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| Commentary Long-oppressed Turkmen demand a say in future of Iraq Nermeen al-Mufti |
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| For three decades, the former Iraqi
president, Saddam Hussein, implemented a policy of “Arabization” in wide areas
of northern Iraq, bringing thousands of tribal Arabs from southern and central Iraq to the
oil-rich north, and expelling non-Arab minorities Turkmen, Kurds and Assyrians. Since
the fall of the Baath regime, a new campaign has been initiated, this time to
“Kurdicize” towns like Kirkuk and Tuz Khurmatu where more than 50 percent of the
population is Turkmen. The two main Kurdish parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Massoud Barzani and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan of Jalal Talabani, have brought thousands of Kurdish families from the predominantly Kurdish north to ethnically mixed towns like Kirkuk, which had been under the control of the Baath regime. Officials of the Anglo-American coalition have insisted that Kirkuk’s city council should include two members each from the Arab, Kurdish, Turkmen and Assyrian communities. But there have already been bloody clashes between Kurds and Arabs and tough talking between Kurds and Turkmen. Unless the minorities’ situation is addressed, more serious problems could lie ahead. Turkmen, who are concentrated mainly in the northern and central regions of Iraq, are the third-largest ethnic group in the country after Arabs and Kurds. Originally from Central Asia, they began settling in Iraq thousands of years ago in a migration that stretched over several hundred years. They have ruled the country six times since establishing their first state in northern Iraq in around 600 BC. The exact number of Turkmen is a matter of dispute with Iraqi Kurds, who claim that Kirkuk and its environs are a Kurdish region. Extrapolating from a 1957 figure of 590,000 Turkmen in an overall population of 6 million, one might estimate that Iraq today has some 2 million Turkmen citizens. Roughly half of them live along an arc of land on the fringe of the Kurdish mountains, in the provinces of Mosul, Irbil and Kirkuk. Since the 1970s, the non-Arab peoples of northern Iraq have been favorite targets of Saddam Hussein and his Baath Party, which stressed the primacy of Arabs at the expense of non-Arab minorities. Turkmen and Kurds especially were victims of a policy to Arabize oil-rich regions where they are a majority. However, most of the Arabs brought in by the former regime were poor and uneducated and were isolated by the Turkmen, especially in Kirkuk. Due to this marginalization, many left the town. Under the Baath regime, thousands of villages were destroyed and their inhabitants expelled or forcibly transferred to remote areas of southern Iraq. Many of the limited cultural rights granted to Turkmen Turkish-language education in primary schools, daily radio and television broadcasts and a newspaper were withdrawn by 1972. According to Human Rights Watch, Saddam Hussein’s regime used a wide range of tactics and demands to put pressure on Kurdish, Turkmen and Assyrian families in order to make them abandon their homes. These included compelling them to change their ethnicity a process known as “nationality correction” forcibly enrolling them into the Baath Party and “volunteer’ paramilitary structures, pressuring families with relatives in Kurdistan and attempting to recruit informers. Nationality correction, formally introduced in 1997, required members of ethnic groups residing in Kirkuk, Khaniqin, Makhmour, Sinjar, Tuz Khormatu and other districts to relinquish their Kurdish, Turkmen or Assyrian identities and register officially as Arabs. Until they did so, they were not permitted to work even in agriculture or buy or build a house. Those who refused were invariably expelled from their homes. When Kirkuk was liberated last April, Kurdish fighters, with the approval and assistance of coalition forces, turned up in the town insisting it was the heart of Kurdistan. At the same time, Turkmen parties peacefully entered the town saying there could be no Turkmen without Kirkuk and no Kirkuk without Turkmen. The tensions rose. Since the Iraq war ended, Turkmen have established a local television and radio station and a number of professional unions. Muzaffar Arsalan, the founder of the Iraqi Turkmen National Front, an umbrella organization of Turkmen parties established in exile, has ruled out armed struggle to defend the community’s rights. “We have insisted on peaceful opposition right from the beginning,” he said in an interview. “We will obtain our rights with the support of our people. Nothing can be gained without popular support. Saddam Hussein is the prime example of this. He had everything but popular support. This resulted in his downfall.” Human Rights Watch has urged the occupying powers to take a number of measures to defend minority rights, including preserving all records establishing the ethnicity and place of origin of displaced Iraqis and establishing a public register of all Kurds, Turkmen and Assyrians forcibly expelled from their homes. Arsalan has called for scrutiny of official documents to determine land rights in contested areas. “The issue can be resolved by referring to the facts,” he said. “There is no need for arms, terror or intimidation. All Iraqis should be granted their rights under the constitution.” Nermeen al-Mufti is a Turkmen writer and journalist. The Daily Star publishes a revised version of this commentary courtesy of the London-based Institute for War and Peace Reporting (www.iwpr.net) |
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