IRAQIS CALL FOR LIBERATION

FOUR YEARS AFTER THE US-UK INVADED THEIR COUNTRY
IRAQIS DEMONSTRATE AGAINST THE OCCUPIERS

Answering Moqtada al-Sadr’s call, tens of thousands of Iraqis carrying Iraqi flags demonstrated (on 9th April 2007) in Najaf against the occupation of their country.

Moqtada al-Sadr has called on Iraqi forces to stop cooperating with the occupiers:

"That is enough struggling and fighting, for it merely ensures the success of the plans of our enemy and your enemy. Our Iraq can no longer bear the shedding of this blood. The blood of an Iraqi is a red line [that must not be crossed.]" He added, "Iraqi Army and Police: Do not get drawn in behind the occupier. For it is an obvious enemy to you." He said, "The armies of darkness represented by the occupation forces, and more especially the great evil, America, have begun sowing the seeds of conflict, whether openly or through their agents--who have sold their land and their honor. We behold the turmoil taking place in Diwaniya, which the occupier planned out to turn brotherhood into struggle and fighting."


A member of Moqtada al- Sadr's organisation, Salah al-Obaydi, called the rally a "call for liberation". "We hope that next year as today we will be independent and liberated in a fully sovereign Iraq" he told the Associated Press.

SHAME ON BARZANI

by Merry Fitzgerald

Europe-Turkmens of Iraq Friendship Association

Massud Barzani said in an interview broadcast on Saturday with Al-Arabiya television “If they (the Turks) interfere in Kerkuk over just thousands of Turkmens then we will take action for the 30 million Kurds in Turkey”.

Shame on Barzani, who reduces the number of Turkmens in Kerkuk (Turkmens’ capital city and main cultural centre) to “just thousands” thereby denying the reality that Kerkuk has always been a city with a Turkmen majority before the illegal occupation of Iraq by the US and UK who, to reward their Kurdish collaborators Barzani and Talabani, have allowed their armed militias to invade and occupy the Turkmen region of Iraq ‘TURMENELI’ beginning with their capital city Kerkuk.

Since then, Kurdish militias with the blessing of the US occupiers have imposed their hegemony not only on the Turkmen region but on the entire north of Iraq, as if Turkmens, Arabs, and Kaldo-Assyrians did not exist.

Since April 2003 the Kurds, after occupying the Turkmen region, have illegally brought and installed over 700,000 Kurds in Kerkuk to change the demographics of this historically Turkmen city and claim that Kerkuk is a Kurdish city to be annexed to their autonomous region.

What has Barzani done with the hundreds of thousand of Turkmens of Kerkuk? Has he already expelled them, “Kurdified” them by force, or exterminated them?

Shame on this backward, chauvinist and corrupt Kurdish feudal war lord, who having been brought up and fed by racist zionist ideology denies the existence of the hundreds of thousands of Turkmens in Kerkuk and the rights of the 3 million Turkmens of Iraq to be considered as the country’s third main ethnic community, with the same rights as the Arabs and Kurds of Iraq.

Time has come for all Iraqi patriots to stand up against the backward Kurdish war lords whose objective is and has always been to weaken and divide Iraq.

The Arab and Muslim leaders must wake up and realize that the US-UK and their allies are in the process of creating a “new entity” in the Middle East (led by Kurdish war lords such as Barzani) similar but more dangerous for the Arab and Muslim world than the one they created in Palestine in 1948 .

The Arab media should know that Iraq is composed of Arabs, Kurds and Turkmens and they should give the Turkmens, who have always defended the unity of Iraq, the opportunity to express their views on Iraq and Iraqi policies, instead of always promoting backward Kurdish war lords’ views and policies which consist in denying the existence of the Turkmens in Iraq as a community, in dividing Iraq and harming its Arab and Muslim neighbours.

