Turkmens, Turkmeneli and the Musul Region, by Orhan Ketene - PART I

Northern Iraq or the Musul Region is home of the Iraqi Turkmens for over a millennium. The economic and strategic importance of this land, had made it one of the most sensitive parts of the Middle East in general and of Iraq in particular.

Introduction :

Turkmen is the name of the Turks inhabiting the Musul region and the rest of Iraq. Turkmeneli means Turkmen-Land in Turkish. It is the name of areas where Turkmens are concentrated.
Musul Region is the Northern part of Iraq that is naturally separated from the rest of Iraq by Himrin and Mechul mountains. It is a multi-ethnic region that includes the homelands of the Turkmens (Turkmeneli), of the Kurds (Kurdistan), of the Jazira Arabs (west of Tigris) of the Assyrians (Plains of Ninewah) as well as Ezdi and Shahbek minorities.

HISTORY:

The Musul Region was called Turcomania by the British geographer William Gutherie in his map of 1784.
The Musul region was the power base of the Atabeg Turkmen states in the 12th and 13th
centuries. Its 3 major cities; Musul, Erbil and Kerkuk were the capitals of those states.
Later, it became part of the larger Turkish-Turkmen states. The total statehood of the Turkmens in Iraq lasted for 9 centuries.
It was called the “Musul Province” by the Ottomans in the 19th century and it was one of the three provinces (beside Baghdad and Basrah provinces) that formed Iraq.

The Musul region, despite its multi-ethnic nature, is geographically, economically, historically and culturally a connected unit. The cities of Musul, Erbil, Kerkuk and Suleymaniye as well as the towns and villages of the mountains and steppes have always been interconnected and in close relations with each other.

Up until the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the British occupation of Iraq, Musul, Erbil and Kerkuk had always a Turkish character, However, after the British occupation of Iraq and the formation of the state of Iraq, the Jazira Arabs (Jubur and Shammar Arab tribes) began to influx into Musul from the twenties and on. The mountainous Kurds began to influx into Erbil from the fifties and on. With the fall of the monarchy in Iraq in 1958 and for political and economical (oil) reasons, the Kurds (in the sixties, seventies and recently after the American invasion) and Arabs (in the eighties-Baath era) settled in Kerkuk in mass numbers. Those politically and economically motivated settlements have significantly changed the demographic structures of those three cities.

Currently, the city of Musul is dominated by the Arabs. Erbil is dominated by the Soran Kurds. The struggle for domination in Kerkuk city and its region is going on and the ethnic tension is quite high.

GEOGRAPHY :

The Turkmens in the Musul Region are concentrated in five areas;

1- Telafer : Located west of Musul, it is bordered by the Tigris river from the north-east and the Syrian border from the west and the Jazira flatland from the south. It consists of the city of Telafer with 300 towns and villages around it. The population in this area is overwhelmingly Turkmen.
2- Eastern Musul : In the city of Musul, Turkmens are concentrated in the eastern part of the city called Ninewah, They are also concentrated in the towns and villages on the Tigris river located to the north and south of the city.
3- Erbil : Turkmens originally were concentrated in the downtown and the castle of Erbil. Later they were relocated from the castle for historical restoration.
4- Kerkuk : Kerkuk area is bordered with the Lower Zab river in the north, Diyala river in the south, Himrin Mountains in the west and Qaradagh mountains in the east.
This area is considered as the hub of the Turkmens. Kerkuk is considered as the capital of the Turkmens.
5- Khanaqin : This area is located between the Diyala river and the Iranian border. Main cities are Khanaqin, Qizlarbat (Sadiyye) and Qaraghan (Jalawla).


Natural Resources:

Turkmeneli is very rich in natural resources and minerals. Oil and natural gas is the most important mineral, oil fields are located in three areas:

1- The largest field is in Kerkuk, the underground reservoir stretches from nearby Erbil in the north to Tuz Khurmatu in the south.
2- Sasan and Eyn Jaleh, Batma fields, located north of Telafer to the west of the Tigris River
3- Neftkhana field located on the Iranian border south of Khanaqin.

The land is fertile and is irrigated with the rivers of Tigris, upper Zap, lower Zap, Khasa-Su, Tawuq-Su, Aqsu, Narin and Diyala.

POPULATION :

The Turkmen population of Iraq is approximately 3 million or %15 of the Iraqi population.
The Turkmens who are ethnically Turkish, belong to the Oghuz Turkish group which is one of the three major Turkish groups.
{The other two Turkish groups are the Karluks (Ozbeks and Uyghurs) and the Kipchaks (Kazakhs, Kirghiz, Tatars, Bashkurds...etc.). The reader must not confuse the Turkmens of Iraq with the other Turkmen groups such as the Turkmens of Turkmenistan, Turkey, Syria, Caucasia, Iran or Afghanistan.}
The bulk of the Turkmens live in the Musul region, However, there are considerable numbers of Turkmens in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, mostly concentrated in the northeastern sections of Adhamiyye, Raghiba Khatun, and Waziriyyah.
There are also sizeable numbers of Turkmens in the central provinces of Diyala (Baquba, Shahraban, Mendeli), Kut (Bedre, Aziziyya), Karbala and Najaf in central Iraq.

