U.S. FORCES TERRORIZING TURKMENS IN IRAQ

URGENT APPEAL FROM THE TURKMENS OF IRAQ TO IRAQI PRIME MINISTER NURI AL-MALIKI, TURKISH PRESIDENT ABDULLAH GUL, JOURNALIST UNIONS AND ALL HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS.

TURKMENS TERRORIZED BY THE US FORCES

Mr. Falah Hassan Younis is a Turkmen citizen and a member of the Iraqi Turkmen Advisory Council in Kerkuk who works as a Director of the sub district of Alaiyaziya which is a link to the Turkmen district of Telafer. Currently he is in charge of the district in the absence of its councillor.

On the 25th of December 2008 Mr. Falah Hassan Younis was summoned by the American forces for a meeting and Mr. Falah Hassan was obliged to attend at the request of the American forces. He attended the meeting with the US forces while he was accompanied by his bodyguards.

During the meeting with the American counterpart his body guards were disarmed by the American forces as this was backed up by the Iraqi Turkmen Front representative in the Turkmen District of Telafer Mr. Nabil Harbu.

Mr.Falah Hassan Younis and his body guards were physically abused and beaten badly by the US forces.

Mr.Falah Hassan Younis and one of his body guards were detained by the US forces whereas the remaining body guards were released. Then both the body guards were handed over to the Iraqi forces in the city of Mosul. As the election approaches in Iraq, they would like to silence the voice of the Turkmen; various steps have been taken by Kurdish parties and American forces to do this.

However, the Turkmen, Arabs, and Chaldo Assyrians had high expectations of the interim administration established after April 9, 2003. The Turkmen expected to see democracy, fairness, an end to discrimination, the right to self-determination and an end to violence.

Unfortunately, the opposite has occurred regarding the human rights situation in Iraq, in particular concerning the Iraqi Turkmen. The Turkmen have been subject to campaigns by the Kurds and the American in Turkmeneli in an often more brutal fashion than carried out on Kurds by Saddam Hussein.

The arbitrary arrests of the Turkmen citizen Mr. Falah Hassan Younis by US force is a clear violation of human rights. They are still detained and being imprisoned by the Iraqi forces and no one knows where they are imprisoned. The most striking thing is that, the detainees have not been given any reason for their arrest and have not been given access for a lawyer.

Turkmen of Iraq call upon the Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri AlMaliki, Turkish President Abdullah Gul, Journalists Union, all Iraqi and international organizations defending the human rights and freedom to move immediately to the authorities of the Iraqi government at the highest levels for the protection of the Turkmen, Arabs and Assyrian from the Kurdish and American oppression that are carried out under the pretext of fighting of the terrors.


Mofak Salman
Turkmeneli Party Representative for Both Ireland and United Kingdom

Violations of the Turkmens' Human Rights in Iraq by the U.S. Occupation Forces and the Kurdish Militias

COMMITTEE FOR THE DEFENCE OF THE IRAQI TURKMENS’ RIGHTS

Tel: +32(0)495 44 06 29
E-mail: htwalli@skynet.be

COMMUNIQUE

Subject: Violations of the Turkmens’ Human Rights in Iraq by the U.S. occupation forces and the Kurdish militias (Peshmergas and Asayish).

Since the invasion and occupation of Iraq by the US-UK forces in March-April 2003 and especially since 10th April 2003, when the US forces authorized the Kurdish militias of Messrs. Barzani and Talabani:
- to advance far beyond their “Autonomous Region” established in the three governorates in the north-east of Iraq (Duhok, Erbil and Suleymaniya)
- to invade and occupy the other governorates of the north of Iraq (Kerkuk, Mosul, Salaheddin and Diyala) where the majority of Iraqi Turkmens live and where their region “Turkmeneli” is situated
the Turkmens have been systematically targeted by the Kurdish militias who are occupying and controlling their region.

Indeed, since then, the Turkmens are victims of human rights violation, they are marginalised in their own region, their community is discriminated, their cultural rights are denied and their language (Turkish) is not recognized as an official language in their region where the Arabic and Kurdish languages are imposed as the two official languages. They are denied their fair share of employment in the administration and they are markedly under-represented in the security forces, in the police and in the army which are almost all monopolised by the Kurds.

The Turkmens, not having armed militias of their own, are left defenceless and are living under constant threats. They are subjected to intimidations, kidnappings, ransoming, land and property grabbing, arbitrary detentions, torture, attacks and killings at the hands of armed militias. Ever since the Kurdish militias took control over ‘Turkmeneli’ on 10th April 2003 and occupied the Turkmens’ major cities and towns (Kerkuk, Telafer, Tuz Khurmatu, Altun Kopru, Dakuk, Kifri, Khanaqueen, Mendeli, etc.) they have behaved as an occupation force.

