“I was thrown into a Kirkuk prison,
They added me to the list of oppressed,
They branded one part of me with fire, Mom
There’s no crime or a sin I’ve committed, they burned me
The mothers who ran from the Turkmen tents
Now have no home, no residence, no residence
The sounds of me yelling would make the heavens shake
For sure one the years will smile at us, smile at us“
This ballad is about the Turkmen whose presence in the region can be traced back to the Sumerians and who, despite being one of the most indigenous groups in Iraq, were subjected to various policies of assimilation since the foundation of the Iraqi state. One of the latest examples of these policies was a decision taken by the Iraqi Prime Ministry to ban the usage of the Turkmen language in government correspondence. (1)
As a result of the received response, 2 of the decisions were reverted. Nevertheless this attempt shows that despite showing their allegiance to the Iraqi government, the Iraqi Turkmens are being ignored.
Additionally, despite the fact that the federal forces restored their control over the Kirkuk and Tuzhurmatu regions after 2017, attacks on the Iraqi Turkmens didn’t stop. On 3d March the former security official of the Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITF) Ahmet Tahir Ismail, was killed as a result of an explosion of a bomb planted in his car. Such an attack is unfortunately not a surprise since the elections are expected to be held this year.
The former ITF el-Askeri Bureau official Alaaddin Salihi as well as a young Turkmen academician Ali Elamas were both murdered before the general elections in 2018.
The struggles that the Turkmens experience is not new, the different governments of Iraq, including the government under the US occupation since 2003, the Turkmens didn’t get any rights. Although there are multiple reasons for that, the most obvious one is the assumption that the Turkmens are not native to this region, that they’re a legacy of the Ottoman Empire and that empowering them would empower Turkiye.
This was a tragedy of the post-Ottoman era leading up to the 2003 occupation.
The Turkmens who are thought to be descendents of the Oghuz Turks, migrated to the Mesopotamian region from Central Asia step by step during the Umayyad, Seljuk and the Ottoman rule. They first came to this region in the 7th century and consolidated their presence during the Ottoman rule in the 16th century.
Weakening of the Ottoman Empire and occupation of Baghdad by the British in WW1 Were the first signs of the period which will be filled with tragedy for the Turkmen people. In Mosul on 8th November of 1918 the Iraqi Turks tried to fight against the British hegemony. Some of the groups started the “Kacakac” revolution in the Turkmen city of Telafer, when in 1916 the head of Mekke Faysal the son of Huseyin who conducted an uprising against the Ottomans in an agreement with the British conducted a referendum for the creation of the Kingdom of Iraq, the Turkmens boycotted the referendum. During that period conspiracies and murders of the Turkmens occured.
Finally, the treaty of Lausanne and the treaty of a friendly neighbourhood of 1926 between the UK, Iraq and Turkiye was signed. However, these treaties didn’t whatsoever protect the Kurdish rights.
Even after the Kingdom was replaced by the Republic in Iraq in 1958 the murders of the Turkmens continued. During the celebrations which occured in the first year of the Republic on 14th july 1959, the crowd was fired upon, afterwards for days the threats against the Turkmens were turned into murder and torture. The Ballad of the Kirkuk Prison was written about the murders. Behind the attacks was Molla Mustafa Barzani – leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party who was against the presence of the Turkmen people in the new Iraqi Republic.
Saddam Hussein, who took power in 1979, ordered to hang leaders of the Turkmen people on 16 January 1980.
The harshest measures against the Turkmens were taken by the leadership of the Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party.
For instance, hundreds of Turkmen intellectuals were detained and sent into the southern regions. The Social Cultural activities of the Turkmen people were banned, tens of Turkmen villages and towns were destroyed with various pretexts.
Historical Turkish works in the region were destroyed.
The original Turkmen names of the cities, municipalities, villages and neighbourhoods were changed to Arab names.
The government took over thousands of hectares of land and gave those lands to the Arabs who were brought there from the south.
Speaking the Turkmen/Turkish language in the government buildings and in public was banned as well as preaching and conducting lessons in Turkish in the mosques.
During the national uprisings in the context of the 1st Gulf War in 1990 the Iraqi army, killed 102 Turkmen in the Kirkuk, Altkopru village. The Iraqi army conducted the massacre of the Turkmens in Erbil when it came to stop the civil war between the Democratic Party (KDP) and the Kurdistan Patriotic Union (KYB) in 1996.
How did the Turkmen political and cultural formations occur?
The Turkmens were unable to establish serious and active organizations in order to tell the world about ther struggles, This situation in turn created the basis for the growing oppression.
Today there are 20 mostly nationalistic political parties belonging to the Iraqi Turkmens. There are some which are Islamist and some are close to the Kurdish parties.