Since the creation of Iraq after WWI and the fear of Turkey claiming the Musul Region, Britain and the successive Iraqi governments as well as the Kurdish administration in the north, until today, tend to suppress the Turkmen numbers to the lowest level possible. Therefore, there hasn’t been a single reliable census. Results were always forged and a policy of discrimination and bias against the Turkmens resulted in suppressing their actual numbers to be shown by the official Iraqi statistics as %2, which means in today’s numbers as 500.000 out of a total of 25 million.
Whereas, the northern city of Telafer alone counts for 500.000 Turkmens.

KURDISH SETTLEMENTS :
Originally, Kurds lived mostly in mid-western Iran (Hamadan, Nahawand). The word “Curdestan” was officially mentioned for the first time by the Seljuk Turks in the 11th century.

The migration of Kurdish tribes westward into Eastern Anatolia, Syria and Northern Iraq was encouraged by the Turks (Seljuks, Atabegs, Ottomans, Safawids) throughout the second millennium. The history of Kurdish-Turkish cooperation could be summarized as follows:

1- Cooperation with the Atabeg Turks against the Crusaders. Salahaddin the famous Kurdish commander was sent by the Atabeg of Musul Imadeddin Zengi to liberate the Holy Land.
2- Cooperation with the Ilkhanid Sultan “Mahmud Ghazan” in 1295 to subdue Northern Iraq and western Iran.
3- Cooperation with Tamerlane in 1398-1401 in subduing northern Iraq and eastern Anatolia.
4- Cooperation with the Ottoman Turks (Sultan Selim-1508, Sultan Murad-1743) against the Shiite expansion in Eastern Anatolia that started by the Safawid Turks from Iran.
5- Cooperation with the Safawid Turkish Nadir Shah in 1734 to subdue northern Iraq to his rule.
6- Cooperation with the Ottomans (Sultan Mahmud-1843, Sultan Hamid-1894) to quell rebellions against the empire in northern Iraq and eastern Anatolia.

The Turks (Seljuks, Atabegs, Tamerlane, Ottomans and Safawids) in return for this cooperation by the Kurds, allowed large numbers of Kurdish tribes to move from Iran and settle in northern Iraq and eastern Anatolia. They gave them vast lands as well semi autonomous status.
The city of Suleymaniye was built by Suleyman Pasha the Ottoman governor of Baghdad at the beginning of the 18th century, to be a major Kurdish city.
In the 20th century and before the start of the Kurdish revolts in the forties, Kerkuk and Erbil were considered as major Turkmen cities, but, due to economical and political reasons, large numbers of Kurdish peasants settled in Erbil and Kerkuk. Also, because of continuous revolts against the Iraqi government, significant numbers of Kurdish villages in the mountains were destroyed by the troops and those peasants were forcefully settled by the government around Erbil and Kerkuk to keep them under control. Within time, two thirds of Erbil and one quarter of Kerkuk became Kurdish. The first large scale Kurdish settlement was a suburb called “Iskan”(meaning settlement), established in 1960 by Gen. Abdul Kerim Qasim. The second Kurdish quarter was Azadi established in 1970.

CHALDO-ASSYRIANS:
The Chaldo-Assyrians are the original Christians of this area, mostly concentrated east of Musul, in the plains of Ninewah, which a triangle between the Tigris river and the Upper Zab river. They also exist in small numbers in Erbil and Kerkuk.
Most of the Assyrians and Armenians were settled by the British after WWI in Kerkuk.
The Arafa (New Kerkuk) quarter was established mostly for the Assyrians working in the oil industry.

ARAB SETTLEMENTS:
West of Kerkuk is Hawija, inhabited by the Arab tribes of “Obeidies” and Hadidies who were settled west of Kerkuk by the Iraqi government in the Thirties and Forties.

As a result of an intense Arabization policy during the Ba’ath era, large numbers of Arabs were forced or lured to move to Kerkuk and the rest of Kerkuk province, Arabic suburbs have been built around Turkmen cities, new Arabic settlements and irrigation projects built in the Turkmen rural areas which altered the demographics of the area beyond recognition.

LANGUAGE :
Turkmen language is a dialect of Turkish which is a part of the Western Turkish language group that includes also the Turkish spoken in Turkey, Cyprus, the Balkans, Azerbaijan (North and South), Northern Syria, Iran, Turkmenistan, and Southern Turkestan (Northern Afghanistan). The Turkmen language with its 5 major accents is closer to the Turkish spoken in Azerbaijan and Urfa in southeastern Turkey rather than Turkmenistan which is part of Turkestan (central Asia).

MAIN CITIES :
The main Turkmen cities from north to south are : Telafer, Musul, Erbil, Altun Kopru, Kerkuk, Tuz Khurmatu, Kifri, Qaraghan, Qizlarbat, Khanaqin, Mendeli and Bedre.

Cities with population over 250,000 are as follow:

Telafer (pop. 0.5 million): This city is the northernmost Turkmen city and it is %99 Turkmen, located on the Teymurlenk (Tamerlane) hills which are part of the Sanjar- Zambar mountain range. Together with the surrounding Turkmen villages, the Turkmen population of the area is around 0.8 million. The great revolution against the British rule in Iraq in 1920 started here.
Mainly an agricultural area, there are also oilfields in Sasan, Eyn Jaleh (Eyn Zale) and Batma located in the north, nearby the western banks of the Tigris River.

