Udenrigsudvalget 2014-15 (1. samling)
URU Alm.del Bilag 103
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Briefing Note
The Turkmen Reality in Iraq
Introduction
November 2013
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The Iraqi Turkmen are a minority of just under 3 million, predominantly present in the Iraqi provinces of Mosul,
Erbil, Kirkuk, Salahaddin and Diyal, Baghdad and Wasit. They represent the third largest ethnic group in Iraq (13%
of the population).
Kirkuk is considered by the Turkmen as their capital city. This area, within the ‘Turkmen’ region of Iraq, produces
nearly 70% of the Iraqi petroleum and 2.2% of the world’s.
They are primarily politically represented by The Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITF).This organization includes all Turkmen
parties and movements such as the INTP (Iraqi National Turkmen Party)
1
; the Turkmeneli Party (TP) ; the Adalet
party (AP); the Islamic Movement of Iraqi Turkmens (IMIT); and the Independents Movement. It also includes the
Turkmen Nationalist Movement (TNM), the Turkmen Wafa Movement, and the Islamic Union of Iraqi Turkmens
(IUIT).
Historical Background
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Originating from Central Asia, the Turkmen are descendants of the
Oghuz tribes. The decline of their influence first began after the collapse
of the Ottoman Empire.
Throughout the 1920’s both Turkmen and Kurd minorities resisted British
authority and the Hejazi Hashemite monarchy, and as a result the
cultural rights of Turkmen communities were gradually eroded. In the
1930s a rapid demographic change produced ethnic tension, and
Turkmen communities began to feel the effects of marginalisation.
Violence continued to escalate until 1959, when communist and
separatist militias massacred Turkmen leaders along with hundreds of
Turkmens in the city of Kerkuk. Tensions were later exacerbated even
further with the establishment of Ba’ath Party rule in 1968. The 1970s
where in fact characterised by other breaches of Turkmen human rights
such as the ‘Arabisation of Kirkuk’ in 1971, and by their discrimination
through employment opportunities, unfair dismissals, deliberate
measures to worsen their living conditions, forced displacement and
deportation, and interference with their right of ownership.
2
After seizing power in 1979, Saddam Hussein’s regime instigated a campaign of intensive “Arabisation”,
systematically expelling the Turkmen, instead promoting the resettlement of the Arab population. This period of
persecution effectively destroyed Turkmen civil society, forcing many of its political institutions underground or into
exile abroad.
Unfortunately, despite the regime change in Iraq in 2003, the Turkmen tragedy continues. Many Iraqi Turkmen
communities believe that their historical presence and influence has remained marginalised during the process of
reconstructing the Iraqi state, and that more has to be done to correct the past injustices they have suffered.
1
1
2
Led and founded by Dr. Muzaffer Arslan, who also represents the Iraqi Turkmen in UNPO.
And also suppression and intensive assimilation policies, forced cultural erosion that ranged from political persecution and
exile, to terror, massacres and ethnic cleansing. (Large numbers of Turkmen intellectuals were accused of political activities and
disappeared after their arrest during the Baathist regime; nothing has been heard of them since.)
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 URU, Alm.del - 2014-15 (1. samling) - Bilag 103: Henvendelse af 2. februar 2015 fra Dansk Turkmensk Venskabsforening om situationen for turkmenere i Irak
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Briefing Note
Social and Economic Issues
November 2013
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The confiscation of land (‘Land Grabbing’) was one of the major features of the assimilation policies of the Ba’ath
regime.
The village of Beshir, situated South West of Kirkuk city, presents a perfect case study of the consequences of
such policies. The inhabitants of Beshir were landowners and farmers, whose ancestors had settled in the area
several centuries ago. During the Ottoman rule, Beshir’s inhabitants officially registered their lands in their names,
and were issued official land property certificates, which they renewed in 1921.
In the early 1980s, after the start of the Iraq-Iran war, Iraqi security forces arrested and executed hundreds of
intellectuals from the village, accusing them of being activists in the outlawed Islamic Da’wa Party. In 1986, while
the young men of Beshir were fighting in the war against Iran, their families were given 48 hours to pack their
personal effects and leave their homes.
Houses were razed to the ground and agricultural lands were confiscated, to be later given to Arabs brought by the
Ba’ath regime. Each Arab family was given 10.000 Iraqi Dinars in cash as an incentive to build their house on
Turkmen lands, while the Turkmen families received no compensation.
Meanwhile the former regime had arabised the name of the village calling it “Al-Bashir” instead of Beshir.
In 2003 when the U.S. military occupied northern Iraq, they did not take control of the area around Beshir and the
Arabs which had been installed there by the previous regime remained in the village. The original Turkmen
inhabitants of Beshir started to return, demanding their lands. However, the property dispute remained unsettled.
Nearly a decade has passed since this ‘agreement’ and the Arabs still refuse to leave Beshir. The original Turkmen
families of Beshir who were victims of deportation, in 2005 handed their complaints together with copies of their
deeds to the Property Claims Commission in order to retrieve their confiscated lands and be compensated for the
destruction of their houses and for their loss of earnings since 1986, but the Iraqi authorities have not yet
responded.
In the Kerkuk province, 80% of the land was Turkmen-owned. In spite of property legislation demanding the return
of seized lands, there are currently still 41,874 complaints registered with the local Property Claims Commission.
Of these complaints, only 3,236 cases have been decided. Since 2005 therefore, approximately only 2.000 out of
45.000 files belonging to Turkmens have been processed. This fact alone stands as evidence of
discrimination
against the Turkmens.