However these organizations’ history is also filled with murder and massacres.
The Turkmens very clearly understood that they had to organize after the massacres in Kirkuk of 14th July 1959. With this massacre they saw that their existence is under threat. Their first organization was the Iraqi Turkmen Cultural and Cooperation Association which was established in 1959 in Istanbul.
A year later, the Brotherhood of Turkmen Family organization was established in Baghdad and brought together the elite and the intellectuals from every corner of society. In 1961 the journal “Brotherhood” started to make publications in the fields of culture and society.
The Family turned into a place where the Turkmen people could organize and spread the word about themselves.
When the Safe Zone was created in the North of Iraq in 1991 the Turkmen people started to engage in the political activities in Erbil. The Turkmen schools where the education was provided in Turkish were opened. At the same time a local Turkmen TV channel as well as the radio began to broadcast.
The road to the Iraqi Turkmen Front
The Turkmens established various political parties before the US occupation of Iraq in 2003. Iraqi National Turkmen Party (Ankara 1988), Iraqi Turkmen Islamic Union (Tehran 1991), The Turkmen
Party (Arbil 1994) constitute just a few examples.
The situation that the region went through forced the Turkmens to unite under a single roof.
Therefore, the organizations like National Iraqi Turkmen Party, Turkmen Party, Turkmen Independence Movement, Arbil Turkmen Brotherhood Family, Turkmen Cooperation and Cultural Foundation as well as the Iraqi Turkmen Association of Culture and Cooperation came together on 24th April 1995 and created the Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITF). The ITF as well as presidencies of other parties moved from Erbil to Kirkuk on 9th April 2003.
The Turkmens continued to organize after the occupation of Iraq. During this period the new political parties were formed. Some examples are Turkmen Nationalistic Movement (2003) and the Iraqi Turkmen Justice Party (2004)
The Turkmen Parties which are supported by the Kurdish parties
While there are Turkmen Parties which are centered around Turkmen National Identity, there’re also Turkmen organizations that work in close cooperation with the Kurdish parties in Northern Iraq.
There are some who call these organizations the “pupper parties” because of their close ties to the KDP and KRI the two parties that dominated Iraqi Kurdistan in the 1990s. The common factor of these parties, is that they all claim that they are working to protect the rights of the Turkmen people living in the Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq.
These parties claim that the Kirkuk as well as other Turkmen regions are parts of Kurdistan.
There are 8 parties in total that could be included into this context.
The Turkmens in Post-Occupation Iraq
As all Iraqis, Turkmens were also looking with hope at Iraq post-2003 occupation, quickly understood that their hopes wouldn’t be met. They also realized that they might be entering a period more dangerous than the previous one.
The step that could be considered to be the sign of it, came from the Kurdish Peshmergas supported by the US Special Forces.
These Peshmerga groups didn’t comply with the pre-war agreement stating that they wouldn’t enter the Turkmen regions, entered the Kirkuk and other Turkmen regions and started to conduct Demographic changes once they took over the government buildings.
The Peshmergas, which just as in 1991, entered the town in 2003, destroyed all the evidence in the form of judicial documents, documents regarding their ID as well as their archives. Therefore the weaponless Turkmens couldn’t stop the hundreds of thousands of Kurds who entered the region.
The Turkmens who faced Arabification in the period before the 2003 occupation (Kirkuk, Tuzhurmatu, Kifri, Musul, Diyala) faced Kurdification in this new period. Therefore, the growth of the Kurdish population combined with unfair elections inevitably led to a situation in which the Turkmen votes became a very little minority.
The system that ruled Iraq in the aftermath of the occupation established the Provisional Coalition Government on 13th July 2003.
This provisional government made the first step towards democratization of Iraq. In this government consisting of 25 people only one was of a Turkmen descent.
When the Provisional Authority Council gathered on 29th July 2003, they created a Presidency Council consisting of 9 people, excluding the Turkmens.
This situation was the sign of exclusion of the Turkmens from the government in the future.
On 30th January 2005 the first general and local elections were unfair. At the same time, the United States which ignored the Kurdish migration to the primarily Turkmen regions, also ignored the election fraud which was placed forward by the commission.
This first election would also determine the MPs who would be selected according to the statistics of representation, and who would determine the country’s future Constitution. However, the number of the MPs representing the Turkmens wasn’t enough to play an important role in the creation of a Constitution. Therefore, in the fundamental constitutional referendum which was held on 15th October 2005 the Turkmens voted against.
What can the Turkmen political parties do and what they can’t?
While it is a fact that the Iraqi government didn’t provide the Turkmens with the sufficient level of representation, it is also true that the Turkmen parties didn’t do enough on their part to improve the situation.Generally the Turkmen political movement doesn’t have a specific political doctrine and all the parties aren’t able to act in a specific manner which makes them weak politically In Democracies the societies are striving to place their representatives into the government positions.