Musul (pop. 1.5 million): The largest city in northern Iraq. Located on the Tigris River. It was the capital of the Atabegs of Musul in the 12th century. Atabeg Imadeddin Zengi fought the Crusaders and sent his commander Saladdin (Salahaddin) to defeat the Crusaders in Syria and Palestine. Atabegs main monument in Musul is the “Ulu Jami”(Grand Mosque) with its famous “curved minaret”.
Neynewa (Nineveh), the capital of the ancient Assyrian Empire is located on the eastern bank of the Tigris river where the Turkmens and other non-Arabs are concentrated, whereas the Arabic population is concentrated in the western side of the city.

The Turkmens of Musul are mostly concentrated in Neynewa, Yunus Peygamber, where Prophet Jonas is buried, Qadikoy, Reshidiye, Qara Yatagh, Qarakoyunlu, Shirkhan, and Sellamiye. The Shahbeg (Shabak) tribes and their branches the Sarili’s and the Mawulu’s, are the remnants of the Mongol armies. Together with the surrounding villages, the Turkmen population is approximately 0.5 million. They stretch from north of Musul to the upper Zap river which borders Erbil.

Erbil (pop. 0.75 Million): Located between the upper and lower Zap rivers, Erbil is the second largest Turkmen city after Kerkuk. Erbil is the oldest surviving city in the world. It has a historical castle, which was restored few decades ago.
Erbil was the capital of the first Atabeg state known as the Begtekin's, established in 1149 AD., the most famous Atabeg was Muzaffereddin Gokboru. The existing "Desert Minaret" was built during his era.
Prior to the Kurdish rebellions which started in 1949, Erbil was a major Turkmen city.
In the Forties, Erbil was made of 5 quarters:

- Qal’a (castle) which included: Saray, Topkhana and Tekiyya sections.
- Tajil Islam
- Tajil Yahud
- Arab Mahallesi
- Khanaqah (Kurdish)

By 1947 the quarter of Tayrawa was established and by 1957 the district of Seydawa was established. After 1958, the number of Kurdish quarters increased.
The reason for this increase in Kurdish population was economical. Rural Kurdish peasants moved to Erbil for better job opportunities. Also because of the continuous destruction of the rebel Kurdish villages in the mountains east of Erbil, by the Iraqi army, large numbers of Kurds were settled in Erbil. Today, Turkmens, mostly concentrated in the ancient castle, constitute approximately one third of the population.

Kerkuk (pop. 1.25 Million): Located on the river Khasa Su. It is the cultural center of the Iraqi Turkmen and the largest Turkmen city in Iraq. It is also called ‘the Bride of the North’ because of the many parks and green areas.
The rich oilfields around Kerkuk, made it the most important city in Iraq. Being the center of the oil industry, it produces one third of the Iraqi oil. The eternal fire of Baba Gurgur is located in the middle of those fields, it has been active for thousands of years.

It was the capital of the Iwak Atabegs in the 11.th century. South of Kerkuk is the city of Tawuk or Daquq on the river of Tawuq Su, which was the first Turkish city built in this area around 850 AD by the descendants of the Turkish troops placed in the Abbasid capital Samarra.

The distinctive castle of Kerkuk was built 3000 years ago. Prophet Daniel is buried here. Populated entirely by the Turkmens, among them the Christian Turkmen, whose numbers dwindled down to few hundred in recent years, Kerkuk castle had all the aspects of ancient Turkish architecture. There are a lot of historical Turkish buildings and monuments in the city. In 1997 Saddam ordered the demolition of this ancient castle which was a unique historical monument and a symbol of Kerkuk.

The majority of Assyrians and Armenians were settled in the thirties by the British to work in the oil industry. The majority of Arabs were brought by the Iraqi government in the thirties, forties, seventies and eighties, for political reasons, to upset the ethnic balance in their benefit. The majority of the Kurds came to Kerkuk for economical and political reasons. Some were forcefully settled by the government, in the forties and the Qasim era, to keep them under control, others were settled by the Kurdish parties to change the ethnic balance in their benefit during the proposed ethnic plebiscite in 1970 which was suspended by the government.

Prior to the massive arabization of Kerkuk, in the Eighties, the city was made of 21 Turkmen and 5 Kurdish quarters. The original Kerkuk quarters are:

Turkmen Quarters:

A- West of the river Khasa Su:

1- Qorya
2- Ahmad Agha
3- Shaturlu (1/5 Assyrian, Armenian)
4- Sari Kahya (1/5 Assyrian)
5- Mahatta
6- Almas (1/3 Kurdish and 1/3 Assyrian)
7- Begler
8- Arafa (1/2 Assyrian-new Kerkuk)
9- Baghdad Yolu
10- Tisin(demolished)
11- Yengi Tisin
12- Hamzalilar
13- Gawur Bagi (Mixed: All nationalities)

B- East of the river Khasa Su:

1- Qal’a (the Castle)(demolished in 1997)
2- Musalla(1/5 Arabs)
3- Chay
4- Piryadi
5- Awchi
6- Bulagh (1/5 kurt
7- Chuqur
8- Akhir Huseyn (1/5 Kurdish)
9- Kasapkhana

