IDP and Camp Locations (as of 7 August 2014)

Control of Terrain in Iraq : August 7? 2014

Isis consolidates
Patrick Cockburn


As the attention of the world focused on Ukraine and Gaza, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis) captured a third of Syria in addition to the quarter of Iraq it had seized in June. The frontiers of the new Caliphate declared by Isis on 29 June are expanding by the day and now cover an area larger than Great Britain and inhabited by at least six million people, a population larger than that of Denmark, Finland or Ireland. In a few weeks of fighting in Syria Isis has established itself as the dominant force in the Syrian opposition, routing the official al-Qaida affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra, in the oil-rich province of Deir Ezzor and executing its local commander as he tried to flee. In northern Syria some five thousand Isis fighters are using tanks and artillery captured from the Iraqi army in Mosul to besiege half a million Kurds in their enclave at Kobani on the Turkish border. In central Syria, near Palmyra, Isis fought the Syrian army as it overran the al-Shaer gasfield, one of the largest in the country, in a surprise assault that left an estimated three hundred soldiers and civilians dead. Repeated government counter-attacks finally retook the gasfield but Isis still controls most of Syria’s oil and gas production. The Caliphate may be poor and isolated but its oil wells and control of crucial roads provide a steady income in addition to the plunder of war.


The birth of the new state is the most radical change to the political geography of the Middle East since the Sykes-Picot Agreement was implemented in the aftermath of the First World War. Yet this explosive transformation has created surprisingly little alarm internationally or even among those in Iraq and Syria not yet under the rule of Isis. Politicians and diplomats tend to treat Isis as if it is a Bedouin raiding party that appears dramatically from the desert, wins spectacular victories and then retreats to its strongholds leaving the status quo little changed. Such a scenario is conceivable but is getting less and less likely as Isis consolidates its hold on its new conquests in an area that may soon stretch from Iran to the Mediterranean.

The very speed and unexpectedness of its rise make it easy for Western and regional leaders to hope that the fall of Isis and the implosion of the Caliphate might be equally sudden and swift. But all the evidence is that this is wishful thinking and the trend is in the other direction, with the opponents of Isis becoming weaker and less capable of resistance: in Iraq the army shows no signs of recovering from its earlier defeats and has failed to launch a single successful counter-attack; in Syria the other opposition groups, including the battle-hardened fighters of al-Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham, are demoralised and disintegrating as they are squeezed between Isis and the Assad government. Karen Koning Abuzayd, a member of the UN’s Commission of Inquiry in Syria, says that more and more Syrian rebels are defecting to Isis: ‘They see it’s better, these guys are strong, these guys are winning battles, they were taking territory, they have money, they can train us.’ This is bad news for the government, which barely held off an assault in 2012 and 2013 by rebels less well trained, organised and armed than Isis; it will have real difficulties stopping the forces of the Caliphate advancing west.

In Baghdad there was shock and terror on 10 June at the fall of Mosul and as people realised that trucks packed with Isis gunmen were only an hour’s drive away. But instead of assaulting Baghdad, Isis took most of Anbar, the vast Sunni province that sprawls across western Iraq on either side of the Euphrates. In Baghdad, with its mostly Shia population of seven million, people know what to expect if the murderously anti-Shia Isis forces capture the city, but they take heart from the fact that the calamity has not happened yet. ‘We were frightened by the military disaster at first but we Baghdadis have got used to crises over the last 35 years,’ one woman said. Even with Isis at the gates, Iraqi politicians have gone on playing political games as they move ponderously towards replacing the discredited prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki.

‘It is truly surreal,’ a former Iraqi minister said. ‘When you speak to any political leader in Baghdad they talk as if they had not just lost half the country.’ Volunteers had gone to the front after a fatwa from the grand ayatollah, Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s most influential Shia cleric. But these militiamen are now streaming back to their homes, complaining that they were half-starved and forced to use their own weapons and buy their own ammunition. The only large-scale counter-attack launched by the regular army and the newly raised Shia militia was a disastrous foray into Tikrit on 15 July that was ambushed and defeated with heavy losses. There is no sign that the dysfunctional nature of the Iraqi army has changed. ‘They were using just one helicopter in support of the troops in Tikrit,’ the former minister said, ‘so I wonder what on earth happened to the 140 helicopters the Iraqi state has bought in recent years?’

