Kurdistan Autonomous Region

The Kurdistan Autonomous Region (Kurdish: Herêma Xweser a Kurdistanê; Arabic: منطقة كُردستان الذاتية minṭaqat kurdistān adh-dhātīyah), informally East Kurdistan (Rojhilata Kurdistanê; كُردستان الشرق kurdistān ash-sharq), is the only autonomous region of the Arab Union and one of only two administrative jurisdictions outside the 20 republics federated states of the Arab Union, alongside the federal capital of Nasser City. Located in the northeast of the country, the Kurdistan Autonomous Region borders two republics (federated states of the Arab Union): the Iraqi Arab Republic to the south and the Syrian Arab Republic to the west; as well as the sovereign states of Turkey to the north and Iran to the east.

Its capital and largest city is Erbil. The Kurdistan Autonomous Region is home to a population of approximately 7.48 million, about 75% of whom are ethnic Kurds, 10% Arabs, 7% Armenians, 5% Persians, and the remaining 3% representing migrant workers (about two-thirds originating from the Indian subcontinent and most of the remaining third from Maritime Southeast Asia).

Unlike the 20 republics of the Arab Union, which share sovereignty with the union as a whole as outlined in the constitution, the Kurdistan Autonomous Region is governed by a devolved authority. While this means the Kurdistan Autonomous Council can theoretically be dissolved unilaterally by the Arab Congress, in practice the region has the same level of autonomy as the republics, with the Kurdistan Autonomous Government functioning in much the same manner as a governorate (republican-level government) and its ministries and agencies responsible for the same scope of public administration–examples include the Kurdistan Regional Police, Kurdistan Correctional Administration and Kurdistan Fire and Rescue Service under the Ministry of Interior. In fact, in some areas the Kurdistan Autonomous Region experoences greater autonomy and self-direction than the republics, a prime example of this in education: while in the rest of the Arab Union, public education is overseen by the federal Ministry of Education, in Kurdistan, as the autonomous region's own education system uses the Kurdish language rather than Arabic, it is instead separately administered by the Kurdistan Public Education Authority, which creates and oversees its own curriculum as opposed to the uniformity imposed elsewhere in the country.