Kurdish Quarters:

A- West of the river Khasa Su:

1- Rahimowa (1/4 Turkmen, Assyrian, Armenian)

B- East of the river Khasa Su:

1- Imam Qasim (1/3 Turkmen)
2- Shorja (1/3 Turkmen)
3- Iskan (established in 1960) (1/4 Turkmen)
4- Azadi (established in 1970)

CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY :

Turks existed in Iraq for quite a long time. The Sumerians who came to Iraq (3500-4000) years ago from Central Asia, established the first civilization of the world. The linguists found at least 300 words to be of Turkish origin. Excavations in Turkmenistan revealed cities of Sumerian origin similar to the ones in Nuzi (Kerkuk) Ur and Eridu.

Turks assumed important positions in the Sassanid Empire, the prime minister and chief financial officer of the emperor Yezdigerd was Begir Khan Buda. There were also many Turkish tribes and principalities in Central and Southern Euphrates, the most important ones were the Batuqlu and Banuqlu principalities, headed by Bozboru who fiersly resisted the Muslim Arab armies, His son prince Solubay, later became a Muslim and cooperated with the Arab armies. The military tradition of the Turks attracted the attention of the Umayyads and they started to bring more Turks to Iraq as elite forces.

Ubeidullah bin Ziad the Umayyad governor of Basra brought 2000 soldiers in 674 AD. Another group was brought in 692 AD by Hajjaj bin Yusuf Al-Thaqafi, the governor of Iraq, to protect his capital Waset (Al-Kut). Later they were settled in Badrah on the Iranian border in central Iraq. Badrah is the oldest existing Turkmen settlement with more than 1300 years in history.
The Abbasid Caliphs Abu Ja'far Al-Mansur, Haroun Al-Rashid and Alma'moun brought at least 2000 Turkish soldiers every year to serve as the elite protection forces and settled them in Baghdad.

In 835 AD. The largest group of selected Turkish soldiers numbering 40.000 were brought by Caliph Al-Mu'tasim along with their Turkish brides (40.000) and a new city of Samara was constructed for them, Samarra became the capital of the Abbasid Empire during the Mu’tasim era. After his death, the capital was moved back to Baghdad and most of the Turkish inhabitants of Samarra moved across the Hamrin Mountains to establish the first Turkish settlement in northern Iraq; Tawuk or Dakuk which is located south of Kerkuk.

The Attraction of the Land:
It was the hilly landscape of these lands which was identical to their homeland in Turkestan and Central Asia that attracted the Turkish tribes to this area. With a plenty of water and a fertile land that included the strategic castles of Kerkuk, Erbil, Musul and Telafer, served as military control posts for the northern and central Iraq and to protect transportation routes from Iran to Anatolia, as well as being close to the center of the Empire in Baghdad, all those factors played a significant role in the settlement of this land by the incoming Turkish tribes over the centuries.

Turkmen Name:
There are many theories about the name Turkmen, but the most logical one is the way a Turk, in those days, would have introduced himself or herself when asked about his or her national identity, by saying in the Central Asian Turkish accent : " Men Turk’ men " which means "I am a Turk". Even today, an Ozbek or an Uygur from Turkestan, introduces himself as Ozbek'men or Uygur'men. Whereas in today’s western Turkish accent, self introduction is: "Men Turkem or Ben Turkum ".

The Start of the Turkish Rule:

The military superiority, reliability, loyalty and the durability of the Turkish forces increased the dependence of the Abbasid Empire on the Turks. At the time of Caliph Mu’tasim the army was under the command of a Turkish commander called Afshin.
In 1055 the Seljukian commander Tughrul Beg was asked by Caliph Al-Qaim-bi-Amrullah to save Baghdad from the Persian Buweihy domination. Tughrul Beg was awarded the rank "Sultan" and since then, Turks became the official rulers of Iraq until 1918.

Although the Bayat tribe is one of the major tribes that make up the Turkmen population, the Turkmens all over Iraq are a mix of too many Turkish tribes that came to this area to support the 8 different Turkish states and empires that ruled this land for nine centuries. These Turkish states and empires are:

STATE, DATES and DURATION

1- The Seljuk Empire 1055-1149 = 94 Years

2- The Atabegs 1149-1258 = 109 Years

3- The Ilkhanids 1258-1336 = 78 Years

4- The Jalairids 1336-1360 = 24 Years

5- The Karakoyunlu (Baran) 1360-1469 = 109 Years

6- The Akkoyunlu (Bayindir) 1469-1508 = 39 Years

7- The Safawids
1508-1534 = 26 Years
1623-1638 = 15 Years
Total : 41 Years

8- The Ottoman Empire
1534-1623 = 89 Years
1638-1918 = 280 Years
Total : 369 Years

TOTAL : 863 Years

The chronology above, explains the 5 major accents the Turkmens speak today.

RELIGION :

The Turkmens adhere to the Islamic religion with both its branches the Sunni-Hanefi (two thirds) and the Shia (one third). There is also a small group of Christians, these used to be located in the Castle of Kerkuk before its demolition by Saddam in 1997.

