Tag: TURKMEN

The Turkmen

The Author

Mofak Salman Kerkuklu graduated in England with a BSc in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Oxford Brookes University and completed an MSc in Medical Electronics and Physics at London University, and an MSc in Computing Science and Information Technology At South Bank University.
The author was born in Turkmen Subdistrict of Altunkopru in district of Numra Sekiz (District Of Debis).

He is also a Chartered Engineer from the Institution of Engineers of Ireland, Mr Mofak Salman Is the author of Brief History of Iraqi Turkmens, Turkmens of Iraq, Turkmen city of Tuz Khormatu, A report into Kurdish Abuse in Turkmeneli, The Plight of The Iraqi Turkmens, and Altunkopru, The ancient Turkmen city.

He has had numerous articles published in various newspapers and websites.

PUBLICATION F Download

September 10, 2024
There is no Kurdish Nation – Unmasking an Orientalist Fabrication able only to generate Conflicts

September 19, 2014
Iraq’s Kurds Lose Political Dominance In Kirkuk

Turkomans demonstrate in Kirkuk in 2006, demanding recognition of their ethnic group’s status in the disputed region.

March 19, 2010

By Charles Recknagel

Before the March 7 parliamentary elections in Iraq, there was no question of who dominated politics in mixed-population Kirkuk — it was the two main political factions in the neighboring Kurdish autonomous region.

But with the vote count from Kirkuk city and its surrounding Tamin Province about 80 percent complete, it is clear that the political landscape is dramatically changing.

The partial vote count shows the secular Al-Iraqiyah coalition and the Kurdistan Alliance in a virtual tie, with the balance between them shifting by only wafer-thin differences as the vote tally rises.

If the current balance holds, it means that the divided province’s Turkoman and Arab populations will have a much louder political voice than before. That in turn could complicate Kurdish hopes of one day incorporating oil-rich Kirkuk into their autonomous region.

Turkoman politicians in Kirkuk make no secret of the fact that they competed in the parliamentary contest precisely with that goal in mind.

United Against Kurdish Ambitions

Hicran Kazanci head of the foreign relations department of the Iraqi Turkoman Front, tells RFE/RL’s Turkmen Service that Turkoman candidates enlisted in a variety of coalitions for the March 7 race. But he says they all agree on one thing.

“Despite the fact the Turkomans went into the election with different coalitions, on major and essential subjects they are united,” Kazanci says. “For example, about the future status of Kirkuk, all of them are united in opposition toward annexing Kirkuk into any federation. And they are united in making Turkoman one of Iraq’s official languages.”

A map Iraq’s ethnic makeup

Turkoman and Arab politicians made up the vast bulk of Al-Iraqiyah’s candidates in the local race, coming for the first time under a single political umbrella in the divided province. That is in sharp contrast to much of Kirkuk’s recent history, where the three main population groups — Kurdish, Turkoman, and Arab — have all competed against each other.

In the years immediately following the United States’ toppling of Saddam Hussein, both Turkomans and Arabs boycotted attempts to form a provincial government. They expressed anger over what they said were Kurdish efforts to appropriate the province de facto after moving Kurdish peshmerga fighters into the area to support the U.S. invasion.

The Turkomans and Arabs only agreed to take part in the running of the province after a power-sharing deal in 2008. Under that deal, the provincial governor is a Kurd while his two deputies are an Arab and a Turkoman.

But Kirkuk’s provincial parliament is still disputed after Arabs and Turkomans largely stayed away from the first election in 2005, handing the Kurds a majority. The Iraqi government excluded Tamin Province from the January 2009 provincial elections due to fears of sparking sectarian unrest.

Given this background, the fact that this month’s elections for deputies to the national parliament went peacefully in Tamin Province is a major surprise. To ensure security, the Iraqi police fielded 56 mobile patrols in Kirkuk city on election day, while Kurdish peshmerga also spread out less obtrusively across the provincial capital.

Simira Balay, a correspondent for RFE/RL’s Radio Free Iraq, says the Kurdish coalition was caught unawares by the election results, after it “had expected to dominate the election, but it seems the Kurdish vote split among a number of Kurdish parties, including Goran.” She says Kurdish bloc “now is neck and neck with the Iraqiyah list, which got most of the Turkoman and Arab vote.”

The Kurdish coalition comprises the Kurdistan Democratic Party and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. Goran, a recently created Kurdish opposition party, scored well in recent elections by running on an anticorruption platform.