2
Security Challenges
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It remains challenging to illustrate the extent to which the Turkmen community in Iraq has been exposed to ethnic
cleansing for decades without having been attended to by the international community. Permanently fears of
explosive power struggles lurk, particularly over the control of the ‘powder-keg’ city of Kirkuk. These only serve to
further place the minority in a precarious position.
The Tal Afer district of Iraq was attacked twice by helicopters, tanks and tens of thousands of soldiers in 2004 and,
a year later, in 2005, 1,350 were left dead and 2,650 were wounded. In December 2007, a suicide bombing in
Kirkuk shook its residents and stoked security fears, killing at least 55, and injuring another 120. On 17 December
2012, the bodies of two abducted teachers were found near the Humera village (which is located 35km south of
Kirkuk) both carrying signs of torture and bullets. The death of these two individuals generated deep reactions
among the Turkmen, as in the view of many the two teachers were killed for sectarian reasons and only for being
Turkmen. In January 2013, a crowded tent full of Turkmen mourners in Tuz Khurmato was transformed into a mass
killing ground by a suicide bombing with genocidal intent, that left at least 35 people dead and 117 wounded.
Due to a media emphasis on the Iraqi Kurdish minority, Western perspectives of realities in Northern Iraq have
become slightly distorted. As an example, human rights violations against the Kurds have often been highlighted,
while violations committed against other communities in the region have largely been ignored.
On 14 March 2013, the European Parliament adopted a Resolution (welcomed by the UNPO) on the plight of
minority groups in Iraq, and specifically the Iraqi Turkmen. The resolution states that the European Parliament
condemns the recent attacks on the Turkmen community and affirms that ‘despite the reference in the Constitution
Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization • www. unpo.org • +32 25 13 14 59 • [email protected]
 URU, Alm.del - 2014-15 (1. samling) - Bilag 103: Henvendelse af 2. februar 2015 fra Dansk Turkmensk Venskabsforening om situationen for turkmenere i Irak
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Briefing Note
November 2013
to the rights of Turkmen and other minorities, these minorities continue to be plagued by ethnic sectarian violence
and discrimination’.
On 18 June 2013, Lady Catherine Ashton also issued a statement encouraging the address of political and
governance issues in Iraq through dialogue.
On 25 November 2013, the United Nations Security Council made a statement on the violence in Iraq, stressing the
need to bring those responsible for the violence to justice and calling on Governments to cooperate with Iraqi
authorities to hold the perpetrators to account. This is a welcome step to put an end to this conflict, but clearly
much more remains to be done.
Human Rights Concerns
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Perhaps one of the most noteworthy aspects characterising Iraq constitutionally is the fact that, to date, it
possesses no comprehensive minority rights or anti-discrimination law at the level of ordinary legislation. What is
furthermore notable about the international standards is that Iraq is not a signatory to the ILO Convention, No. 169
on the rights of indigenous and tribal peoples in independent countries.
The unfortunate consequences of this lack of implementations are evident in the UNAMI report on Human Rights
concerns of January to June 2012, which documents a countless number of violations in regards to the Turkmen
minority, including the afore mentioned imminent threat to civilians’ security, arising from frequent terrorist attacks.
Other noteworthy bearings include the mistreatment of Turkmen detainees in Iraqi prisons, the unregulated
enforcement of capital punishment, several recorded incidents of children victimised by human rights abuses, and
the recurrent disappearances and suspected executions of Turkmen intellectuals and health practitioners.
3
Additionally, the poor living conditions of the Turkmen population in heavily neglected areas (such as the district of
Talafar) - due to an absence or lack of government’s provisions in terms of resources - the challenges faced by the
barely surviving Turkmen education in local schools, and the frequent bombing of religious sites (in the last 12
years over 65 churches were destroyed in the region) remain constant sources of a growing preoccupation.
3
UNPO Activities
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Raising awareness of issues vital to the welfare of Iraqi communities has been one of the organisation’s main
concerns. Activities directed at improving UNPO’s members’ political and humanitarian situations have been
conducted through advocacy, campaigning, and the holding of events within a number of other political institutions.
These include the organisation of two conferences, held respectively in 2007 and 2008 at the European Parliament
on the human rights situation of Iraqi Turkmen, specifically in the area of Kirkuk. In 2013, UNPO also launched two
urgent appeals towards the protection of the Iraqi Turkmen minority, the first to the European Parliament, and the
latter to several Special Rapporteurs in Geneva and the Independent Expert on Minority Issues in Iraq. This
resulted in the passing of a European Parliament Resolution on the plight of the Turkmen.
UNPO has further carried out an Election Observation Mission in the Nineveh Plain in Iraq in 2009 in collaboration
with ACE (Assyrian Council of Europe) and published a report entitled “The Last Generation: The Situation of
Assyrians in Northern Iraq”, which was the result of a Fact Finding Mission organised in collaboration with ACE and
the Finnish Assyrian Association in 2011. A second Election Observation of Presidential and Parliamentary
Elections was also carried out in the Kurdistan region of Iraq in 2009.
In 2013, UNPO actively participated in several events commemorating the 25
th
Anniversary of the Halabja
Massacre, including a conference.
3
There is evidence that at least 46 Turkmen health practitioners in the province of Kirkuk alone were threatened, kidnapped or
killed since April 2003. The accounted number of missing persons in Iraq (which includes Turkmens) between 2003 and 2010
hovers around 137,520. 14 mass graves were recently discovered in the Kerkuk Region.
Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization • www. unpo.org • +32 25 13 14 59 • [email protected]