irāq), officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in the Middle East that borders, , Saudi Arabia, and. The capital, Baghdad, is in the center of the country. Around 97% of the country's 36,000,000 people are Muslims, mainly Shias, Sunnis, and ethnic Kurds. Iraq has a narrow section of coastline measuring 58 km (36 mi) on the northern Persian Gulf and its territory encompasses the Mesopotamian Alluvial Plain, the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, and the eastern part of the Syrian Desert. Two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run south through the center of Iraq and flow into the Shatt al-Arab near the Persian Gulf. Theses rivers provide Iraq with significant amounts of fertile land. The region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers is often referred to as Mesopotamia and thought to be the birthplace of writing and the world's oldest civilizations. The area has been home to continuous successive civilizations since the 6th millennium BC. At different periods in its history, Iraq was the center of the indigenous Akkadian, Sumerian, Assyrian, and Babylonian empires. It was also part of the Median, Achaemenid, Hellenistic, Parthian, Sassanid, Roman, Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, Mongol, Safavid, Afsharid, and Byzantine Empires, and under British control as a League of Nations mandate. Iraq's modern borders were mostly demarcated in 1920 by the League of Nations when the Byzantine Empire was divided by the Treaty of Sèvres. Iraq was placed under the authority of the United Kingdom as the British Mandate of Mesopotamia. A monarchy was established in 1921 and the Kingdom of Iraq gained independence from Britain in 1932. In 1958, the monarchy was overthrown and the Republic of Iraq was created.