Turkomans Under Threat

For three decades, Saddam Hussein implemented a policy of “Arabisation” in wide areas of northern Iraq, bringing thousands of tribal Arabs from southern and central Iraq to the oil-rich northern region and expelling non-Arab minorities - Turkomans, Kurds and Assyrians. Today, following the fall of Saddam’s regime, there is a campaign to “Kurdicize” towns like Kirkuk and Tuz Khurmatu, where more than 50 per cent of the population is Turkoman.

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 that were under Saddam’s control until he was toppled.

Even the walls of Kirkuk, covered in Kurdish banners and names now, have begun to speak Kurdish.

Coalition authorities have insisted that the city council of Kirkuk consist of Arabs, Kurds, Turkomans and Assyrians - two members each. But there already have been bloody clashes between Kurds and Arabs and tough talking between Kurds and Turkomans.

Unless the situation of minorities is addressed, more serious problems could lie ahead.

Turkomans, found mostly in the northern and central regions of Iraq, are the third largest ethnic group in Iraq after Arabs and Kurds. Originally from Central Asia, they began settling in Iraq thousands of years ago in a migration that took place over several hundred years. They have ruled the country six times since establishing their first state in northern Iraq around 600 BC.

The exact number of Turkomans today is a matter of dispute with Iraqi Kurds, who claim that Kirkuk and its environs is a Kurdish region. Based on a 1957 figure of 590,000 Turkomans in an overall population of six million, this would suggest that Iraq today has some two million Turkoman citizens. Roughly half of them live along an arc of land on the fringe of the Kurdish mountains, in the provinces of Mosul, Erbil and Kirkuk.

Since the 1970s, the non-Arab peoples living in northern Iraq have been particular targets of Saddam Hussein and his Ba’ath party, which stressed the primacy of Arabs at the expense of non-Arab minorities. Turkomans and Kurds especially have been victims of a war to Arabise the oil-rich regions where they are a majority. But most of the immigrants were poor and uneducated and were isolated by the Turkomans, especially in Kirkuk. Due to this marginalisation, many left the town.

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 Turkomans - Turkish language education in primary schools, daily radio and television broadcasts and a newspaper - were taken away by 1972.

According to Human Rights Watch, Saddam’s regime used a wide range of tactics and demands to put pressure on Kurdish, Turkoman and Assyrian families in order to make them abandon their homes. These included being compelled to change ethnicity - a process known as "nationality correction" - forced recruitment into the Ba’ath Party and "volunteer" paramilitary structures, pressure on families with relatives in Kurdistan and attempts 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, Turkoman, or Assyrian identities and to 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 this April, Kurdish peshmergas with the approval and assistance of the coalition forces turned up saying that it’s the heart of Kurdistan. Turkoman parties entered the town peacefully saying there is no Turkoman without Kirkuk and no Kirkuk with Turkoman. Fears began.

Since Saddam’s regime collapsed, the latter have already established a local television and radio station and a number of professional unions. Muzaffar Arsalan, founder of the Iraqi Turkoman National Front, an umbrella organisation of Turkoman 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 in 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 - among them, preservation of all records establishing the ethnicity and place of origin of displaced Iraqis and establishment of a public register of all Kurds, Turkomans 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 Turkoman writer and journalist.