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Please see next post for PART TWO

Iraq's simmering ethnic war over Kerkuk

Mrs. Jala Nefetçi, Turkmen Provincial Council Member

24-04-2008

Tensions are rising between Kurdish, Arab, and Turkmen factions over power and populations in the province, the heart of northern Iraq´s oil industry.

KIRKUK, Iraq - Graffiti inside this city´s ancient hilltop citadel quickly spells out the tension between Kirkuk´s three main ethnic groups – Kurds, Arabs, and Turkmen. On one wall, an eagle descends on a two-headed serpent meant to symbolize enemies of the Kurdish nation. Next to it, the word "Arab" is erased and replaced with an etched "Kurdish" in a slogan that once read: "Kirkuk is an Arab city." Another slogan reads: "Kirkuk is Turkmen."

Kirkuk has been the object of a bitter struggle over the past five years among Iraq´s competing ethnic and sectarian groups. And now Arab, Kurd, and Turkmen factions seem to be digging in, anticipating that tensions may erupt in an area that is the center of northern Iraq´s oil industry ahead of a promised referendum on the fate of Kirkuk Province, officially still called Tamim, its previous Baath Party-era name.

Article 140 of Iraq´s Constitution was supposed to resolve the issue by the end of 2007 but the deadline for a vote has been extended to the end of June in the hopes that the United Nations may be able to broker a solution by then. But with or without a referendum, Kurds maintain that almost the entirety of Kirkuk Province, of which the city of Kirkuk is the capital, is a natural part of their semiautonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq.

Arabs and Turkmen, on the other hand, say Article 140 is now "null and void" and that other solutions must be devised.

In general, Turkmen support a semi-independent Kirkuk Province while Arabs back the idea of the central government remaining in control. Meanwhile, the United States is exerting a mix of coercion and incentives to prevent the feuding parties from battling each other over the issue. But already local security officials say a simmering conflict is under way with no day going by without a tit-for-tat kidnapping or assassination involving a member of the city´s three competing population groups.

Turkmen and Arab leaders say hundreds of their own have been jailed inside Kurdistan.

"We kidnap terrorists, it´s the only way to protect Kurdistan," says Muhammad Ihsan, minister of extraregional affairs in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). Mr. Ihsan also says that his government has proof that Turkey, which is adamant that the Kurds not be allowed to annex Kirkuk into the KRG, has members of its military intelligence inside Kirkuk at the offices of the Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITF), the Turkmen political coalition. "This is aggression and interference," he says.

On a recent crisp morning, Ali Hashem, an ITF strongman, was huddled with some of his colleagues at a diner in downtown Kirkuk.

Over a traditional northern Iraq breakfast of crushed yellow lentil soup and hot bread, they spoke about what they characterized as aggression and pressure by the two main ruling Kurdish parties – the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan Party (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) – regarding the question of Kirkuk. "In order to defend ourselves, we might be compelled to bear arms one day," says Mr. Hashem, who is a member of the ITF´s executive committee and the party boss in neighboring Salaheddin Province.

"Kurds have gone too far; they have taken their full rights and now they want to infringe upon the rights of others."

The talk in Kirkuk is that Hashem is leading a drive to stockpile weapons ahead of any potential armed confrontation with the Kurds. He does not preclude the possibility but says his party is still banking on efforts to draft more Turkmen into local police and Iraqi Army forces, which he says are disproportionately dominated by Kurds.

The ITF, which is a coalition of six parties, receives significant support from Turkey and is even considered by many to be a Turkish proxy party. It´s the most militant of the Turkmen parties and has turned the issue of Kirkuk and what it views as the city´s Turkmen identity into a rallying cry. Turkmen in Iraq, a distinct ethnic group, are estimated to number anywhere from 250,000 to 2 million. They, along with Kurds, suffered from Saddam Hussein´s policy of demographic and geographic engineering that accompanied his Arabization policy of northern Iraq.

Turkmen and Arabs now accuse the Kurds of "Kurdifying" Kirkuk and not waiting for the city´s fate to be decided through a vote. Many accuse them of having brought back to Kirkuk more than half a million Kurdish inhabitants since the fall of Mr. Hussein´s regime in 2003 and thuggishly seizing control and power here. The head of Kirkuk´s provincial council, Rizgar Ali, a Kurd, says only 240,000 people, including non-Kurds, have returned since 2003. He says that hundreds of Kurdish villages in the province remain destroyed and abandoned. But in Kirkuk it´s hard not to notice the overwhelming Kurdish influence. Entire districts are now thoroughly Kurdish. Neighborhood and street names and billboards glorifying Kurdish peshmerga fighters attest to a new assertiveness. The Kurdish-led coalition dominates the local council with 26 seats, followed by the Turkmen with nine, and Arabs with six.

The Turkmen have been boycotting the council´s meetings since November 2006.