Iraqi Turkmen leader slams Turkic states' lack of support

Iraqi Turkmen leader slams Turkic states' lack of support


While thanking the Turkish government for their support, Iraqi Turkmen leader Ersad Salihi slammed the Turkish opposition, Central Asian states and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus for a lack of support.


World Bulletin / News Desk

Iraqi Turkmen Front leader Ersad Salihi has thanked Turkey for its support after the political crisis in Iraq has left the three million-strong community in a three-way cross-fire between the Baghdad-based central government, the Erbil-based Iraqi Kurdish government and rebels belonging to the self-styled Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

After meeting with Turkey's Foreign Affairs undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu in Ankara, Ersad Salihi praised the Turkish government for looking out for the Iraqi Turkmen population, amid criticism from Turkey's right-wing opposition leader Devlet Bahceli that the government was not doing enough to help the ethnic Turkmens of Iraq. Brushing the National Movement Party (MHP) leader's criticism off as being nothing more than the uttering of nationalistic slogans, Salihi accused the Turkish opposition of not doing anything to help their cause and using the situation as a mere propaganda tool for the upcoming Turkish presidential elections.

Salihi also condemned Turkic states in Central Asia for not helping their fellow Turks in Iraq. Blaming Azerbaijan and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) for their silence particularly, Salihi said: “The only country supporting us is Turkey. Despite all our pleas and requests sent via Ankara, the Turkic republics in Central Asia have not supported us, nor have they brought our case to the international arena.”

Referring to the war between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots over four decades ago, Salihi added: “Back in 1974, we told our ethnic brethren in Cyprus that we were ready to fight alongside the Turkish Cypriots,” expressing his disappointment with the TRNC government.

The Iraqi Turkmens, who after Arabs and Kurds make up Iraq's third largest ethnic group, have seen their main city Kirkuk fall under the occupation of the Kurdish Peshmerga (armed forces) ever since ISIL rebels and aligned Sunni Arab tribes overran Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, on June 10.

While the autonomous Kurdish Regional Government of northern Iraq insists that it has only occupied the oil-rich city of Kirkuk as a precaution against advancing ISIL rebels, Iraqi Turkmens, who have made a demand for their own autonomy in the city, fear that the Kurdish forces are there to stay.

As Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani pushes for a referendum in northern Iraqi for independence, the Iraqi Turkmen Front has called to arms to defend themselves against ISIL attacks. A number of Iraqi Turkmens have already fled Tuzkhormatu, Tal Afar and Mosul after the ISIL conducted massacres in the region.


http://www.worldbulletin.net/world/141771/court-orders-arrest-of-former-georgian-president

Time Running Out For 20,000 Iraqi Turkmen under Siege by the Islamic State in Amerli

Time Running Out For 20,000 Iraqi Turkmen under Siege by the Islamic State in Amerli



Caught in between the inability of the Iraqi and Kurdish forces to protect them from the IS and the lack of awareness and attention of the international community, the Iraqi Turkmen of the town of Amerli are facing a struggle for their existence and, for now, they are forced to do it alone.

Amerli and its citizens are not strangers to unprovoked violent attacks. Home to the Iraqi Turkmen people who are indigenous to northern Iraq, it has been singled out as a target for violence by terrorists and extremists throughout its history. Amerli was the site of a devastating suicide bomb attack in 2007 that killed 150 people and injured 400 others. With the advance of the Islamic State, it is facing an even greater threat.

For six weeks this town of 20,000 inhabitants has been holding out under siege by fighters from the Islamic State, but time is running out. The water supply to the town has been cut off for 9 days by the IS forces and there has been no electricity for 10 days. Food supplies have almost been depleted and the residents of Amerli must endure intense summer heat, often exceeding 50 degrees Celsius. The town continues to be shelled heavily by the IS forces. Eight people have already lost their lives and there are over 50 people who are seriously ill and over 30 seriously injured who require urgent medical attention. With no medics present and very few medical supplies, their condition is rapidly deteriorating.

