In Arabic, the Kirkuk Governorate or Tamim Governorate (before the invasion of Iraq in 2003) in Kurdish (Parێzgai rkuk) in Syriac (ܣܠܘܟ ܣܠܘܟ) in Turkmen (Kerkük ili) is a governorate in the heart of northern Iraq. It is inhabited by a mixture of Arabs, Turkmen, Assyrians and Kurds