In a recent interview in the Kurdish capital of Arbil, the KRG´s Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani cupped his hands to describe how Kurdish forces have Kirkuk surrounded. "If we want to change things by force, we can do it like that," he says, snapping his fingers. "But we do not see a solution being imposed by force … we want a consensus solution accepted by all sides," says Mr. Barzani. He says his government is under pressure from its own public over the Kirkuk question and that it is trying to juggle that with its commitments to the political process in Iraq. But Ihsan, who is Kurdistan´s chief representative in the national committee that´s supposed to resolve the Kirkuk question, says there is a limit to the KRG´s patience and that a forceful annexation may be an option. "What do you think, we are going to wait to make Iraq stronger and come back … even now they are not implementing the Constitution," says the minister. "We are giving a chance until the end of 2008, but no more."

The ITF says it´s ready for this eventuality. "We will be able to resist long enough until an outside power intervenes," says Jala Neftachy, a Turkmen provincial council member. She was among a delegation that met with top Turkish officials earlier this year and received assurances that they would stop any forced Kurdish annexation. "The Turkish government have confirmed this to us; they will not be bystanders, they will interfere by force," adds Ms. Neftachy.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0424/p06s02-wome.html?page=1

Iraqi Turkmen Front celebrates its 13th birthday

The Iraqi Turkmen Front was founded on 24th April 1995 in Erbil.

The Iraqi Turkmen Front (Turkish: Irak Türkmen Cephesi, Arabic: الجبهة التركمانية العراقي‎) is a political movement which seeks to represent the Turkmens of Iraq.

ITF is a coalition of the following political parties:


1- Iraqi Turkmen National Party (INTP)
2- Turkmeneli Party (TP)
3- Independents Movement
4- Turkmeneli Cooperation and Cultural Foundation
5- Iraqi Turks Cultural and Solidarity Association
6- Turkmen Brotherhood Center

U.S. kills 800 in 3 weeks in Sadr city

Sadr city - Men grieving after U.S. raid

Laith Jawad, Azzaman
April 24, 2008

U.S. occupation forces have killed more than 800 people, most of them innocent civilians, in their three-week long military campaign to subdue the Mahdi Army in Sadr City, the leader of Sadr movement in Baghdad said.

Sheikh Salaman al-fariji said the troops have also injured more than 1,800 people and caused large-scale destruction of private property and the city’s rickety infrastructure.

Fariji made the remarks as he accompanied a delegation of 20 members of parliament on a tour of the impoverished city home to more than 2 million people.

U.S. troops have imposed a tight embargo on the city and bombing by war planes and helicopter gun ships in the densely populated Baghdad neighborhood continued even during the MPs’ tour.

Falah Shanshal, an MP, said the group would write to the parliament to lift the siege of Sadr City and reach a peaceful solution to the standoff with Mahdi Army.

Mahdi Army is the military wing of Sadr movement which has 30 deputies in parliament.

"The MPs were shocked by the scale of damage," said Fariji.

Shanshal said: "The people of Sadr City undergo horrific humanitarian conditions as a result of U.S. military operations and embargo."

www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news\2008-04-24\kurd.htm

Gabriele Zamparini: Exchange with Graham Watson Member of European Parliament

Gabriele Zamparini, The Cat's Dream
April 24, 2008

An e-mail exchange with Graham Watson MEP, Member of the European Parliament for South West England and Gibraltar and Leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe in the European Parliament

Dear Graham,

I hope all is well.

Please find below an e-mail I sent to your colleagues Edward Davey and Nick Clegg.

I kindly invite you too to highlight the human cost of the Iraq war.

Thank you.
Best wishes,
Gabriele Zamparini
London

email to Liberal Democrats MPs Edward Davey and Nick Clegg RE: Iraq war death toll

Graham Watson's reply:

Dear Gabriele Zamparini

Thank you for copying me in on your email to Edward Davey and Nick Clegg. You may be interested to read a speech I made in the EP on Iraq. It can be found at: [link]

Yours sincerely
Graham Watson MEP

My reply to Graham Watson MEP:

Dear Graham Watson MEP,

Thank you for your reply and for sending the link to the speech you gave on Wednesday, 16 November 2005 at the European Parliament at Strasbourg.

You said then: "Yet after two years and eight months of war, the deaths of countless Iraqis and over 2 000 coalition troops, it is clear that life in Iraq is little better than before."

Yes, "little better" indeed.

Let’s remember that the "before" was when the UN, under the US and UK pressure, imposed an embargo to Iraq, that helped destroyed the country and caused the death of a terrifying number of innocent people. One million? Two millions? Will we ever know?

Denis Halliday, former UN Assistant Secretary General and Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq (1997-98) said: "I had been instructed to implement a policy that satisfies the definition of genocide: a deliberate policy that had effectively killed well over a million individuals, children and adults." After thirty-four years with the United Nations, he resigned in protest over the effects of the embargo on the civilian population.

Hans Von Sponeck, who had succeeded Denis Halliday as UN Assistant Secretary General and Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq (1998-2000), resigned on February 13, 2000. He asked: "How long should the civilian population of Iraq be exposed to such punishment for something they have never done?"

Like Halliday, he had been with the United Nations for more than thirty years. [Source: The New Rulers of the World, by John Pilger, Verso, 2002]

Then came the US+UK war of aggression, illegal under the UN Charter – as recognised by the then United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan - and called at Nuremberg in 1945 the supreme international crime: "To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole." - Judgment of the International Military Tribunal for the Trial of German Major War Criminals - Nuremberg, Germany 1946

I was glad to read in the second part of your speech, the first of your three concerns: "First, the Pentagon’s acknowledgement a few hours ago that the US used phosphorous incendiary devices in Fallujah.