The plight of the Turkmen in Amerli has not been widely been publicized, despite the severity of their situation. The lack of recognition on the behalf of the international community to the plight of the Turkmen in Amerli was evidenced by the latest plenary session and resolution of the European Parliament on the situation in Iraq. While the European Parliament took important steps to officially acknowledging the situation facing minorities in IS-occupied Iraq, their resolution on the situation in Iraq (2014/2716(RSP)) made no specific mention of the Iraqi Turkmen, despite their being among the worst affected. The atrocities facing the Christians were rightly acknowledged and condemned and yet the equally devastating hardships endured by the Iraqi Turkmen were overlooked by the European Parliament.

In this context, UNPO appeals to the European Parliament and the international community as a whole to acknowledge the plight of the Turkmen in Iraq and not to overlook the situation in the town of Amerli, which risks turning into an unmitigated disaster for its 20,000 inhabitants. Without immediate action, the 20,000 people in Amerli face no foreseeable end to their hardships; the numbers of sick and injured will continue to grow and with no healthcare and sanitation and little food and water, there is little that can be done for them without outside help. It is a desperate situation that requires immediate and concrete action on behalf of the international community.

- See more at: http://www.unpo.org/article/17373#sthash.QDQsWRVr.dpuf

Turkmens in Iraq expect same sensitivity toward them as to Gazans

Turkmens expect same sensitivity toward them as to Gazans

Thousands of Turkmens, who have been forced to flee from the Islamic State, have been living in tent cities or in the open in desert areas west of Arbil.(Photo: DHA)

July 26, 2014, Saturday/ 17:00:00/ AYDIN ALBAYRAK / ANKARA

Turkmens in Iraq, who have been driven away from their homes by the terrorist Islamic State, are disappointed in the Turkish government, which has failed to show the same sensitivity to their plight that it did to the Palestinians under Israeli attack in Gaza.

“Unfortunately, I do not think the government has displayed towards the Turkmens of Tal Afar the [same] sensitivity it displayed towards Gaza. I can't make any sense of this,” Mehmet Tütüncü, chairman of the İstanbul-based Iraqi Turks Culture and Mutual Aid Society (ITKYD), told Sunday's Zaman.

Hundreds of Turkmens have been killed by the terrorists of the Islamic State in Iraq during its ongoing bloody campaign in the civil war-torn country since the terrorist organization captured Mosul in the first half of June. The organization, the members of which declare themselves to be Muslim, ruthlessly kills anyone whose religious practices differ from theirs, such as Shiite Muslims.

Noting that Turkmens in Iraq were almost left to their own devices against the Islamic State threat, Tütüncü, obviously deeply frustrated, said, “I feel this might be caused by the fact that our executioners are also self-proclaimed Muslims or that the victims [in our case] are of Turkish descent.”

Tütüncü's comment clearly reveals that, unlike many people in Turkey, he does not take members of the Islamic State for Muslims, as the terrorist organization is known to have brutally butchered people who do not share its religious views. His reference to “Turkish descent” is an indication that he has the impression, like so many in the opposition in Turkey, that the government, and particularly Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has very rarely said “Turkish nation” in his speeches during his past 11 years in power, is allergic to all that is connected with the Turkish identity.

At the beginning of the week Turkey declared a three-day period of mourning for Palestinian victims killed in the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip. Prime Minister Erdoğan lashed out at Israel for its brutal attack against Gaza, noting that nearly 600 people, more than 100 of whom are children, were killed in the attacks.

In sharp contrast, Erdoğan has rarely talked about the plight of the Turkmens, a couple of hundred thousand of whom under the Islamic State attack had to leave the cities and villages in which they lived in Iraq, over the past two months.

Erdoğan has also never described the Islamic State, which is an al-Qaeda splinter group and was previously called the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), as terrorists. The terrorist group has kept 49 Turkish citizens, including Turkish Consul-General in Mosul Öztürk Yılmaz, hostage since it seized Turkey's consulate in Mosul in June.

Turkey has so far just provided humanitarian aid to the Turkmens, most of whom live in tent cities or in the open under the harsh summer sun. Dozens of children have died due to thirst, disease or scorpion bites by living out on the open land. Turkmens in Iraq have been forced by the Islamic State into the biggest mass migration since the founding of Iraq following World War I.

