Kurdish violence against Turkmens in Kerkuk

Below is the letter from Dr. Mohammed Omar Kazanchi of Turkmen Brotherhood Club addressed to Mr. Ban Ki Moon in July 2008.

To the kind attention of the secretary general of the United Nations: Mr. Ban Ki Moon

Subject: Condemnation and request of protection

What happened in the Kerkuk city on 28 July 2008 is not a solitary event. It is a part of systematic plan by the Kurdish politicians to benefit from the unstable situation in Iraq to suppress the Turkmen and absorb Kerkuk province. The Turkmen are a peaceful community believes in the unity of Iraq.

The Iraqi Turkmen are exposed to the aggressive assimilation policies and they suffered from different massacres in 1924, 1946 and 1959.

During the Ba’ath regime, the Turkmen were exposed to deportation and their lands confiscated, teaching in Turkmen language was prohibited and they were prevented to practice their culture. The Turkmen were asked to change their nationality to avoid discrimination. After occupation, the Turkmen of Iraq continued to be marginalized from administration and excluded from the political life. The Turkmen regions are terrorized the inhabitants were intimidated.

Today, the Kurdish militant parties which dominate the Iraqi administration practice all sorts of the policies to violate the simplest Human rights of the Iraqi Turkmen; the violation of the provincial laws by all the Kurdish authorities, which postpones the election in Kerkuk with power sharing, is the most recent abuse of the Turkmen rights.

At 28 July 2008, the Kurdish parties ordered the Kurdified administration, the staffs and shop owners from all the communities and the Kurdish peoples in Kerkuk to close their business buildings and leave their offices to participate in a protest against the Provincial Election Law. They also brought thousands of the Kurds from Erbil. The armed protestors worked to create chaotic circumstances.

When the protesters reached to the building of the Kerkuk governorate an explosion occurred leaving behind numbers of the injured and dead peoples. Thereafter, groups of the protestors started to attack the buildings of the Turkmen organizations. They set fire in the building of the Iraqi Turkmen front and injured the guards. Other groups attacked the buildings of Turkemeneli party, Turkmen council, Turkmeneli television and several Turkmen business buildings and houses. All these happened under the vision of the Kerkuk military and policemen, whom they stand on the sidelines or participated the protestors.

We, the members of the Turkmen Brotherhood Club, which is considered one of the largest Turkmen civil society organizations, severely condemn these terrorist and provocative activities against Turkmen. We believe that the fundamentalist Kurdish leader parties should be held responsible of the events.

We urge the international community, particularly, the secretary general of the United Nations, members of the Security Council, the European Union to intervene to establish a mechanism to protect the Iraqi Turkmen, particularly in Kerkuk.

The Turkmen had already lost the confidence in the Iraqi Government which until now did not announce condemnation of the attacks on the Turkmen in Kerkuk. It is the time for the international community to achieve its moral task and protect the Iraqi Turkmen against the Kurdish attacks.

Dr. Mohammed Omar Kazanchi

Turkmen Brotherhood Club