TURKMEN TERRORIZED BY THE US FORCES
Mr.Falah Hassan Younis is a Turkmen citizen and a member of the Iraqi Turkmen Advisory Council in Kerkuk who works as a Director of the sub district of Alaiyaziya which is a link to the Turkmen district of Telafer. Currently he is in charge of the district in the absence of its councillor.
On the 25th of the December Mr. Falah Hassan Younis was summoned by the American forces for a meeting and Mr. Falah Hassan was obliged to attend at the request of the American forces. He attended the meeting with the US forces while he was accompanied by his bodyguards.
During the meeting with the American counterpart his body guards were disarmed by the American forces as this was backed up by the Iraqi Turkmen Front representative in the Turkmen District of Telafer Mr. Nabil Harbu.
Mr.Falah Hassan Younis and his body guards were physically abused and beaten badly by the US forces.
Mr.Falah Hassan Younis and one of his body guards were detained by the US forces whereas the remaining body guards were released. Then both the body guards were handed over to the Iraqi forces in the city of Mosul. As the election approaches in Iraq, they would like to silence the voice of the Turkmen; various steps have been taken by Kurdish parties and American forces to do this.
However, the Turkmen, Arabs, and Chaldo Assyrians had high expectations of the interim administration established after April 9, 2003. The Turkmen expected to see democracy, fairness, an end to discrimination, the right to self-determination and an end to violence. Unfortunately, the opposite has occurred regarding the human rights situation in Iraq, in particular concerning the Iraqi Turkmen. The Turkmen have been subject to campaigns by the Kurds and the American in Turkmeneli in an often more brutal fashion than carried out on Kurds by Saddam Hussein.
The arbitrary arrests of the Turkmen citizen Mr. Falah Hassan Younis US force is a clear violation of human rights. They are still detained and being imprisoned by the Iraqi forces and no one knows where they are imprisoned. The most striking thing is that, the detainees have not been given any reason for their arrest and have not been given access for a lawyer.
Turkmen of Iraq call upon the Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri AlMaliki, Turkish President Abdullah Gul, Journalists Union, all Iraqi and international organizations defending the human rights and freedom to move immediately to the authorities of the Iraqi government at the highest levels for the protection of the Turkmen, Arabs and Assyrian from the Kurdish and American oppression that are carried out under the pretext of fighting of the terrors.
Mofak Salman
Turkmeneli Party Representative for Both Ireland and United Kingdom
[1] Turkmen: The Iraqi Turkmen live in an area that they call “Turkmenia” in Latin or Turkmeneli” which means, “Land of the Turkmen. It was referred to as “Turcomania” by the British geographer William Guthrie in 1785. The Turkmen are a Turkic group that has a unique heritage and culture as well as linguistic, historical and cultural links with the surrounding Turkic groups such as those in Turkey and Azerbaijan. Their spoken language is closer to Azeri but their official written language is like the Turkish spoken in present-day Turkey. Their real population has always being suppressed by the authorities in Iraq for political reasons and estimated at 2%, whereas in reality their numbers are more realistically between 2.5 to 3 million, i .e. 12% of the Iraqi population.
[2] Turkmeneli is a diagonal strip of land stretching from the Syrian and Turkish border areas from
around Telafer in the north of Iraq, reaching down to the town of Mendeli on the Iranian border in Central Iraq. The Turkmen of Iraq settled in Turkmeneli in three successive and constant migrations from Central Asia, this increased their numbers and enabled them to establish six states in Iraq.