Iraq is to the northwest of the country that has a population of what as of 2016?
4.2 million
Iraq
Iraq ( , , or ; Arabic: العراق‎ ‎ "al-‘Irāq "; Kurdish: عێراق‎ "Eraq "), officially known as the Republic of Iraq (Arabic: جمهورية العراق‎ ‎ " "; Kurdish: کۆماری عێراق‎ "Komari Eraq ") is a country in Western Asia, bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, Kuwait to the southeast, Saudi Arabia to the south, Jordan to the southwest, and Syria to the west.
 The capital, and largest city, is Baghdad.
 The main ethnic groups are Arabs and Kurds; others include Assyrians, Turkmen, Shabakis, Yazidis, Armenians, Mandeans, Circassians, and Kawliya.
 Around 95% of the country's /1e6 round 0 million citizens are Muslims, with Christianity, Yarsan, Yezidism, and Mandeanism also present.
 The official languages of Iraq are Arabic and Kurdish.
Kuwait
Kuwait ( ; Arabic: الكويت‎ ‎ "al-Kuwait ", ] or ] ), officially the State of Kuwait (Arabic: دولة الكويت‎ ‎ "  "), is a country in Western Asia.
 Situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, it shares borders with Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
 s of 2016 , Kuwait has a population of 4.2 million people; 1.3 million are Kuwaitis and 2.9 million are expatriates.
 Expatriates account for 70% of the population.
Ilam Province
Ilam Province (Persian: استان ایلام‎ ‎ ) is one of the 31 provinces of Iran.
 In 2014 it was placed in Region 4.
 It is in the west of the country, bordering Iraq.
 Its provincial center is the city of Ilam.
 Covering an area of 19,086 square kilometers include Ilam, Mehran, Dehloran, Darreh Shahr, Sarable, Eyvan, Abdanan and Arkwaz cities.
 Ilam province shares its borders with 3 neighbor Iranian provinces and Iraq, Khuzestan province in the south, Lurestan province in the east, Kermanshah province in the north and Iraq in the west with 425 kilometers of common border.
 The population of the province is approximately 600,000 people (2015 estimate). Irreligion in Iraq
Irreligion is thought to be rare in Iraq, as the country which is still trying to overcome violence between Shias and Sunnis.
 There may only be as many as a few hundred self-described atheists in Iraq.
 According to a poll released in 2016, 11% of Iraqis don't believe in God.
 Exact numbers are unclear because many fear telling their friends and family about their belief.
 Some young Iraqis are turning away from Islam due to religious fundamentalism and the ongoing Civil war in Iraq. Iraqi-Assyrians
Iraqi Assyrians are an ethnoreligious and linguistic minority in present-day Iraq, and are the indigenous population of the region.
 Assyrians are about .5% of the population of Iraq.
 Assyrians in Iraq are those Assyrians still residing in the country of Iraq, and those in the Assyrian diaspora who are of Iraqi-Assyrian heritage.
 They are and have direct cultural and genetic lineage from the ancient Mesopotamians, in particular from the Akkadian peoples (Assyrians and Babylonians) who emerged in the region c.3000 BC, and the Aramean tribes who intermingled with them from the 9th century BC onwards. Religion in Iraq
Islam is the official religion of the Islamic republic of Iraq.
 Iraq is a multi ethnic and multi religious country with Islam, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Yazdanism, Shabakism, Judaism, Mandaeism, Bahā'i, Ahl-e Haqq-Yarsanis, Ishikism and numerous other religions all having a presence in the country.
 Shia Islam is the main religion in Iraq followed by 50-55% of the population, while Sunni Islam is followed by 32-37% of the people.
 Many cities throughout Iraq have been areas of historical prominence for both Shia and Sunni Muslims, including Najaf, Karbala, Baghdad and Samarra. Assyrian exodus from Iraq
The Assyrian exodus from Iraq refers to the mass flight and expulsion of ethnic Assyrians from Iraq, a process which was initiated from the beginning of Iraq War in 2003 and continues to this day.
 Leaders of Iraq's Assyrian community estimate that over two-thirds of the Iraqi Assyrian population may have fled the country or been internally displaced since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 until 2011.
 Reports suggest that whole neighborhoods of Assyrians have cleared out in the cities of Baghdad and Basra, and that Sunni insurgent groups and militias have threatened Assyrians.
 Following the campaign of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in northern Iraq in August 2014, one quarter of the remaining Iraqi Assyrians fled the Jihadists, finding refuge in Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan. Battle of Haditha Dam
One of the largest dams in the world, the Haditha complex provided fully one-third of the Iraqi electrical grid load in 2003.
 Located northwest of Baghdad, the dam was built during the Cold War to provide hydroelectric power for central Iraq, including Baghdad.
 The Haditha Dam also controlled the flow of the Euphrates into the lower Euphrates/Tigris River Valley.
 During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, United States Army Rangers seized the Haditha Dam on 1 April in order to prevent it from being destroyed.
 The destruction of the dam would have significantly affected the functioning of the country's electrical grid and could cause major flooding downstream from the dam.
 Along with providing flood control and a third of Iraq’s electrical generation capacity, the dam provided the only other crossing of the Euphrates River west of Baghdad.
 An additional bonus would be by capturing both locations the Iraqi Army would drawn away from their defense of Baghdad, which was under assault by the US Army V Corps.
 However, the Iraqi high command were not ignorant of the dam’s strategic value, and they had stationed a powerful defensive force in and around the Haditha Dam. Turkey
Turkey ( ; Turkish: "Türkiye" ] ), officially the Republic of Turkey (Turkish:    ; ] ), is a transcontinental country in Eurasia, mainly in Anatolia in Western Asia, with a smaller portion on the Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe.
 Turkey is bordered by eight countries: Greece and Bulgaria to the northwest; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan and Iran to the east; Iraq and Syria to the south.
 The country is encircled by seas on three sides: the Aegean Sea is to the west, the Black Sea to the north, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south.
 The Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles, which together form the Turkish Straits, divide Thrace and Anatolia; they also separate Europe and Asia.
 Ankara is the capital while Istanbul is the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre.
 Approximately 70–80% of the country's citizens identify themselves as ethnic Turks.
 Other ethnic groups include legally recognised (Armenians, Greeks, Jews) and unrecognised (Kurds, Arabs, Circassians, Albanians, Bosniaks, Georgians, etc.) minorities.
 Kurds are the largest ethnic minority group, making up approximately 20% of the population. Kurds in Iraq
Kurds in Iraq (Kurdish: کوردانی باشووری کوردستان / کوردانی عێڕاق‎ ) are people born in or residing in Iraq who are of Kurdish origin.
 The Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Iraq, comprising between 15% and 20% of the country's population according to the CIA World Factbook.