IRAQI TURKMENS DEMONSTRATE IN GERMANY

TURKMENS DEMONSTRATE IN STUTTGART AGAINST THE TEL AFER MASSACRE AND AGAINST THE APPLICATION OF ARTICLE 140 OF THE CONSTITUTION WHICH CONCERNS THE FUTURE OF KERKUK, THEIR CAPITAL CITY AND MAIN CULTURAL CENTRE

Stuttgart’a Türkmenler feryat etti

Irak Türkmen Cephesi Almanya Temsilciliği ve Irak Türkmenleri Kültür ve Yardımlaşma Derneği Stuttgart şubesi, Kerkük başta olmakla üzere Türkmeneli bölgesindeki siyasi durum hakkında, Tela fer’de gündeme gelen son kanlı olaylar ve 2007 yılında yapılması öngörülen 140’ıncı maddede yer alan Kerkük’te Nüfus sayımı ve Referandum’la ilgili 06.04.2007 tarihinde Stuttgart’ta bir panel düzenlenmiştir, Panele konuşmacı olarak katılan Irak Türkmen Cephesi Almanya Temsilcisi Sn. Ganim Authman, Kerkük başta olmak üzere Türkmeneli bölgesindeki siyasi durum hakkında vatandaşlara Sinevizyon aracılığıyla geniş bilgi vermiştir.. Ayrıca Irak Türkmenleri Kültür ve Yardımlaşma Derneği Stuttgart şubesi, 07.04.2007 tarihinde Stuttgart’a Telafer ve 140’ıncı Maddeyi protesto etme amacıyla Almanlara hitaben çok başarılı bir yürüyüş düzenlemiştir. Almanya ve Avrupa’nın bir çok ülkesinden Yüzlerce insan katıldığı yürüyüşte Stuttgart Sokakları Türkmen ve ITC. bayraklarıyla renkleşmiştir. Tgrt. Eu. Samanyolu TV. Ve Alman basınına bir demeç veren Irak Türkmenleri Kültür ve Yardımlaşma Derneği Stuttgart Şubesi Başkanı Sayın Necmettin Mustafa bir açıklama yaparak şunları ifade etmiştir. Bizler Avrupa’da yaşayan Türkmenler ve bütün Sivil toplum örgütleri olarak Irak’taki haklarımızı alana kader bu gibi protesto yürüyüşlerimizi sürdüreceğiz. Yürüyüş çek başarılı şekilde olaysız sona ermiştir..


Irak Türkmen Cephesi
Almanya Temsilciliği

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS

Photo: Mujahed Mohammed/AFP/Getty

Residents of Tel Afer search for their relatives amidst bodies of the victims of Tel Afer massacre piled in the back of a truck outside a hospital in Mosul, 29th March 2007.

THE ETHNIC CLEANSING OF TURKMENS CONTINUES IN TEL AFER

Photograph by Chris Hondros

by Merry Fitzgerald
Europe-Turkmens of Iraq Friendship Association

When speaking in the name of the people of Tel Afer at the European Parliament in Brussels during the Iraqi Turkmen Conference on 27th March 2007, little did I know that on that same day the martyr city of Tel Afer was once again the scene of horrible acts of violence and killings of more than 150 innocent Turkmen civilians.

The Western media reported that a truck packed with 1,814 kilograms (4,000 pounds) of explosives detonated in a Shi`a area of the city and that this was the deadliest single attack since the invasion of Iraq 4 years ago. They also reported that Shi`a gunmen, including police, went on a ‘revenge shooting rampage’ afterwards, killing at least 45 Sunni men.

But according to the Shi`a Turkmen Council in al-Mosul, it is the Kurdish parties who carried out the 27th March bombings of civilians in Tel Afer, sparking “retaliatory” massacres later that night.

The Association of Muslim Scholars of Iraq (AMSI) reported in a dispatch that “the Shi`a Turkmen Council, one of the more important Turkmen party in al-Mosul, had issued a statement blaming the pro-American Kurdish separatist leadership for carrying out the bombings of civilian targets in Tel Afer on Tuesday March 27th, 2007. Those bombings killed some 70 people (*) and prompted pro-Iranian Shi'a sectarians to massacre over 70 Sunnis in "reprisal."

