Irak : Qui tue qui à Tuz Khurmatu ?

Irak : Qui tue qui à Tuz Khurmatu ?

Par Gilles Munier

Depuis avril 2003, Tuz Khurmatu – à 175 km au nord de Bagdad - est le théâtre de tueries de masse continuelles à connotations religieuses ou ethniques. Al-Qaïda au Pays des deux fleuves classe ses habitants chiites parmi les mécréants et les suppôts de l’Iran, et les Kurdes les considèrent comme des gêneurs les empêchant d’annexer la ville et ses environs…

Comme son nom l’indique (1), Tuz Khurmatu est historiquement turkmène, c’est-à-dire peuplée de descendants des familles des guerriers musulmans recrutés par les califes abbassides et des tribus des Moutons noirs et des Moutons blancs (Qara Quyunlu et Aq Quyunlu) qui ont envahi et gouverné à Bagdad et à Mossoul au 15^ème siècle. Rien à voir donc avec les Turcs Ottomans qui ont conquis la Turquie et englobé l’Irak dans leur empire, si ce n’est leurs origines mythiques communes en Asie centrale (2). Les Turkmènes d’Irak sont en fait de lointains parents des azéris de l’Azerbaïdjan actuel et de la région du même nom en Iran. Ils sont pour la plupart sunnites, mais dans certaines villes leur composante chiite l’emporte. C’est le cas à Tuz Khurmatu.

Sectarisme

Après la révolution baasiste de juillet 1968 et jusqu’en 1976, la langue et la culture turkmène étaient enseignées dans les régions où ils sont majoritaires. Mais en 1991, avec la mise en œuvre d’une politique d’arabisation forcée, les cours ont été supprimés et la presse en langue turque interdite. Des familles turkmènes et kurdes ont été déplacées dans le sud du pays et leurs terres données à des cultivateurs arabes. Puis est venu le temps de la répression : accusés d’appartenir au parti chiite interdit Al-Dawa, des opposants turkmènes ont été emprisonnés, fusillés. Des jeunes, réfugiés en Iran, se sont engagés dans la Brigade Badr formée sous l’égide de l’ayatollah Khomeiny. Cela explique pourquoi l’« Etat islamique en Irak » - groupement comprenant Al-Qaïda au Pays des deux fleuves - qui voit dans tout chiite un mécréants à tuer, fait sauter des Husseiniya (lieu de culte chiite) remplies de fidèles, placent des bombes dans des marchés, déciment des cérémonies de mariage et des cortèges funéraires. Et explique aussi pourquoi Ansar al-Sunna, sa concurrente islamiste locale composée de Kurdes et d’Arabes, fait de même. Résultat : devant l’incapacité du Premier ministre Nouri al-Maliki d’assurer la sécurité à Tuz Khurmatu, des habitants se sont engagés dans les Sahwa – milices créées par les Américains, en partie récupérées par le régime de Bagdad – et d’autres ont fait appel aux peshmergas pour les protéger. Moqtada Sadr est un des seuls à se préoccuper sérieusement de la situation à Tuz Khurmatu. Début décembre, il a préconisé la création de groupes d’auto-défense citoyens pour lutter contre le terrorisme. A sa demande, le Parlement irakien devrait porter la question à l’ordre du jour. Affaire à suivre…

Expansionnisme kurde

Massoud Barzani – président de la Région autonome du Kurdistan - ne demande pas mieux de protéger Tuz Khurmatu, car si ses troupes ont« libéré » la ville du régime bassiste en avril 2003 – pour ne pas dire occupé - c’était pour l’intégrer dans les frontières du Grand Kurdistan irakien ou, au pire, pour la rattacher à la région de Kirkouk qu’il revendique aussi. Il lui reste à réduire le nombre des Turkmènes qui y vivent. En effet, la présence de Kurdes à Tuz Khurmatu est récente. Ils ne s’y sont installés que dans les années 1970 pour fuir les combats opposant l’armée irakienne aux rebelles dirigés par son père Mustapha Barzani ou par Jalal Talabani(3) ! Comme si les attentats d’Al-Qaïda ne suffisaient pas, on soupçonne l’Asayish, le service secret kurde, d’en fomenter aussi pour terroriser un peu plus ses habitants et acheter à vil prix les terres de ceux qui s’en iraient(4). Quand on sait qu’elles sont gorgées de pétrole…

(1) Le nom de Tuz Khurmatu est formé de trois mots turkmènes signifiantSel-Dates-Mures (fruit du murier à soie).