However the Turkmens were unable to participate in the post 2003 elections as a single force. Therefore the real potential of the Turkmen votes wasn’t visible.
By participating in the lists of the shiite-sunni sections, they are both getting insufficient number of seats at the parliament and are Struggling to to get a ministry in every chamber.
It might make sense for political parties with a small support base to add their candidates in the lists of the big parties. However, since the MPs who are selected, are not forming Turkmen sections in the Parliament it becomes impossible to take over the Ministries since who controls the ministry depends on the number of seats a given party has in the parliament.
External factors in the inefficiency of the Turkmens
The internal reasons of the inability of the Iraqi Turkmens to be efficient are obvious, the external factors are also important.
There’s a general opinion among those who follow the situation in Iraq that the external factors play an important role in Iraqi politics.
It is known that among the external forces with the greatest sway over the Iraqi politics are the United States and Iran. Even though both countries are cooperating with Turkiye in some aspects, the scope of the geopolitical competition is larger than that of the cooperation.
The United States, which punished the Turkmens for Turkiye’s refusal to help in the 2003 Iraq War, also ignored the events that would change the political, cultural and demographic balance of the Turkmens in their regions.
Just as the previous Iraqi Administrations saw Turkmens as an extension of Turkiye and feared that they would allow Turkiye to Increase its influence upon the Iraqi state, and therefore were excluding them from the Iraqi politics, the consequent administrations continued to exclude the Iraqi Turkmens.
In the same way as the United States, Iran too doesn’t want the Iraqi Turkmens to play an active role in the central and local authorities of Iraq,
At the same time there’s also a fear that if the Iraqi Turkmens were to gain rights the Iranian Turkmens would ask for the same rights.
What is the situation of the Turkmens today?
The current situation of the Turkmen people is no different from what they had before the occupation. Along with exclusion from the government, conflicts and agreements between Baghdad and Regional Kurdish Authorities, in the period between 2003 and 2017 a serious security vacuum has occurred in the Turkmen regions and those regions came under violent terrorist attacks.
Additionally, the Turkmens faced threats/blackmailing, intimidation and horrendous attacks in various ways. The leading intellectual Turkmens were assassinated, their property was stolen with the aim of getting ransom. Especially in the Hadiths in the Kirkuk and Tuzhurmatu regions, as an example You could think of the things that were done to force the Turkmen population out.
With the attack of ISIS in June 2014, the group mostly expanded into the predominantly Turkmen regions.
Even though ISIS suffered serious losses in the fight, its attack on the Turkmen regions created the basis For strengthening Iraqi Kurdistan’s authority in Kirkuk and the disputed regions.
After a harsh war that spanned over the period of 3 years, in the end the Iraqi Prime Minister declared that they saved all of their territories from the Islamic State on 10th December 2017.
However this time Head of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region Mesut Barzani declared that the independence referendum. Will be held on 25th September 2017 and would include Kirkuk. After all of this, Baghdad re-established control over all of the disputed regions including the most important one – Kirkuk as well as in other Turkmen regions.
After ISIS the positive thing that the government has done for the Turkmen people, was to spread the central authority in the Kirkuk and Tuzhumartu as well as other regions, also establish the authority of law and sending federal forces on 16th October 2017 in order to remove the Kurdish forces from the region.
Along with this process, the Turkmens who were relieved in terms of security issues, are still struggling to get sufficient representation on a political level. They don’t even have representation in the local authorities of the regions where the majority of the population are Turkmen and in the government offices the positions are increasingly given to the non-turkmen groups.
Two major risks awaiting Turkmen people
Conditions of the Iraqi Turkmens are getting worse every day and protecting their national identities gets harder and harder Despite a population of 3.5 million people, a large number of political parties, various institutions and organizations, the Turkmen people are still facing oppression and assimilation; the political parties fail to prevent this.
While the political, socio-economic and cultural aspects are getting better, There are two reasons why the Turkmens face the risk of losing their national identity: The first one is, the increasing speed with which the Turkmen families move abroad.
Secondly those who stay are forced to support other ethnic, ideological and political groups which leads to their assimilation, Preventing this from happening is firstly the job of the Turkmen officials.
The Turkmen society expects the leaders to work in cooperation and solidarity with a common goal. To achieve this the leaders have to increase the awareness regarding political participation.
Additionally, emphasizing the lobbying efforts of both local (iraqi) partners and the regional and international actors which have influence on the Iraqi politics is of utmost importance.
It is also important to remember that the Turkmens should gain more advantages from strengthening of the Turkish power both in Iraq and across the region.