(*) The latest reports of those bombings mention that some 152 people were killed and 185 were wounded.

AMSI reported the Turkmen Shi`a Council as saying that the bombings served the interests of the Kurdish movement that aspires to steal what it called the “Turkmen region” of Tel Afer.

Demonstrators who took to the streets after the Tuesday bombings placed the blame for the atrocities directly on the Kurdish separatist leaders and their American military backers, saying that it was they who let the explosives-laden truck to pass and then detonated it by remote control – maintaining that there was no “suicide driver” as the news media widely reported.

The Turkmen statement denounced the Kurdish separatist militia, the Peshmerga, saying that Peshmerga gunmen prevented puppet police from stopping and inspecting the truck bomb. The Council also denounced the fact that some Shi`a parties were ignoring testimony about this evidence out of partisan motives.”

I disapprove and abhor the use of the terminologies ‘Shi`a’ and ‘Sunni’ when they are utilized in this context as they only serve to exacerbate divisions between Iraqi Moslems. I also deplore the targeted killings of innocent Iraqi Turkmen civilians who are being ethnically cleansed in order to change the demography of their region, the Turkmeneli region of Iraq.

The Turkmens of Iraq (are Sunnis and Shi’as - more or less half -half) have never discriminated among themselves on the basis of their Islamic religion. They have no interest in killing each other and for many centuries there have been intermarriages between Turkmens of both sects of Islam. These fratricidal killings do not serve Turkmens’ interests… cui bono? for whose advantage?

The evil coalition of the US neo-cons, UK new-labour and their Australian followers, led by the war criminals Bush, Blair and Howard - who waged an illegal war of aggression against the Iraqi people leading to the occupation of their country in April 2003, after having intentionally destroyed the entire infrastructure of the country - have actively instigated ethnic and confessional divisions between the Iraqi people in order to destroy the fabric of the Iraqi society and divide Iraq in small entities and cantons.

At first they turned the Kurds against the Arabs and the Turkmens, then the Arabs and the Kurds against the Turkmens, and then they divided Arabs and turned their Shi’as against their Sunnis. Now they are trying to divide the Turkmens between Sunnis and Shi’as and they are also provoking clashes between different Arab Shi`a groups. It is clear that their aim is to destroy the fabric of the Iraqi society, where Iraqis - Arabs, Kurds, Turkmens, Chaldeo-Assyrians, etc - have been living side by side in harmony, respecting one another for many centuries. (1)

The Turkmens of Tel Afer have been victims of the worst humanitarian conditions since the invasion of Iraq in 2003. While thousands of them have been forcibly evicted from their houses and from their city the Kurdish parties of Messrs Barzani and Talabani continue with their policy of ‘kurdification”, they are bringing in thousands of Kurds and are settling them in the areas Turkmens were forced to leave. What the American military call operation “Empty Tel Afer” has resulted in the devastation of thousands of civilian lives.

The siege of Tel Afer is an example of American and Kurdish brutal incursions into densely populated areas under the pretence of “fighting terrorism”. The real terrorists are those who use heavy artillery bombardment, aerial bombing raids, who destroy power lines and water systems and who continue to terrify families with their house-to-house searches and raping women. F. Zeyn el-Abidin, a Turkmen Member of the Iraqi Parliament, declared that the American military had blocked access to the city and did not allow him to enter.

The crimes against humanity committed by the US military never reach, in full details, the American newspapers and are barely mentioned in the other Western media. How many in the West know that the US has used chemical weapons such as white phosphorus in Tel Afer? Who in the West knows that not one foreign fighter was captured during the siege of Tel Afer, despite US and Kurdish parties’ claims that the city was a ‘haven for foreign terrorists’?