(2) Lire : Les Turcomans, peuple oublié ou marginalisé, par Gilles Munier(mai 2007)

http://0z.fr/AJ0t1 

(3) A l’époque, les habitants de Tuz Khurmatu appelaient les réfugiés kurdes : les « jalali », en référence à Jalal Talabani, chef de l’UPK (Union patriotique du Kurdistan).

(4) En Syrie, on assiste au même cas de figure dans les villages turkmènes bordant la frontière avec la Turquie, au niveau de l’ancienne province d’Alexandrette (Hatay, pour les Turcs). L’Etat islamique en Irak et au Levant tente de contrôler la région en attaquant les brigades turkmènes sunnites, membres de l’Armée Syrienne libre (ASL), au nom de l’éradication du soufisme. Les Kurdes syriens du PYD, liés au PKK turc, font de même, avec un objectif plus conséquent. Là, ce n’est pas le pétrole qui est en jeu, mais la conquête d’un territoire qui donnerait un débouché sur la mer Méditerranée à la future région autonome kurde syrienne.

http://www.france-irak-actualite.com/article-irak-qui-tue-qui-a-tuz-khurmatu-121524418.html

At least 15 killed in latest bout of Iraq bloodshed

(AFP) – http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gHKprUDH1GF1RgkVEfDvDL99HQYQ?docId=4de02e92-33f3-44c0-aa11-502d29cae18b&hl=en

Kirkuk — Twin suicide bombings at a Shiite mosque in north Iraq were the deadliest in attacks nationwide that killed 15 people Saturday, amid a surge in bloodshed authorities have failed to quell.

The violence, which has killed more than 200 people in the past week alone, has forced Iraq to appeal for international help in combatting militancy just months ahead of its first general election in four years.

Officials have also voiced concern over a resurgent Al-Qaeda emboldened by the civil war in neighbouring Syria which has provided the jihadist network's front groups in Iraq with increased room to plan operations.

Attacks on Saturday struck mostly in the north, although Baghdad was also hit.

The deadliest violence was in Tuz Khurmatu, where a suicide car bombing followed by a suicide attack targeting a Shiite mosque killed at least 10 people and wounded 45, according to a police colonel and town mayor Shallal Abdul.

The initial blast was at 5:30 pm (1430 GMT) near the Imam Ali mosque, which is in the middle of a crowded market and near offices of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the party of ailing Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.

Shortly afterwards, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance to the mosque.

"I am sure the attack was carried out by Al-Qaeda," said Abdul.

"There is major destruction and damage in the area, because it (the mosque) is located in the centre of a market."

Tuz Khurmatu, an ethnically mixed town, lies in the middle of a tract of disputed territory that Iraq's Kurds want to incorporate into their autonomous northern region over the objections of the central government.

Militant groups often exploit poor communication between the two sides' security forces in order to carry out attacks, and Tuz Khurmatu is frequently hit by violence.

Unrest in Baghdad and two cities in the north -- Tal Afar, which is mostly Shiite Turkmen, and Sunni Arab Tikrit -- left five other people dead, officials said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the rise in violence, but Sunni militants linked to Al-Qaeda often launch attacks on both Shiites and Sunnis, ostensibly in a bid to undermine confidence in the authorities.

Why violence against Turkmens in Iraq is increasing, by Hasan Kanbolat

16 May 2011, Monday



HASAN KANBOLAT

h.kanbolat@todayszaman.com

Today's Zaman
Why violence against Turkmens in Iraq is increasing



According to a decision made in the first week of May in the Iraqi Turkmen parliament, the Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITC) is to be re-structured. The new head ITC member of parliament and ITC Kirkuk City president is Erşat Salihi.



One week after the new political restructuring of the ITC, on the morning of May 12, Erşat Salihi's Kirkuk home was attacked. Despite the fact that his house was guarded, the attacker succeeded in tossing explosives into his house and planting mines around the outside of the home. And thus, the first large-scale attack on a Turkmen leader in Iraq took place. Luckily, no one was hurt during these events, even though Salihi and his family were at home during the attack. But the fact that the convoy of Kirkuk Police Chief Cemal Tahir was attacked as Tahir and his team returned from inspecting the evidence at Salihi's home shows that whoever carried out these attacks was very organized and resolute in their actions.



These days, low-intensity violence is simply a part of daily life throughout Iraq. And this violence, which kills anywhere between 10-100 people a day, does not actually affect daily life anymore. In fact, the Iraqi people have begun to view this sort of non-mass violence as normal. At the same time, one must not compare the attack against Salihi to other violence occurring in Iraq these days. In response to the significance of this particular attack, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs even issued a special declaration (on May 12) condemning it.



