In Biblical times, known as Erech. The name Iraq is a modernized spelling of "Uruk", an ancient city state in ancient Summeria.
After the collapse of the Ottoman (
Turkish)empire, Europe carved up international boundaries and in the course of restructuring had created the modern
country of "Iraq". Doomed to failure from the start, this artificially-created
country was home to many disparate ethnicities and religions. Internal conflict was inevitable.
The rise of the Baath party (and its inevitable fall at the hands of the
American-led coalition) was a response to this conflict.
There is no single language spoken in Iraq. Standard Arabic is most commonly used with Kurdish, Turkmen, Assyrian and Farsi spoken by a minority of the population.
"Iraq is considered the birthplace of civilization: Home to
first city "
Ur" and the birthplace of writing (in the form of clay tablets written in cuneiform.)
Iraq is also the birthplace of many of the ancient middle-eastern civilizations: Sumerian, Babylonian,
Assyrian etc.