Rumsfeld, a war criminal, had given the siege of Tel Afer his personal blessing and the operations were carried out ‘on his orders’. (As he also had encouraged the looting and burning of Iraq’s Ministry buildings, museums, libraries, universities, etc. when his invasion army reached Baghdad in 2003, declaring that “Iraqis were learning to practice democracy”).

While the US made carnage was going on in Tel Afer, Bush, the war criminal, declared on 20th March 2006, when addressing the City Club of Cleveland: “The operation (in Tel Afer) accomplished all this while protecting innocent civilians and inflicting minimal damage on the city”!!! Are the Americans so stupid and gullible to believe all the lies coming from their leaders, or is it that they simply don’t care about the massacre of Iraqis perpetrated by their military?

Everyone who saw the terrible photos taken by photographer Chris Hondros - which were taken on January 18, 2005, when a Turkmen family of 8 who were travelling in their car were shot at by the US troops, killing Camille and Hussein Hassan, the parents and injuring 5 of their children - has understood how little the US military value Iraqi lives.

The residents of Tel Afer who were under siege, who have been displaced, maimed, arbitrarily detained and whose loved ones have been killed or have disappeared are weeping tears of blood, they are crying in the desert, but no one hears them, no one pays attention to their cries for help.

On May 13th, 2005, I remember writing an article under the title: “Telafer, ville fantôme, ville oubliée” (Tel Afer, a ghost city, a forgotten city) (2) after reading an appeal from a resident of Tel Afer, saying that for over eight months their city was under siege, that they had no water and no electricity and that the occupation troops did not allow humanitarian aid to reach their city. I am neither a politician nor a journalist but as a human being and advocate of human rights, I was so alarmed that I did not know what to do, so sent this article to several newspapers to alert them, but I guess my cry of despair for the poor people of Tel Afer did not reach their ears either…

Where is the U.N. who is supposed to protect civilians and condemn violence against civilian populations? Where is the International Community and where are the Human Rights defenders? Have the Iraqi people ceased to be considered as Human Beings by the UN and by the International Community?

The January 2005 election in Iraq has not ended the occupation, it has allowed the Kurdish warlords, Barzani and Talabani, to unjustly install their hegemony over Turkmen territories and cities, with the blessing of the US occupiers.

Someone has to stop these arrogant Kurdish militias who think they have nothing to fear and can go on using brutal force on the defenceless Turkmens who are the only community in Iraq without weapons and militias.

My only hope is that the European policy and decision makers will hear the cries of distress of the people of Tel Afer and of all the Turkmens of Iraq who are being targeted and ethnically cleansed under the foreign occupiers and their Kurdish allies whose plan is to divide Iraq.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/04/02/1345213

(1) In an interview with Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman, Sami Rasouli, an Iraqi American who helped establish the Muslim Peacemaker Team gives a different assessment of the situation in Iraq, contradicting that given by the Bush administration and the mainstream media.

Amy asked Rasouli to comment on these latest figures as well as the recent attack in Tal Afar, “the worst attack -- having the worst casualties since the invasion of Iraq.”
He replied saying:
“Well, I heard Senator McCain talking about the progress, which I kept hearing this from the President and the rest of the administration’s officials in the last four years. But speaking about Tal Afar as an example, I was a member of Muslim Peacemakers Teams, among others, accompanied with Peggy Gish and Michele [Naar-Obed] from CPT, or the Christian Peacemakers Team -- this is sometime in January 2006 -- we visited the second Grand Ayatollah in Najaf, Sayed Mohammed Saeed al-Hakim, and he told us this story after we introduced ourselves as Peacemakers. He said Tal Afar is populated by all kind of people that form the beautiful mosaic formula of the Iraqi fabric society, which Sunnis beside Shias -- and by the way, I’m a Shia, and my wife is a Sunni, so this is a normal intermarriage in Iraq within the Iraqi society.