The European Union must demand a UN inquiry into the use of these banned weapons." This was in November 2005.

Please, may I ask you if the European Union demanded that UN inquiry?

Most importantly, I would kindly like to have your attention on one point. Once again, as the media watch FAIR wrote a few weeks ago: "There is no more important question about the Iraq War than the question of how many Iraqis have died. It is impossible to truly evaluate the war or discuss where to go from here without knowing the human cost of the war, and that cost has overwhelmingly been borne by Iraqis."

Please, it would be possible for the European Parliament to ask for an investigation on the human cost of the Iraq war?

Thank you again for your time and all you’ll be able to do on this issue.

Best wishes,
Gabriele Zamparini
London


P.S. Useful resources:

Iraq: the Human CostUpdated Iraq Survey Affirms Earlier Mortality EstimatesORB Update on Iraqi Casualty DataAnswers to Questions About Iraq Mortality SurveysCounting Iraqi Casualties -- and a Media ControversyWhat is the real death toll in Iraq?Iraqi deaths survey 'was robust'

www.thecatsdream.com/blog/2008/04/exchange-with-graham-watson-mep-leader.htm

Why does the Bush Regime want to rule Iraq?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19789.htm

By Paul Craig Roberts 23/04/08 "ICH"

The Bush regime has quagmired America into a sixth year of war in Afghanistan and Iraq with no end in sight. The cost of these wars of aggression is horrendous. Official U.S. combat casualties stand at 4,538 dead. Officially, 29,780 U.S. troops have been wounded in Iraq.

On April 17, 2008, AP News reported that a new study released by the RAND Corporation concludes that "some 300,000 U.S. troops are suffering from major depression or post-traumatic stress from serving in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and 320,000 received brain injuries."On April 21, 2008, OpEdNews.com reported that an internal e-mail from Gen. Michael J. Kussman, undersecretary for health at the Veterans Administration, to Ira Katz, head of mental health at the VA, confirms a McClatchy Newspaper report that 126 veterans per week commit suicide. To the extent that the suicides are attributable to the war, more than 500 deaths should be added to the reported combat fatalities each month.

Turning to Iraqi deaths, expert studies support as many as 1.2 million dead Iraqis, almost entirely civilians. Another 2 million Iraqis have fled their country, and there are 2 million displaced Iraqis within Iraq. Afghan casualties are unknown.

Both Afghanistan and Iraq have suffered unconscionable civilian deaths and damage to housing, infrastructure, and environment. Iraq is afflicted with depleted uranium and open sewers. Then there are the economic costs to the U.S. Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz estimates the full cost of the invasion and attempted occupation of Iraq to be between $3 trillion and $5 trillion. The dollar price of oil and gasoline have tripled, and the dollar has lost value against other currencies, declining dramatically even against the lowly Thai baht. Before Bush launched his wars of aggression, one U.S. dollar was worth 45 baht. Today the dollar is only worth 30 baht.The U.S. cannot afford these costs.

Prior to his resignation last month, U.S. Comptroller General David Walker reported that the accumulated unfunded liabilities of the U.S. government total $53 trillion. The U.S. government cannot cover these liabilities. The Bush regime even has to borrow the money from foreigners to pay for its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. There is no more certain way to bankrupt the country and dethrone the dollar as world reserve currency.

The moral costs are perhaps the highest. All of the deaths, injuries, and economic costs to the U.S. and its victims are due entirely to lies told by the president and vice president of the U.S., by the secretary of defense, the national security adviser, the secretary of state, and, of course, by the media, including the "liberal" New York Times.

All of these lies were uttered in behalf of an undeclared agenda. "Our" government has still not told "we the people" the real reasons "our" government invaded Afghanistan and Iraq.

Instead, the American sheeple have accepted a succession of transparent lies: weapons of mass destruction, al-Qaeda connections and complicity in the 9/11 attack, overthrowing a dictator and "bringing democracy" to Iraqis.

The great, moral American people would rather believe government lies than to acknowledge the government's crimes and to hold the government accountable.

There are many effective ways in which a moral people could protest.

Consider investors, for example. Clearly Halliburton and military suppliers are cleaning up. Investors flock to the stocks in order to participate in the rise in value from booming profits. But what would a moral people do? Wouldn't they boycott the stocks of the companies that are profiting from the Bush regime's war crimes?

If the U.S. invaded Iraq for any of the succession of reasons the Bush regime has given, why would the U.S. have spent $750 million on a fortress "embassy" with anti-missile systems and its own electricity and water systems spread over 104 acres? No one has ever seen or heard of such an embassy before.

Clearly, this "embassy" is constructed as the headquarters of an occupying colonial ruler. The fact is that Bush invaded Iraq with the intent of turning Iraq into an American colony.

The so-called government of Maliki is not a government. Maliki is the well paid front man for U.S. colonial rule. Maliki's government does not exist outside the protected Green Zone, the headquarters of the American occupation.

If colonial rule were not the intent, the U.S. would not be going out of its way to force Sadr's 60,000-man militia into a fight. Sadr is a Shi'ite who is a real Iraqi leader, perhaps the only Iraqi who could end the sectarian conflict and restore some unity to Iraq.

