<P> Despite the signing of the March Agreement, relations between the Kurds and Iraqi government continued to deteriorate due to the unresolved status of Kirkuk, and there were two attempts to assassinate Barzani in 1972 . In response to Barzani's continued demands during the early 1970s for Kirkuk to be recognized as part of the autonomous region under the terms of the March Agreement, settlement construction for newly arrived Arab families increased drastically as the Ba'athist government implemented Arabization policies to increase the Arab population of Kirkuk . Kurds were forbidden from buying property in Kirkuk, and could sell their properities only to Arabs . They were denied permission to renovate properties in need of maintenance, and poor Shi'a Arab families were paid to move to Kirkuk, while Kurds were paid to move out . </P> <P> Negotiations between Barzani's Kurdish Democratic Party and the Iraqi government collapsed in March 1974 and Barzani rejected President Ahmed Hassan al - Bakr declaration of Kurdish autonomy . Many disputes persisted between the Kurds and Arabs and the conflict escalated into the Second Iraqi--Kurdish War (also called the Barzani rebellion). The rebellion collapsed after Iran withdrew it's support for Barzani's forces following the 1975 Algiers Agreement and the Ba'ath regime intensified Arabization efforts . </P> <P> After Barzani's rebellion was defeated in 1974, the districts of Chemchemal and Kelar, which had been part of Kirkuk, became part of Sulaymaniyah and Kifri became part of Diyala province . Other Arab - populated districts, like Zab, became part of Kirkuk . Kurds, Turkmen and Christian populations were forcibly relocated and replaced with Shi'a from Iraq's south . The expulsions continued after the 1991 uprisings . Kurdish villages were razed and thousands of new homes were built, including at least 200 homes for relatives of Iraqi soldiers killed during the Iran - Iraq War . Between 1968, when the Ba'ath Party first rose to power in Iraq, and 2003 between 200,000 and 300,000 persons were forcibly relocated out of Kirkuk . According to the Iraqi Ministry of Planning, by August 2005 (during the Iraq War), approximately 224,544 Kurds had returned to Kirkuk and 52,973 Arab persons had left the city . </P> <P> In 1972 the Iraqi government, led by then Vice-President Saddam Hussein, nationalized the Iraqi Petroleum Company (IPC), after being unable to reach an agreement that would increase oil exports and resolve a longstanding dispute over Law 80 of 1961 . The Iraqi government began to sell its oil to Eastern bloc countries and the IPC's French partner CFP . After reaching an agreement with the Iraqis in 1973, the IPC members were able to retain some of their interests in southern Iraq through the Basra Petroleum Company but had lost Iraq's main oilfields, including the Kirkuk field . </P>

Iraq's oil cities of kirkuk and mosul are located within the culture area of the