Resolving Kirkuk Issue

In the aftermath of the elections, Kurdish political leaders — like their Turkoman counterparts — are stressing unity in their position over Kirkuk.

The Kurds see the city as the natural and historic capital of the Kurdish region in northern Iraq. And they insist upon holding a referendum in the province to determine its future status.

“The issue of Kirkuk is [already] in the Iraqi political arena to be solved in accordance with Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution,” says Rizgar Ali, the Kurdish head of Kirkuk’s provincial council.

Major steps under Article 140 include resolving property disputes created by Hussein’s policy of “Arabizing” Kirkuk, the holding of a census and conducting a referendum to decide the province’s future status.

To date, progress on all these steps has been painfully slow. Most property disputes remain unresolved and unrest in northern Iraq has prevented a census. The referendum, originally planned for no later than the end of 2007, has slipped accordingly.

That limbo is unacceptable to the Kurds, who are sure to use their full representation in the Baghdad parliament, including deputies from the Kurdish region, to continue to press for swift implementation of Article 140.

But it is likely that both the Turkomans and Arabs will use their new voice in the federal legislature to try to subject Article 140 to further negotiation.

According to Rakan Said, the Arab deputy governor of Kirkuk, the election results “laid the ground for dialogue.” He adds that now there are “two parties to the issue of Kirkuk: one is Al-Iraqiyah and the other is the Kurdish coalition. So the platform [for dialogue] has become clear and without interference.”

New Political Landscape

Al-Iraqiyah, headed by former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, ran on a nonsectarian, nationalist platform. Its success on the national level as a joint front-runner with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s State of Law coalition has appeared to realign Iraqi politics by relegating sectarian- and ethnic-based parties to the background.

With some 80 percent of the vote counted nationwide, the Shi’ite religious parties’ Iraqi National Alliance are in third place and the Kurdistan Alliance in fourth. Still, Iraqi parliamentary politics is all about making coalitions and in the past the Kurds have proved adept at playing the role of kingmakers.

Whether the Kurdish parties can continue to do so now, or are relegated to a less prominent role, will directly affect Kirkuk’s eventual status. The Kurds want it to be part of Iraqi Kurdistan. And the newly empowered Kirkuk Turkoman-Arab bloc is just as determined to play the spoiler.

Kurds, Arabs, and Turkomans all claim the province around Kirkuk based on a long historical presence in the area.

The Turkic-speaking Turkomans, who claim to be the second-largest group in northern Iraq after the Kurds, trace their presence to the time of the Seljuk Empire, when migrating Turkic tribes conquered a vast expanse of territory stretching from modern Iran to Turkey.

Muhammad Tahir of RFE/RL’s Turkmen Service contributed to this report

https://www.rferl.org/a/Iraqs_Kurds_Lose_Political_Dominance_In_Kirkuk/1988609.html

March 20, 2010
A CALL TO THE FREE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD

Turkistan Newsletter Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:55:27
Turkistan Bulteni ISSN:1386-6265
Uze Tengri basmasar asra yer telinmeser, Turk bodun ilining torugin
kem artati, udaci erti. [Bilge Kagan in Orkhon inscriptions]
<<>><<>><>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><

A CALL TO THE FREE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD

There has been another vicious attack on the peaceful Turkmen people of Iraq. On Saturday June 21, 2009, a truck bomb exploded in the busiest center of the town of Tuz Khurmatu (pop. 15000), 10 miles south of Kerkuk, at noon, killing more than 75 and wounding more than 200.

This has been the latest in the chain of attacks against the Turkmens in
Telafer, Kerkuk, Tuz Khurmatu and Amirli. Those attacks are particularly
are directed upon the armless and defenseless Turkmens who are not allowed by the governing circles in Iraq to have any defense forces, where others have. The Iraqi police and army failed to stop these attacks in past and it will not be able to achieve that in the future.

We are asking the President of Iraq, Mr. Talabani, the Prime Minister, Mr.
Maliki and all political parties and members of the Iraqi parliament, to
allow the Turkmens their right to defend themselves and form the law
enforcement units of each locality from the local Turkmens. In small communities, local police members, usually recognize outsiders, who might be suspected terrorists.

We in the Union of the Diaspora Turkmens (UDT) ask all the free peoples and
organizations of the world to help us by putting pressure from their side,
upon the Iraqi government and the parliament to grant the Turkmens their
right to defend themselves and form the law enforcement units of each
locality from the local Turkmens.

Otherwise these tragedies and the human suffering will continue.