“So, sometimes in September 2005, the people of Tal Afar faced heavy bombing from the U.S. air raids, and they had to leave the city seeking refuge. Those are families, women and children seeking refuge -- next city, which is Sinjar. And Sinjar is populated by Yezidis, and falsely known in Iraq as Satanic worshippers. And those Yezidis were ready to receive and offer refuge for the Sunnis and Shias who fled the city of Tal Afar, and they offered them homes, food, mattresses, other needs, and assured them that they would leave if they don't like them to be with them, because they held a different religion. So they left to stay with their relatives, the Yezidis, and allowed the Shias and Sunnis to stay in their homes until the crisis would be over in Tal Afar.

“And since then -- actually since May 1, 2003, when the President announced major military operation combat was over -- they still in the state of fleeing their homes -- it's not only in Tal Afar -- across the country. There are over two million Iraqis have got displaced in Iraq in their home own land, became refugees. There are people from Tal Afar that are still in Najaf and Karbala, and we met them, and we tried hard, as the members of the Muslim Peacemakers Team, to offer them refuge, shelter, food and others donated by the Iraqis themselves. They still share with them what they need. And, by the way, Iraqis still are surviving for that Food-for-Oil Program or Oil-for-Food Program. And it's not enough, but they try to survive within the insecurity and hardship conditions of the occupation.

(2) TELAFER, ville fantôme, ville oubliée...
Par Merry Fitzgerald
Comité de Défense des Droits des Turkmènes Irakiens Belgique
13 mai 2005

Depuis plus de huit mois la ville de Telafer, située à 80 km à l’ouest de Mossoul et dont les 250.000 habitants sont majoritairement turkmènes, est devenue une ville fantôme.
Les habitants de cette ville sont sans électricité et sans eau depuis plusieurs semaines.

Sous prétexte de rechercher des terroristes les américains et leurs alliés les milices kurdes ne permettent pas aux convois d’aide humanitaire de pénétrer dans la ville. Les habitants restent cloîtrés dans leurs maisons de peur qu’on leur tire dessus, ils ne sortent que pour chercher de quoi se nourrir, leurs enfants ne vont plus à l’école.

Les habitants de Telafer se plaignent que les troupes d’occupation ont endommagé leurs maisons et leurs lieux de travail. Durant les dernières ‘opérations’ plus de 40 civils innocents ont perdu la vie. Les ‘gardes nationaux’ occupent plusieurs quartiers de la ville.

Craignant de nouvelles attaques américaines certains résidents ont quitté la ville et vivent sous des tentes, dans des conditions tout aussi dangereuses et précaires.
Les hôpitaux manquent cruellement de matériel médical et de médicaments et certains quartiers de la ville manquent de nourriture.
Un député turkmène du Parlement irakien, Feyha Zeyn el-Abidin signale que les militaires américains ont bloqué l’accès à la ville et qu’ils ne lui ont pas permis d’y pénétrer.

La situation qui prévaut à Telafer depuis plus de huit mois inquiète beaucoup le représentant du Parti du Front Turkmène, Ahmet Muratli, qui a lancé un appel au Président Jalal Talabani et au Premier Ministre Ibrahim Jaafari, leur demandant d’agir au plus vite pour mettre fin à cette situation catastrophique.
http://www.tetedeturc.com/home/article.php3?id_article=3735

THE TURKMENS EXILED FROM THEIR CAPITAL

http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=107299


Turkmen businessmen have been the silent victims of the war in northern Iraq. They have become targets in efforts to intimidate the Turkmen people, in the hope of driving them out of historically and ethnically mixed Kirkuk.


Turkmen businessman Halil A.'s son İsmail was abducted by an unidentified group a year ago. His ransom was set at $100,000 and four brand new cars. It was paid. Hicran Kadr, who is in the import-export business, experienced a similar misfortune. The Turkmen businessman's 3-year-old son was abducted from in front of their home, to be returned to his parents for $60,000. Imad Aydın's daughter was abducted from her university campus and released for $50,000. Ali M. Sıddık, who operates a chain of bakeries in Kirkuk, also had to pay $40,000 in ransom money to have his 28-year-old son released.