Following the seizure of Mosul the Islamic State terrorists captured the mainly ethnic Turkmen city of Tal Afar, which has an estimated population of approximately 400,000 people, in northwestern Iraq on June 16. Shiite Turkmens make up around half the population of the city, while Sunni Turkmens together with Arabs make up the other half. Around 200,000 people reportedly fled the town and hundreds of Turkmens were killed by the Islamic State when the terrorist group seized the city.

Tütüncü, who has been in Turkey for more than 20 years, sounds somewhat frustrated by the attitude of the religious people in Turkey who -- rightfully, Tütüncü emphasized -- protested against Israel for its attack against Gaza during the week. “We expect religious people to also display for Turkmens one-tenth of the sensitivity they show Gaza. Turkmens are also Muslims,” he said. Complaining that the media has not been sufficiently sensitive to their plight either, he says, “Turkmen are disappointed.”

The leader of the Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITC), Erşad Salihi, said at a press conference in Kirkuk in the first week of July that the number of displaced Turkmens who had fled the Islamic State threat in various towns amounted to more than 300,000. “Turkmens struggle to live in makeshift tents, in partly constructed buildings, at the roadside,” Salihi said, although he thanked Turkey for the humanitarian aid it has provided for the Turkmens.

Members of opposition parties also harshly criticized the government during a discussion in Parliament over the past week, for its lack of sensitivity towards the Turkmen's hardship. Sinan Oğan, a deputy from the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), lashed out at the government during a debate in Parliament for not taking proper care of Turkmens in Iraq, noting that there are Turkmen children who recently died of hunger. Oğan added: “Why is your government so hostile to [all that is connected with] Turks?” Yusuf Halaçoğlu, deputy chairman of the MHP parliamentary group, in the same session of Parliament demanded: “You declare a three-day mourning period for Gaza, but why don't you also declare a period of mourning for Turkmens?”

In a report that appeared in the Hürriyet Daily News during the week, Eyat Suttu, a 35-year-old Turkmen of Tal Afar, said: “There is always someone to look after Kurds and Arabs in Iraq, but there is no one to look after the Turkmens.” Noting that Turks were calling Tal Afar “Little İstanbul,” Suttu went on to express his frustration towards Turkey, saying, “Why doesn't Turkey take care of us now?” According to the report, Suttu's wife had been seriously ill for five days but he had not been able to bring her to a hospital, as the Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga had not let them enter Arbil. Turkmens are not being allowed to enter Arbil by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), various reports had earlier confirmed.

Turkmens, the third most populous ethnic group in Iraq after Arabs and Kurds, are unable to protect themselves, as they do not have a security force of their own as the Kurds. Despite Turkey's excellent relations with the KRG in Iraq, Kurdish peshmerga forces did not take action before the terrorist attack against Tal Afar, but instead reportedly demanded that Turkmens in Tal Afar lay down all their weapons if they wanted the peshmerga to intervene to protect the town.

Nejat Kevseroğlu, editor-in-chief of the Türkmeneli daily in Kirkuk, confirmed that dozens of children had died due to the tough living conditions Turkmens are exposed to. Although Kevseroğlu, who is also a writer, made a point of thanking the Turkish government for the humanitarian aid sent so far for the Turkmens, his remarks revealed he also felt a little disappointed by the inequality in the government's attitude in embracing Gaza, and its comparative “indifference” to the plight of Turkmens in Iraq.

“Our wish is that the [Turkish] government would have the same attitude to us [as it has towards Gaza]. That would help us save ourselves from danger. We would also be happy if Turkey were to display towards us half the sensitivity it expressed for Gaza,” he said.

Turkmens call on Turkey to push for the establishment of a secure zone in Tal Afar, as Kurds were provided with during the first US attack against Iraq in 1991, so that they may feel safe. According to Kevseroğlu, 

http://www.todayszaman.com/news-353991-turkmens-expect-same-sensitivity-toward-them-as-to-gazans.html“Turkmens are faced with the threat of death.” 

Iraqi Turkmens ‘left for dead’ in desert

İpek Yezdani - ARBIL

ipek.yezdani@hurriyet.com.tr

Thousands of Turkmen refugees who fled ISIL violence in Telafer are being abandoned to their fate under 50 degrees of hot weather in the desert

Hürriyet Photo, Selçuk Şamiloğlu

A humanitarian tragedy is unfolding in Iraq as Turkmens who fled the advance of the feared Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) are now succumbing to the region’s scorching summer sun as refugees. And with death approaching, many refugees are apoplectic at Turkey and Kurdistan’s indifference to their plight.