As for Erşat Salihi, he said that while he had been expecting an attack, he was not able to blame any particular faction for it. If this event was carried out with the intent of relaying a political message, who was behind it and what were the contents of the message? The Turkmens, despite being one of the three founding groups of Iraq, were not really present in Iraqi politics until the March 7, 2010 general elections, when they were suddenly for the first time represented by three ministers, as well as the Kirkuk provincial presidency. So have some factions been made uncomfortable by the presence of Turkmens on the Iraqi political stage? Does it bother some that the Turkmens are learning the art of politics? Was the message actually intended for Turkey via the Turkmens? Or is it Turkey's, as well as the Iraqi Turkmen's, changing Kurdish policies that were at play in this attack? We need to look at the recent past to find some answers here.



The ITC was formed in 1995 in Erbil. At the time, the Turkmen slogan was “Erbil is Turkish and will remain Turkish!” But the fact that the PKK was being sheltered in Northern Iraq and slipping over the border into Turkey and that the Iraqi Kurds were allowing the PKK to be active, wound up causing rifts between the Iraqi Kurds and both Turkey and the Iraqi Turkmens. After the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the ITC headquarters moved to Kirkuk from Erbil. Influential in this move were the formation of the Kurdistan Regional Authority and the ITC's acceptance of the name “Kurdistan,” as well as the fact that Kirkuk was shown as lying within the borders of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) maps of regional leadership. When the ITC headquarters moved to Kirkuk, the new slogan for Iraqi Turkmen became “Kirkuk is Turkish, and will remain Turkish!”



Over recent years, as Turkey's Kurdish policies have softened and their relations with Iraqi Kurds have improved, relations between the Iraqi Turkmen and the Iraqi Kurds also began to soften and improve. In fact, it was precisely this improved atmosphere that helped the Iraqi Turkmens successfully win over the Kirkuk provincial presidency. Events such as Turkey's opening a consulate in Erbil, visits to the region by Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, Industry Minister Zafer Çağlayan, Interior Affairs Minister Beşir Atalay, and then a visit to Erbil by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on March 29 were all crucial in helping overcome the lack of trust that had existed between Turkey and the Iraqi Kurds, as well as between Iraqi Turkmens and Iraqi Kurds.



Other fundamental steps that helped the atmosphere were the KDP inviting the ITC to its congress, the ITC approaching Iraqi Kurds more positively, the KYB being one of the first political parties to congratulate Salihi on his new role and the ITC preparing to re-open its bureau in Erbil, which has been closed since 2003. But in fact, these new balances also cleared the path to new polarizations in the region. Forces in these regions were becoming uncomfortable over the changing balances and over the compromising policies being adopted by both Turkey and the Iraqi Turkmens. To wit, three Turkish workers who were kidnapped on Feb. 15 in Kirkuk were held for 70 days in the largely Arab village of Dogmat near the Kirkuk-Reshad area. For the last seven days of their captivity, they were buried in a ditch and covered with soil, only able to breathe plastic pipes inserted in the ground. It is a clear reality that no proposals for solutions that ignore the Arabs in the region will bring any peace to Kirkuk or other disputed regions. In the same way, Turkmens and Kurds cannot be discounted by any possible solutions either. For this reason, dialogue between the various sides needs to occur with careful observation and attention to the delicate balances in the area. Only this will help bring down the tension.

Turkmens continue to be targeted in Iraq - Cui bono?

Hazim Yılangöz from Bayraktar-Çayırlılar family, one of the oldest families in Iraq has been killed

Aged 54 and father of eight Yilangöz was attacked by an unknown person in front of his home early in the morning. Having been seriously wounded he died in the car which was taking him to the hospital.

Yavuz Efendi, Musul's ITF Representative, had been killed three days before in Musul.

Les Turkmènes continuent à être la cible des attentats
En Irak, les attentats et attaques visant les Turkmènes, se poursuivent
Posted 29.11.2009 18:38:18 UTC
Updated 29.11.2009 18:38:18 UTC

http://www.trtfrench.com/trtinternational/fr/newsDetail.aspx?HaberKodu=4f441b5b-0fdc-4a05-a741-7616f8fab6cd


Hazim Yılangöz faisant parti de la famille Bayraktar-Çayırlılar, l'une des familles turkmènes les plus enracinées d'Irak, a été tué.
Agé de 54 ans et père de 8 enfants, Yılangöz a été attaqué par une personne dont l'identité n'est pas connue, devant chez lui dans les heures matinales.
Blessé grièvement au torse et à la jambe, Yılangöz est décédé sur la route lorsqu'il était acheminé à l'hôpital.
Lors des funérailles de Yılangöz, les attaques et attentats visant les Turkmène ont été condamnés.

Yavouz Efendi, un des autorités du front turkmène irakien, avait été tué il y a 3 jours à Mossoul.