On average 80 to 100 people lose their lives in Iraq everyday. Incidents like those listed above are just a few examples of abductions in Kirkuk, northern Iraq -- a region deemed to be "safe." The Kirkuk region is in the international spotlight as much as for the rich oil reserves in the area as it is for a referendum on the city's status with the Kurdish regional government, scheduled for the end of 2007. The latter issue is closely tied to crimes that have forced Turkmens to leave the region. As many as 60 percent of Turkmen businessmen have fled the country as a result of bad experiences like the ones mentioned above. Syria, Jordan and Turkey are the most preferred havens because there is no need for a visa. Syria and Jordan are a first stop for the Turkmens of Kirkuk who escape to Beirut and Egypt. Turkey, though, has become the second home of the Turkmens of Kirkuk.


Honor is more important than assets


One of Kirkuk's richest families, the "S" family owned a construction equipment factory as well as a grain and flour factory. The company, owned by a father and his three sons, has experienced many difficulties in the past year. First one of the brothers was abducted, followed by a cousin. The family paid a $50,000 ransom for their son and an $80,000 ransom for the cousin. Fears that their daughter could have been abducted as well forced the family to settle in Turkey. Some went to Mersin, some to İstanbul and yet others to Ankara.
The oldest of the siblings, İ.S., is 40 and has been living in Ankara with his five children for the past five months. The businessman, who is the proud father of four daughters, explained his decision to relocate to Turkey saying, "A person's dignity is more important than their assets; we came here to protect our honor."


He says he has not been able to find what he was looking for here. He could not get a working residency permit from the Ministry of Labor and Social Security. The ambitious businessman, who is on the executive board of the Kirkuk Businessmen Association, explains that he has been living in Turkey with a six-month residency permit, making work difficult. "Turkey must quickly resolve its residency permit problems," he says.


Another Turkmen family that has fled the country is the Ensar family, who came to Ankara 10 days ago. In addition to be being a dentist, father Ahmet Ensar was a prominent businessman in Kirkuk. He speaks about the threats he has received over the past year, adding that even his office was looted. The greatest sorrow, however, occurred when he lost his older brother in an explosion. After that incident he gathered everything he had and came to Ankara. He is not sure what he would like to do at this point. His daughter Esin, who settled in Turkey's capital four months before her father did, says she could not leave her home in Kirkuk for one year for of fears of being abducted.


Others forced to abandon their homeland are former military officers of Saddam Hussein's army. The policy for them is somewhat different. Ali Y., who is 46-years-old, has sought refuge in Turkey and left his wife and children in the care of his mother-in-law. He is in Ankara now. He is a graduate of the Tikrit School of Aviation and served his country as a colonel and a pilot in Saddam's army for 20 years. He insists he was "a colonel for his country, not for Saddam." Following the occupation his home was frequently raided, followed by never-ending threats. He barely survived two raids on his home by Kurdish groups. When the threats became overwhelming, he fled the country across the border to Turkey. Ali has been staying with the Iraqi Turkmen Association for eight months. "If I hadn't come here, they would have killed me."


According to Ali, in Kirkuk if you are businessperson, wealthy or in the military, you are an automatic target. You can continue, however, to live in the city if you can handle the risk of being abducted or killed. The only way to completely rid yourself of the risk is to leave the country. "I chose the most difficult path and came to Turkey," said Ali. For now, he does not know what he wants to do or where to go from here. His only desire is for Turkey to truly open its doors and be welcoming.


A military officer during Saddam Hussein's regime, Raid, also abandoned his country seven months ago. Kurdish groups threatened him saying, "Either you cooperate with us or we kill you." He saw fleeing Kirkuk as the only solution. His escape was not an easy one. He was abducted, blindfolded and held hostage by a Kurdish group for two weeks. Somehow he was able to find his way to Ankara, but his brother who remained in Kirkuk was shot in the foot after it was discovered that Raid had fled. He now works as a web-designer for a computer company in Ankara and has applied to the UN in order to obtain residency in Turkey.