UNION OF THE DIASPORA TURKMENS
(UDT)
turkmencenter@yahoo.com

June 22, 2009
Some In Kirkuk Fear Kurds Will Replace U.S. Forces

June 18, 2009

KIRKUK, Iraq — Turkoman and Arab politicians in the multiethnic Iraqi city of Kirkuk are concerned that Kurdish forces will fill the void after U.S. forces leave, RFE/RL’s Radio Free Iraq reports.

Ali Mahdi, a spokesman for the Turkoman bloc on the Kirkuk provincial council, said that when U.S. forces withdraw on June 30 “we want the government to replace them with Iraqi forces from the middle and south because Kirkuk’s security forces are predominantly Kurdish.”

Muhammad Khalil al-Juburi, a member of the provincial council’s Arab bloc, said that most of the Arab fighters fighting Al-Qaeda as members of the Awakening Councils “are stationed outside the city of Kirkuk and until all ethnic groups are fairly represented in the city’s security agencies and administration, we propose that Iraqi forces replace U.S. troops.”

But Layla Hassan, a member of the Kurdish bloc on the council, said the Turkoman and Arab concerns are “unfounded” and deploying Arab forces from the south would be “counterproductive.”

She added that “such a move would be unconstitutional as Kirkuk is recognized by all parties as a disputed area.”

U.S. forces have often been called on to mediate ethnic confrontations in the oil-rich region.

https://www.rferl.org/a/Some_In_Kirkuk_Fear_Kurds_Will_Replace_US_Forces/1757185.html

June 18, 2009
The unconstructive role

NYTurkishtimes published.
Evaluation of the Turkmen policy of Turkey

S O İ T M

Iraqi Turkmen Human Rights Research Foundation

There are several important factors which influence the development of the Turkmen political structure negatively, such as; the long history of isolation, exposure to the fierce assimilation policies and remaining in between two stronger nationalist communities; the Arabs and Kurds.

However, disregarding the Turkmen communal interests and the absence of co-operation and solidarity between Turkmen political groups can be considered as the most destructive factors to the Turkmen political system since the establishment of the Safe Haven area, particularly after, the occupation of Iraq.

Today, the political authority of the Iraqi Turkmen is feeble and has no power of influence.

Being the most powerful and receiver of sizeable external support, the Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITF) holds the primary responsibility for the retardation of the Turkmen political system. [1]

ITF:

* Is one of the most important obstacles in front of reforming the Turkmen political system. It refuses calls for any type of reform. The Turkmen Council which is administered by the same source is a poppet organization representing only one political view
* Is dominated by several families
* Suffers from destructive internal disagreements
* Could not gain and/or lost the support of most of the Iraqi Turkmen population and the support of the Iraqi Turkmen intellectuals and politicians.
* Is marginalized inside and outside Iraq
* Deliberately and ignorantly introduced the fundamentalist – secular discrimination into the Turkmen politics
* Its’ employment policy in the administration has:
o Openly diverted the power of the ITF, frequently, against the Turkmen national interests
o Made the Turkmen of Iraq fail to get political and logistic support from several important national, regional and international powers

The continuation of this state of affairs is certainly going to further deteriorate the Turkmen political structure and expose the Turkmen population to further disappointments while several serious challenges are approaching in the upcoming periods.

The important characteristics of the ITF system, which renders it ineffectual and inhibit its development, are:

* Several organs elect themselves, for example, the Turkmen council elects the delegation of the Turkmen Congress which elects the Turkmen council. As a result, the Turkmen council elects itself.
* The Turkmen council elects the nine members of the ITF’s executive board which elects the president of ITF. The president has absolute executive control and dominates the decision making mechanism.[2]
* The Turkmen council which was instituted as the highest Turkmen authority, remained ineffective.
* Some important offices were headed by members of the same family, in some other offices there are several members from one family.
* Dramatic variations between the expenditure of the offices.
* The expenses are greatly inflated which makes great corruptions certainly possible.
* Even simple disloyalty to the ITF will result in marginalizing or dismissing the person and his relatives who work in the ITF

The source of finance of the ITF is Turkmeneli Foundation; its headquarters is in Ankara. When the present president of ITF was elected in 2005 (in fact was appointed!) one of his relatives was appointed as the head of the Turkmeneli Foundation.

Certifying authorities of finance expenditures from the Turkmeneli Foundation are as follows: First, the owner of the ITF should agree to any type of spending, [1] then the president of the ITF and then the president of the Turkmeneli Foundation.

