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Metin Kazak, author . − Mr President, I would urge you all to support the adoption of the emergency resolution on the plight of minority groups in Iraq, in particular the Iraqi Turkmen. Literally hundreds of men, women and children are dying each year in attacks targeted on the Turkmen community, and this tragedy must be stopped.A dreadful example which represents just the tip of the iceberg of the sectarian violence against the Iraqi Turkmen is the horrific suicide bomb attack that took place on 23 January this year at the funeral in Tuz Khurmatu of a Turkmen civil servant, who had himself been assassinated the previous day. This attack claimed the lives of a further 42 ethnic Turkmen and wounded another 117. Despite the findings of Iraq’s own High Commission for Human Rights, which acknowledges that the Turkmen have been subjected to terrorism, bombings, kidnappings and assassination, neither the Federal Government of Iraq nor the Kurdish regional government have done enough to provide security and protection for all Iraqi citizens in general, and the Turkmen in particular, because they have been numerously targeted on a large scale.
This resolution is not just for the Turkmen, it is for all the minority communities of Iraq who long for peace and security. Therefore, the EU should work closely with the Iraqi Government and use all the tools at its disposal to encourage the Iraqi Government to provide adequate protection to the Turkmen and other minorities.
Lastly, I would like to thank all the political groups for their support in putting such an important resolution before the plenary and urge Members, once again, to adopt it, because Europe has to demonstrate that it has not forgotten the Turkmen community or other Iraqi minorities, and that we will endeavour to ease their suffering.
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