Kemal Beyatlı, the chairman of the Iraqi Turks Culture and Solidarity Association, asserts that a planned policy is in effect with aims to change the demographic structure of Kirkuk. While noting that explicit coercion, which was not present in the past, is being frequently practiced now, Beyatlı said this recent period targeting Turkmen businessmen is an extension of this effort to alter the demographics of the city.


Iraqi Turkmen Cooperation and Solidarity Association Ankara branch Chairman Mahmut Kasapoğlu says businessmen in the region are becoming poorer while Kurds are becoming wealthier. Kasapoğlu says that the greatest reason for this is unsupportive Turkish policies, saying: "The Mersin harbor and the Habur-Silopi crossing point on the Turkey-Iraq border are practically [northern Iraqi region authority leader] Massoud Barzani's property. The main suppliers of many stores are Kurds." He further asserts that Turkmen technicians are being threatened and forced to leave their jobs, and their jobs are then given to Kurds.


Professor Mahir Nakip of Erciyes University, an instructor and chairman of the Kirkuk Foundation, asserts that attacks directed at businessmen are efforts to intimidate the populace and abolish the Turkmen capital. "Turkey raising its voice on the topic of Kirkuk really spurred them on," says Nakip, adding that Turkmens have been politically and financially cornered. However he does not anticipate conflict in Kirkuk. "The fact that 600,000 Kurds living in the region have access to weapons while Turkmens don't have any weapons diminishes the chances of armed conflict."


Opening doors to Turkmens


Turkmens who flee Kirkuk and come to this country can only stay in Turkey for three months on their entry visa. Those who chose to involve themselves in commerce are more fortunate, this is the only way to acquire a working residency permit. Unfortunately the permit is not very easy to obtain and Mahir Nakip believes if this residency permit problem were resolved, more Turkmens would settle in Turkey.


However Nakip says they still have concerns, bearing in mind that Turkey has followed different policies at different times regarding Kirkuk -- the inconsistencies in Turkey's foreign policy worry them. Nakip says that unless Iraq is stabilized, Turkmens will stay away from the country. "It appears as though Turkey has opened its doors and is welcoming Turkmens, however it must raise its voice regarding Kirkuk in 2007."


Kasapoğlu also says that Turkey's indecisive policies regarding Kirkuk are not just issues pertaining to Turkmens in Kirkuk and Mosul, they also concern Turkey's southeast. There are currently 5,000 Turkmens living in Ankara. The only desire of those moving to the Turkish capital is for Turkey to open its doors to them. However every Turkmen family that enters Turkey translates into another political and demographic loss in Kirkuk. Turkmens who have fled their country out of fear are painfully aware of this: Yet they have no other option.


04.04.2007
NURSEL DİLEK ANKARA

BELGIAN SENATOR Ms OLGA ZRIHEN RECEIVES A TURKMEN DELEGATION

A Belgium senator Ms. Olga Zrihen received a Turkmen delegation that was led by ITF representative Dr Hassan Aydinli at the Belgium Parliament on the 27th of March 2007

ITF Europe Representative had arranged an appointment with Ms Olga ZRIHEN, Belgian Senator and President of the Provincial Committee of Hennuyères Fédérations, on 27th March 2007 for the Turkmen delegation attending the Turkmen Conference at the European Parliament on 26th & 27th March 2007.

