The Turkish public is very sensitive to issues pertaining Turks living outside Turkey. This sensitivity is especially particular regarding the Iraqi Turks (Turkoman). This sensitivity arouses more attention in bureaucratic circles, non-governmental organizations, academic milieus and the media. That is the only solace for the Turkoman people.
In spite of this the Turkish public is subjected, though limitedly, to ideas and articles which portray the Turkoman people as disarrayed, and disparaging thoughts and written material regarding the sole legal representative of the Turkoman people which is the Iraq Turkoman Front (ITF). These are most saddening and hurtful to the Turkoman people.
If such split voices are not sounded by Turkoman who are unable to embrace the ITC for some reason, then they must serve provocative purposes and nothing could be more harmful to the Turkoman cause.
To understand the situation the Turkoman find themselves in one must go back to Lausanne and analyze a past of 80 years past well, and to appreciate ITC one must carefully evaluate the time and foundation it was established upon.
It has never been easy to live in Iraq, to be a Turkoman in Iraq and retain the Turkish identity. The Turkoman people have continuously been subjected to inhumane applications and assimilation in order to destroy their identities and end their existence in the country. The blood of the martyrs shed in this cause has yet to dry.
The national and spiritual values of the Turkoman people have been trifled with. During the Saddam regime when the Turkoman people were subjected to Arabization policies, the Turkoman people were forced to forgo their ethnic identities in favor of Arab identities to protect their lives and property. Today the Kurds are trying to decrease the Turkoman people into a minority by disturbing the demographical structures of the cities inhabited by Turkoman people.
It is an age old policy in Iraq to use the Kurds against the Arabs, have the Arab sects at each others throats, and try to slowly dissolve the Turkoman people for fear that they might one day want to unite with Turkey.
In the previous times in Iraq we did not worry whether Kirkuk was a Turkish city or a Kurdish city, or will a Kurdish be established in Northern Iraq or not. Will we Turkoman be connected to the federation in the North or to the central authority in Baghdad, we did not experience ethnical or sect related questions such as whether you are a Turk or a Kurd, or are you Shiite or Sunni.
We used to have problems before as well. However, these problems were local problems for the most part related to living in the same geographical area. Now the problems are regional and have gained a national dimension.
The Turkoman who have always been for the social harmony and equality in Irak do not want to pay a price any more. The only desire the Turkoman have is to live in a democratic, free and safe Iraq. The time has come not only for Iraq to realize the truth regarding the Turkoman reality in Iraq but the world as well.
Since the Turkoman are well educated they are a valuable human resources asset in Iraq. The Turkoman have a well developed and reasonable national consciousness. In spite of this they were unable to finalize their organization under the dictatorial regime. What is more they were introduced to democracy in 2003 and lived through their first political experiences in 2005. They experienced two elections and one referendum within a year. In spite of all kinds of violations the election results still reveal an ossified Turkoman presence in Iraq. Even though we are dissatisfied with the results, both of the elections registered ITF as the sole legal and political representative of the Turkoman people.
Furthermore, so far the Turkoman have not been mentioned during USA involvement in Iraq’s politics. While scenarios regarding the future of Iraq were being written before the war and the Sunni and Shiite Arabs and Kurds were taken into consideration, the Turkoman people were not even mentioned. The situation remains unchanged after the war.
We believe that the Turkoman people are left holding the bill because Turkey did not participate in the war or collaborate with the USA in the occupation. That is why the USA does not comment upon the political and demographic changes taking place in the regions inhabited by Turkoman people.
Mistakes have been made one after the other in Iraq. These can be collected under three titles.
1- The Turkoman people have not been accepted as a third essential component with the Arabs and the Kurds, they have been view as an administrative and cultural minority parallel to the Assyrians and the Keldani.
2- Arabic and Kurdish have been accepted as the official languages of Iraq although Iraq mostly consists of Arabs. In which case Arabic should remain as the official language. If the use of a single official language is abandoned then Turkish should have the same status as Kurdish among the official languages.
3- Iraq has been officially separated into a Kurdish and an Arab federation. The regions where Turkoman people are a majority have been abandoned to the Kurdish federation. The status of Kirkuk will be determined latest in 2007 and it will probably be declared the capital of the Kurdish region.
