page_title: Kurdistan Region
section_title: Administrative divisions
hierarchical_section_title: Kurdistan Region / Government and politics / Administrative divisions
caption_attribution_description: English: Map showing the governorates of Kurdistan Region in Iraq (in 2015).
context_page_description: The Kurdistan Region is an autonomous region in northern Iraq comprising the four Kurdish-majority populated governorates of Dohuk, Erbil, Halabja and Sulaymaniyah and bordering Iran, Syria and Turkey. The Kurdistan Region encompasses most of Iraqi Kurdistan but excludes the disputed territories of Northern Iraq, contested between the Kurdistan Regional Government and the central Iraqi government in Baghdad since Kurdish autonomy was realized in 1992 with the 1992 Iraqi Kurdistan parliamentary election in the aftermath of the Gulf War. The Kurdistan Region Parliament is situated in Erbil, but the constitution of the Kurdistan Region declares the disputed city of Kirkuk to be the capital of the Kurdistan Region. When the Iraqi Army withdrew from most of the disputed areas in mid-2014 because of the ISIL offensive in Northern Iraq, Kurdish Peshmerga entered the areas and held control there until October 2017.
  The Kurds in Iraq oscillated between fighting for either autonomy or independence throughout the 20th century and experienced Arabization and genocide at the hands of Baathist Iraq.
context_section_description: The Kurdistan Region is a democratic parliamentary republic and has a presidential system wherein the President is elected by Parliament for a five-year term. The current President is Nechirvan Barzani who assumed office on 1 June 2019. The Kurdistan Parliament has 111 seats and are held every fifth year.
   
  The Kurdistan Region is divided into four governorates: the governorates of Duhok, Erbil, Sulaymaniya and Halabja. Each of these governorates is divided into districts, for a total of 26 districts. Each district is also divided into sub-districts. Each governorate has a capital city, while districts and sub-districts have 'district centers'.
caption: Governorates of Kurdistan Region[48]
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