As such he is regarded by the Bush regime as a danger to the American puppet Maliki.

Unless the U.S. is able to purchase or rig the upcoming Iraqi election, Sadr is likely to emerge as the dominant figure. This would be a highly unfavorable development for the Bush regime's hopes of establishing its colonial rule behind the facade of a Maliki fake democracy.

Rather than work with Sadr in order to extract themselves from a quagmire, the Americans will be doing everything possible to assassinate Sadr.

Why does the Bush regime want to rule Iraq?

Some speculate that it is a matter of "peak oil." Oil supplies are said to be declining even as demand for oil multiplies from developing countries such as China. According to this argument, the U.S. decided to seize Iraq to ensure its own oil supply.

This explanation is problematic. Most U.S. oil comes from Canada, Mexico, and Venezuela. The best way for the U.S. to ensure its oil supplies would be to protect the dollar's role as world reserve currency. Moreover, $3-5 trillion would have purchased a tremendous amount of oil. Prior to the U.S. invasions, the U.S. oil import bill was running less than $100 billion per year. Even in 2006 total U.S. imports from OPEC countries was $145 billion, and the U.S. trade deficit with OPEC totaled $106 billion. Three trillion dollars could have paid for U.S. oil imports for 30 years; $5 trillion could pay the U.S. oil bill for a half century had the Bush regime preserved a sound dollar.

The more likely explanation for the U.S. invasion of Iraq is the neoconservative Bush regime's commitment to the defense of Israeli territorial expansion. There is no such thing as a neoconservative who is not allied with Israel.

Israel hopes to steal all of the West Bank and southern Lebanon for its territorial expansion. An American colonial regime in Iraq not only buttresses Israel from attack, but also can pressure Syria and Iran not to support the Palestinians and Lebanese.

The Iraqi war is a war for Israeli territorial expansion. Americans are dying and bleeding to death financially for Israel. Bush's "war on terror" is a hoax that serves to cover U.S. intervention in the Middle East on behalf of "greater Israel."


Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions

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U.S. snipers accused of targeting civilians in Sadr City

Residents, doctors of Baghdad's Sadr City say US snipers deliberately shoot civilians in feet, stomachs.

April 22, 2008BAGHDAD - Civilians caught up in the crossfire during raging street battles between Shiite militiamen and security forces in Baghdad's Shiite bastion Sadr City are blaming an unseen danger – US military snipers.

At least 321 people have been killed in Sadr City since March 25 and hundreds more wounded, many of them brought to hospitals with wounds that doctors say appear to be caused by high-powered rifles and "American bullets."

US military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Steven Stover dismissed claims that US snipers are targeting women and children as "preposterous" and said the wounds could be the result of "un-aimed" militia fire.

Residents of Sadr City, however, bastion of the Shiite militia of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, blame US snipers whenever someone is shot in the stomach or the legs.

The mother of Ali Murtatha, a three-year-old boy lying with bullet wounds to his stomach in Al-Sadr hospital, has no doubt that her only son was shot by a US sniper.

"An American sniper shot my child. Who else would shoot my boy? The place where we stay is tense. There are American soldiers everywhere near us," she said as she watched over him on his hospital bed, where he is lying with bandages on his stomach and an oxygen tube in his nose.

His mother, Umm Murtatha, says he was shot outside his home in a southern sector of the impoverished slum district, which is criss-crossed by tiny lanes lined with small overcrowded homes.

In the same hospital, Tharwat Abbas, aged 26, lies under a heavy blanket in one of the hospital's few air-conditioned rooms on the ground floor.

Abbas has two bullet wounds -- one in the stomach, the other in his left thigh."There was some random shooting in our area. After a while it stopped and I stepped out of my house to fetch my younger brother when suddenly I was shot twice," Abbas said.

He too believes the bullets were fired by a US sharpshooter."I don't know who shot me but I believe it was an American soldier," he said.

Medics at Al-Sadr Hospital say some bullet wounds are difficult to explain as being caused by random fire."Random shots usually hit anywhere, but these people have wounds on specific parts of the body ... like their stomachs and legs," said Doctor Ala Haider.

He said some patients had been cut down by bullets that appear to have been fired by US forces." During the operations on the patients we found bullets inside the bodies. They were American bullets. We can distinguish the American bullets from the Iraqis," he said.

Lawmaker from Sadr's political bloc, Falah Shanshal, backed the widespread claims by locals that US snipers have been targeting residents of Sadr City since Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered a crackdown on Shiite militants."American snipers are on the roof-tops. They have killed many people. It has become difficult to move now, especially in the evenings," he said.

The US military dismissed the allegations."No American soldier is targeting innocent civilians of any age. We don't do that," Lieutenant Colonel Stover, spokesman for the US military command in Baghdad told."Allegations that we would target innocent teenagers, children, women and men are preposterous. Tell the mother of the three-year-old our hearts go out to her, but her son was not targeted by an American sniper."

Observers say, however, the US military is well known for its indiscriminate fire whenever they come under attack.

www.middle-east-online.com/english/features/?id=25503

زار وفد من الكتلة التركمانية في مجلس محافظة كركوك

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