“There is always someone to look after Kurds and Arabs in Iraq, but there is no one to look after Turkmens. Turks were calling Telafer ‘Little Istanbul;’ why doesn’t Turkey take care of us now?” said Eyat Suttu, 35, noting that said his wife had been seriously ill for five days but that he had not been able to bring her to a hospital because the Iraqi Kurdish peshmarga had not let them enter Arbil.   

“We are going to die here under the sun in the dust. Just kill all of us at once and this torture will be finished for all of us,” he said. 

On June 15, ISIL, who had recently renamed itself as the Islamic State (IS), seized the control of the northern Iraqi city of Telafer, a largely Turkmen city.  

Thousands of Shiite Turkmens first fled to the northwestern city of Sinjar in order to flee to either Kirkuk, Baghdad, Karbala of Najaf. However, they have been kept waiting for days in 50-degree weather in the desert by peshmarga forces at the Hazer security checkpoint just outside Arbil. 

Hazer is the main security checkpoint between Arbil and ISIL-controlled Mosul. Outside the checkpoint, there are thousands of people from new-born babies to the elderly, who have been trying to survive in tents which they have made from blankets in the desert heat.

Small children and elderly people die every day because of the intense heat, according to refugees waiting at the checkpoint.

‘We buried three children’

Mahsoun Habil Muhsin, 35, escaped from Telafer with his wife and five children. “We have been suffering here for a week. The peshmarga doesn’t allow us to enter Arbil. Our children are dying because of the heat and diseases. We buried two old women and three children yesterday. There are new-born babies in the camp and they could die at any minute,” Muhsin said.    

The only area Shiite Turkmens think they can take shelter in in northern Iraq is the peshmarga-controlled city of Kirkuk. 

“When ISIL attacked Telafer, we have fled to Sinjar on June 16. But there was no food or water there. So we had to leave Sinjar and come here. However, the peshmarga keeps us waiting here. Why don’t they let us go? We are Turkish, why doesn’t Turkey take care of us?” Muhsin added. 

Hidir Suleiman, 42, who used to be an elementary school teacher in Telafer, fled to Hazer with his nine children. “We left everything we had behind. We didn’t even take our ID cards. Elderly people died on the road. Our wives and children are dying here. We just want to get out of here, we don’t want anything else. Just save us and allow us to enter a town in Turkey,” he said. 

Thousands of Turkmens stay in the storage as hot as oven

In addition to Turkmens who have been kept waiting at the Hazer checkpoint, there are also thousands more who have been living inside an empty storage in Arbil. They are being sent to Baghdad, Najaf or Karbala in small number of groups by plane once a week.

Inside the storage, it is much hotter than outside. They have divided the storage into three- to five-square-meter rooms with blankets for each family. There are at least 10 people staying in every room. 

Fazil Muhammad, a hammersmith from Telafer, fled Arbil with nine people from his family. “We had had clashes with ISIL for three days, and then the Iraqi army brigade who came from Baghdad fought against them for a week. Then ISIL started to bomb the town. Gen. Abu Walid withdrew his soldiers. We had to run away too. We have been staying here for 30 days, we are waiting to be sent to southern Iraq,” he said. 

‘ISIL killed all those left behind’

Hadi Hasan, who came to the storage a week ago, said ISIL had killed all the Shiites who were not able to flee and who were left behind in Telafer. 

“They killed even 40-day-old babies and the elderly. They have blasted all the Shiite mosques. They even killed the animals, cows and sheep. We didn’t have time to bury some of the bodies.” 

Zeynep Ali Ekber, 25, said ISIL militants took away 20 people including her father and her brother from the Bekkekut village of Telafer. “They have arrested many from the other Shiite villages. We haven’t heard from them since then,” she said.

July/22/2014

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/iraqi-turkmens-left-for-dead-in-desert.aspx?pageID=238&nID=69432&NewsCatID=352

TURKMEN VILLAGE OF BESHIR IN NORTHERN IRAQ (VIDEO)

Post by ‎بشير TV‎.