Letter to the Editor of The Boston Globe

Comments regarding article “The other victims in Iraq”
by Mokhtar Lamani and He Hany Besada of September 8, 2007.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/09/08/the_other_victims_in_iraq/

Dear Sir,

When enumerating the different communities in Iraq: “ARMENIANS, Chaldo-Assyrian Christians, Faili Kurds, Shabaks, Palestinians, Baha'is, Mandeans, Yazidis, Turkomans, and Jews, together with their Sunni and Sh'iite neighbors, form an intricate fabric that gave rise to today's modern Iraqi state”, the authors of the article do not seem to have a good knowledge of the exact composition of the “Iraqi fabric” for they are citing the Turkmens, who represent 12% of the Iraqi population (3 million people), just before the 6 or 7 Jews in Iraq!

They also erroneously mix ethnicity and religion and wrongly define the Turkomans and the Palestinians when they write: “together with their Sunni and Sh’iite neighbors” because the Turkmens and the Palestinians are Muslims (Sunnis and Sh’iites).

Mokhtar Lamani, as former Arab League special representative in Iraq should know better.

Yours truly,

Merry Fitzgerald
Committee for the Defence of the Iraqi Turkmens’ Rights - Belgium