Continued accusation of the Turkmeneli Foundation and the Iraqi Turkmen Front for corruptions and maladministration are resulted also from the followings:

The inflated spending during the unplanned and ill-programmed annual summer meetings of the ITF for the Diaspora Turkmen organizations in Ankara.

* The huge spending during the protest meeting in Ankara in spring 2007
* The spending during the Iraqi elections of 2005.
* The great differences between the budgets of the offices of the ITF.

No doubt that the freedom of expression, speech and press is considered a blessing in a democracy. This is built on the assumption that projects can be improved and developed, issues can be treated and problems can be solved if discussed.

Due to several factors, the Turkmen community, almost completely, does not publish self-criticism; furthermore, those who do it, meet great resistance. This can be considered as one of the major factors which had deteriorated the Turkmen political structure and inhibited the developments. Today, the Turkmen political structure is powerless and vulnerable.

Nowadays while the provincial elections are approaching, the Turkmen intellectual, writers and politicians are all silent about the clearly expectable defeat in the elections.

The failure of the ITF had been proved during the Iraqi general elections of 2005. The ninety thousand votes which ITF got in the election of January 2005 was decreased to seventy thousands in the election of December 2005. Worth noting that ITF:

Claims that it is the only legal representative of the Turkmen of Iraq

* Was the only Turkmen list in the aforementioned elections
* Estimates the number of the Iraqi Turkmen around 3 millions.

The Turkmen population which suffers from several threatening challenges and weaknesses of its’ national power centers, has been obliged to accept the defeat. Disregarding the huge threats to the Turkmen national rights, the ITF political system remained unchanged.

Today, the Turkmen of Iraq prepare to participate in the upcoming elections by the same defeated ITF:

The absence of Turkmen public support to the ITF can be clearly detected by a simple poll in the streets of Kerkuk

* In the other Turkmen regions, the ITF suffer from even bigger problems

In this state of affairs, the expected number of Turkmen representatives in the Iraqi parliament and in the city councils will be:

* Severely decreased
* Disproportional with the size of the Turkmen in Iraq.
* Insufficient to defend the Iraqi Turkmen and not able to deal with the huge violation of the Turkmen rights

Therefore, the authorities of, particularly the owner, [1] of the ITF will hold the historical responsibilities of the defeats and losses from which the Turkmen of Iraq suffer since the early 1990s.

Wealthy cultural heritage, high percentage of educated people, the large population size and the strategic geopolitical region can be considered as the important factors which made the Turkmen of Iraq resist several decades of suppression and preserve their language and culture. Consequently, presence of powerful Turkmen political structure will help to balance the national conflicts inside Iraq and support the national and regional stability.

The revival of the Turkmen Council and freeing it from subordination, is one of the options to rescue the Turkmen political system. The Turkmen intellectuals, particularly those who played important roles in defending the Turkmen rights during the most dangerous Baath period, should be allowed to participate in the Turkmen political processes and compete for the membership of the Turkmen council. [3] The sectarian and regional discriminations in Turkmen policy should be abandoned. The Turkmen council should be opened to all the Turkmen political and civil society organizations. The Turkmen Shi’a parties, which have important numbers of parliamentarians, should be included in the Turkmen council. The Turkmen television should be handed to the professionals and sufficiently staffed. The political parties should enlarge the basic substructures and number of members. The support of the national and regional powers should be ensured.

To remove the impression of political loyalty and to increase the number and efficacy of the Turkmen civil society organizations, the funds should be established to enable them to realize their projects. The Turkmen institutions should be established and/or improved, for example, media, culture, sport, music and literature.

_______________________

Reference

* The Iraqi Turkmen front was founded by the Turkish army in 1995.
* In April 2008 and due to the despotic administration of the president of ITF, seven of the nine members of the executive board published a press release and ousted the president. Ankara refused to accept the ousting operation and demanded the change to be done through the 5th Turkmen Congress. Two Turkmen sent from Ankara and with continuous remote control, the fifth Turkmen Congress was organized, like a staged theater play. During the Congress, four of the seven members of the executive board, who expelled the ITF president and were presidents of four political parties under the ITF umbrella, were expelled out of the ITF. The other three, who were the heads of ITF offices in different regions, were silenced. The president remained unchanged.

1. The largest numbers of well known Turkmen politicians, writers, high-ranking officials, academics, high-ranking retired officers, legislators could not have opportunity to participate in the Turkmen political processes.

February 27, 2009