We wish to explicitly stress once again that Kirkuk is the cornerstone of Iraq. Although today this issue seems to be disputable between the Turkomans and the Kurds, the result of the referendum to be held latest until 2007 to determine the final status of this city will put the Kurds and the Arabs into a gridlock and be a new source of restlessness for Iraq. This time the Kurds will not be faced with a compliant people like the Turkomans but the main human potential of Iraq, the Arabs.
At this stage we have no tolerance for even the smallest weakness regarding Turkoman people and the ITF. If attempts are made to separate the ITF it must be clearly realized that the price will be enormous and the Turkoman people will not be able to recover from the consequences. For this reason criticism made must be of a quality that does not weaken our hand not only in Iraq but in the region and the world as well.
For those who are unaware of the difficulties of surviving in the geography of Iraq it may be easy to talk about the disarray of the Turkoman people, claim that the Turkoman are not represented by the ITF and propose the dissolving and restructuring of ITF.
However, one need not be a historian to see some realities. It is sufficient to glance at recent history. 111 parties participated in the elections held on 31st January 2005 while 287 parties participated in the elections held on 15th December. Among these there were numerous Kurdi, Shiite and Sunni parties. In a country with a total population of 27 million can there be a greater disarray? There were very few parties which participated in the last elections alone and ITF was one of them. ITF was the only political formation to hold a general assembly after the first elections. It’s level of democracy is sufficient to participate in elections under new leadership.
Those who mention the disarray of the Turkoman people, the dissolving or thoughts regarding the restructuring of the Iraqi Turkoman Front is contradictory and extremely harmful to the Turkoman cause at this stage. In addition to having 10 years of work go down the drain, there are no guarantees that the restructuring will make the organization any better. It must be realized that if the ITF is dissolved it will never recover no matter which name it is established under and which leader it chooses to continue with. The consequences are enormous and the price will again be paid by the Turkoman people.
The right alternative is to bring the Front to the forefront of all political platforms and to defend its representation of the Turkoman people. The Front may have deficiencies and faults. These are amendable. To ignore or attempt to change the Front will primarily serve to please only the local forces and the occupying imperialist countries.
For the first time during a single year the Iraqi citizens went to the polls thrice. The Iraqi citizen started to use his democratic rights.... However, as a result of the elections the Turkoman were again the injured party. Although everybody is aware of the deceptive games played with the Turkoman votes, some groups in Turkey chose to portray this as a failure on the Turkoman part.
Again when mentioning ITF some groups use the description “an organization supported by a recognized center in Turkey” which places the Front in a dubious light and displays it as if it were an illegal formation. The bearers of such thoughts should be aware that Turkey is at an equal distance to all political groups in Iraq. All the groups in Iraq have representations in Turkey and are allowed to carry out political activities. It is impossible to understand why it should be disturbing that from among these groups, the Turkoman group is closest to Turkey and that Turkey recognizes the Turkoman under the ITF umbrella and accepts them as a counterpart.
It is unfair to criticize and accuse Turkey of connecting the support of the Turkoman only to a specific center since in Mesopotamia the superpowers do as they please and the Turkoman are the only group who are not on the receiving end of any local, regional, national and international support …
Within this geography where death is rampant, where human rights and freedoms are seized with weapons and violence and while it is already a luxury to live as a plain citizen it is a grave mistake to annoy and hurt the Turkoman people if it is not done intentionally.…
If we intend to still speak about a Turkoman community in Iraq in the near future we must be made to feel less isolated and be more constructive. We have no right for such expectations from others, however from Turkey we do.
Although we Turkoman may not be very pleased with the situation existent today we are not worried. The reason for this is that we have spoken of the dangers awaiting not only ourselves but Iraq and the region at every opportunity. We have considered this our historical responsibility. If nobody or no country takes notice of what we write about and experience then there is nothing more we can do. We will accept our fate.
Everyone should know that nobody wants stability, an end to the human tragedy experienced in Iraq and for the territorial unity of Iraq more than the Turkoman people. The Turkoman people still believe that the only way the country can reach redemption is by setting aside the ethnical and sect differences and unite under an Iraqi higher identity for peaceful coexistence and unison in Iraq.
ITF Directorate / Kirkuk
(kerkuk.net - 04.04.2006)
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