What do Turkmens expect from Turkiye?
When Turkiye’s parliament (TBMM) decided to decline the US offer to jointly invade Iraq, the Turkmens were lost and for the longest time were excluded from the political process. Though 20 years have passed since the invasion, they are still facing exclusion.
On the other hand, another reason why Turkmen people are oppressed is the fact that Turkiye is a neighbour of Iraq.
Therefore, they were subjected to merciless attacks. It is not hard to imagine that even if nothing else happens, the Turkmen people who face oppression in various forms, will continue to face the oppression in the same way.
Turkiye’s policies towards Iraq always supported the territorial integrity of the country.
The Turkmens also support the integrity of Iraq.
Turkiye is closely following the problems that the Turkmens are facing in Iraq, continues to be in close contact with the Iraqi Turkmens.
However this close contact doesn’t produce tangible results on the side of Iraq.
The reason for this is both the power vacuum in Iraq and Turkiye’s lack of a Turkmen policy.
The Turkmen political movement which increasingly looks like it is losing power is expecting Turkiye to develop a comprehensive Turkmen policy. Additionally, emphasizing the social, economic and cultural activities is also important in preserving Turkmen national identity.
If Turkiye which is expressing a great effort to support the existence of the Turkmen people, Will only lose time and opportunity if it will rely on the current leaders of the Turkmen movement Who were unsuccessful in achieving their goals for all these years.
In order to achieve and active role in the Iraqi politics, the Turkmen people will have to develop the new discourse and action; we need to develop a society which understands the language, who are bright, intellectual, rich, skillful, bold, productive and have high moral standards and we need open the way for the people who would be able to lead such a society.
The main issue that the Turkmen people want Turkiye to deal with in Iraq is; Stopping the demographic changes enforced upon Kirkuk and other Turkmen regions.
In addition to being a historical Turkmen city and having a dense Turkmen population, Kirkuk which is also rich in terms of oil must remain under the central authority’s control Turkiye should oppose any steps in the opposite direction regarding this issue.
Turkiye should also put more effort into the Ovakoy Border Gate which can help to turn the Telafer district into a city. Opening this border gate would allow Telafer to both get back on its feet after the Terror of ISSI and to turn this little Turkmen district into a city.
Additionally the Development Road project which is expected to be established by Turkiye and Iraq, envisions building a road and a railroad stretching from Basra to Turkiye and which is supposed to go through the Ovakoy gates.
In addition to all of this, if Iraq, which for a long time hasn’t been able to reach stability and prosperity, happens to split into 3 parts as a result of an internal crisis or an external invasion triggered by an internal crisis, under the current conditions the Turkmen people would be unable to protect themselves and their possessions. In a scenario where Turkmen people are under threat, they are expressing their expectations from Turkiye at every opportunity.
Turkiye can show more effort in order to help the Turkmens to play a greater role in Iraqi politics. An important way of supporting the Turkmen people for Turkiye would be by showing that it is able to protect their lives and identities not only through soft power but through hard power as well.
The Iraqi Turkmens are now ought to write a new tomorrow, the new ballads should be about pain.
MOHAMMED TAHSİN GÖKKAYA
This text was first published on the web-site “fikirturu.com” on 3d April 2023. All of the necessary permissions were obtained.
2-Türkiye Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “Decision taken by the General Secretary of the Iraqi Council of Ministers”, https://www.mfa.gov.tr/no_-63_-irak-bakanlar-kurulu-genel-sekreterligi-nce-alinan-karar-hk.tr.mfa (Access Date: 1.03.2023)
The massacre conducted by the Levy Army in Kirkuk (Private Military consisting of Assyrians and formed by the British) on 3-4th May 1924 and the Gavurbagi massacre on june 12th 1946 was also conducted by the aforementioned Levy Army.
4-The National Turkmen Party of Iraq (Ankara 1988), Iraq Turkmen Islamic Union (Tehran 1991), Turkmen Party (Erbil 1994), Turkmen Independence Movement (Erbil 1994), Iraqi Turkmen Front (Ankara 1995), The Movement of Turkmen Adherence (Tehran 2001)
5-Turkmen Nationalist Movement (2003), Iraqi Turkmen Justice Party (2004), Turkmen Decision Party (2005), Turkmen Nationalist Right Party (2013), Turkmen Party of Will (2017), Freedom front of the Iraqi Turkmens (2017), Iraqi Turkmen Challenge Party (2019)
6-Turkmen Brotherhood Party (1991), Iraqi Turkmen Union (1992), Turkmen National Salvation (2001), Turkmen People’s Party (2003), Turkmen Birth Party (2003), Turkmen Liberal Party (2005), Kurdistan Turkmen Democratic Party (2008)
ROSTRA STRATEJİ 