We have denounced and brought to your attention the systematic human rights abuses and atrocities committed by these militias against the Turkmens as well as against other non-Kurdish populations in the north of Iraq: Arabs, Chaldeo-Assyrians, Shabaks and Yezidis.

The Kurdish parties (KDP and PUK), in order to fulfil their hegemonic ambitions of creating a Kurdish state in the north of Iraq which would include the oil-rich governorate of Kerkuk, have used their armed militias to organize the settlement of over 600.000 Kurds from the Autonomous Kurdish Region as well as of non-Iraqi Kurds from neighbouring countries (Iran, Syria and Turkey) to change the demography and the ethnic composition of the Turkmen region in their favour. They have used their militias to rig the local and general elections to their advantage to show that they represent the majority of the population in the Turkmen region.

Thus, with the blessing of the US occupation authorities Kurds have managed to label the non-Kurdish regions of the north of Iraq inhabited mainly by Turkmens, Chaldeo-Assyrians, Yezidis and Shabaks as ‘contested territories’ , they are unjustly claiming that these territories are ‘Kurdish’ and they want to annex them to their autonomous region.

Naturally, the Turkmens reject the Kurds’ claims on their region and they refuse to be part of the Kurdish Autonomous Region. For this reason the Kurds are targeting Turkmens on a daily basis.

The most recent examples of attacks on Turkmens are today’s (3rd December 2008) deadly attacks in the Turkmen city of Telafer where a car bomb hit a local market killing seven Turkmens and injuring twenty-seven others, and this morning’s raid on a Turkmen house in Kerkuk’s neighbourhood of Hay Adden:

Today (3rd December 2008) at the crack of dawn (3:30 am), a joint American-Kurdish patrol, supposedly in search of a terrorist called Emad Abu Uday, raided the family house of late Turkmen Colonel Nadhim Suleiman.

The raiding force, composed of fifteen US soldiers accompanied by one translator (in four Humvees) and ten Kurdish security force members ‘Asayish’ wearing uniforms with the Kurdish flag on their chest and sleeves (in two four-wheel drive JMCs), broke the door and penetrated into the house, terrorizing all its occupants by firing shots outside and inside the house. They completely searched and ransacked the house and did not find a single bullet. Then they checked the IDs of all the persons living in the house: the widow and the two sons of late Colonel Nadhim Suleiman (Zakeriya Nadhim Sulaiman, aged twenty-nine and Nabil Nadhim Suleiman, aged thirty-four) and their wives and young children.

Despite the fact that they did not find the individual they were supposedly looking for they arrested both brothers, they put sacks over their heads, handcuffed them and took them away.

The Kurdish Asayish then took photos of the whole family and although there were no female members with them they forced the women to take off their hijabs and they searched them. They even took off the clothes of the two small children (a four year-old boy and a three-year old girl). They stole the family’s savings (around 20 million Iraqi Dinars), the women’s gold jewellery and all the personal documents belonging to the family.

The above are just two examples among the innumerable violations of human rights which are committed against the Turkmens in Iraq by the Kurds.

Several hundreds of innocent Turkmens who were arbitrarily arrested by the Kurdish Asayish are imprisoned somewhere in the Kurdish autonomous region. Most of these unfortunate detainees have been locked up for years, they are ill-treated and in most cases their families do not even know where they are imprisoned. The unjustified arrests and imprisonment of these innocent civilians who are often the sole breadwinners of their families have very serious consequences for their wives and children who are struggling to survive.

We, Committee for the Defence of the Iraqi Turkmens’ Rights, are appalled by the continued violations of human rights by the Kurdish militias and by the U.S. military in Iraq and we strongly denounce their exactions against the unarmed and innocent Turkmens.

The international community can no longer remain indifferent to the fact that Turkmens, Chaldeo-Assyrians, Yezidis and Shabaks are the victims of Kurdish militia’s terror in the north of Iraq.

We ask the European Union, the Human Rights Organizations and all members of international organizations not to remain silent about the human rights abuses by the Kurds against the non-Kurdish communities in the north of Iraq.

We call upon them to intervene without delay and urge them to put pressure on Messrs. Talabani and Barzani and demand that they stop these abuses and release all the innocent Turkmens who are detained in the Kurdish controlled jails in the north of Iraq.



Dr. Hassan AYDINLI
President,
Committee for the Defence of the Iraqi Turkmens’ Rights.

Brussels, 3rd December 2008.