The Turkmens who formed the delegation which was received by Ms O. ZRIHEN on 27th March 2007 at the Belgian Parliament in Brussels were:-

· Mr. Muzaffer Arslan, Advisor on Turkmen Affairs to the President of Iraq H.E. Jalal Talabani
· Mr. Ahmed Mehdi, Head of the Turkmen Group at the Kerkuk Council
· Dr. Hassan Aydinli, ITF Europe Representative
· Dr. Sheth Jerjis, SOITM Chairman
· Ms. Merry Fitzgerald, Assistant to ITF Europe Representative
· Ms. Nermeen Al-Mufti, Author and al-Ahram Correspondent


The members of the Turkmen delegation were presented to Ms O. ZRIHEN by ITF Europe Representative Dr Hassan AYDINLI, who, after introducing the delegation, made a brief and condensed presentation of the Turkmens of Iraq, their history, their contribution to the Mesopotamian civilization and to Iraq’s history, culture and civilization. He subsequently explained the specific dire situation of the Turkmens of Iraq - who constitute the third community of Iraq and the third main ethnic component of the Iraqi people representing at least 3 million people (13% of Iraq’s population) - since the creation of the New Iraqi State after WWI in 1921.

Dr. Hassan AYDINLI stressed and underlined the constant marginalization of the Turkmens in Iraq > and the increasing discriminations they have faced over the past 86 years, insisting especially on their sufferings and on the deterioration of their community’s situation since the occupation of Iraq> by the US-UK forces in March 2003.

Speaking of the acute problems with which the Turkmens are confronted in today’s Iraq, Dr. H. AYDINLI mentioned the New Iraqi Constitution and he criticized this New Constitution which in its present form discriminates between the Iraqi people and Iraq’s ethnic communities; dividing the Iraqi people in two distinct classes by considering only the Arabs and the Kurds of Iraq as “first class citizens” and their communities as the “main communities of Iraq” while abusively denying the 3 million Turkmens of Iraq the right to be equal to the Arabs and the Kurds of Iraq and the right for their community to be considered as the “third main community of Iraq” with equal rights as those given to Arabs and Kurds.

Dr. H. AYDINLI deplored the ‘backwardness’ of the “New Iraqi Constitution” which is officially discriminating between the Iraqi people and between Iraq’s ethnic groups and communities, by downgrading the 3 million Turkmens of Iraq to a minority status, considering them as a ‘small and insignificant minority’ and not as the “third main component of the Iraqi people”, thus considering the Turkmens of Iraq as “second class citizens”.

He insisted on the need for an early revision of the so-called “New Iraqi Constitution” to eliminate all errors of judgement, discriminating factors and articles as well as all backward concepts from this Constitution so that all Iraqis can feel that they are equals and that they enjoy equal rights as citizens of a democratic modern state.

He stressed that the Turkmens of Iraq, being the third main ethnic component of the Iraqi people, must have the same rights as the Arabs and the Kurds in Iraq and that the New Iraqi Constitution must recognize this fact and must explicitly mention Turkmen’s rights to be equal to those of Arabs and Kurds.

Concerning article 140 of the “New Iraqi Constitution” and its content as well as its requirements concerning the issue of Kerkuk (Turkmens’ capital city and main cultural centre in Iraq) and the time table fixed in the constitution for the application of this article which is the end of this year (31/12/2007) to normalise the situation in Kerkuk Governorate, to make a census and hold a referendum on its future status, on whether to be annexed by the Kurds of Iraq to the Kurdish autonomous region, Dr. H. AYDINLI denounced the way in which the New Iraqi Constitution was written and stressed the fact that the Turkmens of Iraq have been once more discriminated and were kept out of the Committee which was formed and which ”supposedly “had prepared the text of this new constitution. He made a r sum of the articles of the ”Transitional Administrative Law” (TAL) which was written by the US occupiers for Iraq with which they controlled and ruled the country after their illegal war of aggression in March 2003, highlighting articles 53 and 58 of the “TAL” which dealt mainly with the issue of the Kurdish autonomous region and with the special status for Baghdad and Kerkuk governorates in the eventual future federal Iraqi state.

Dr. H. AYDINLI denounced the way in which articles 53 and 58 of the “TAL” have been stripped from their contents and were only partially and selectively transferred from the “TAL” to the “New Iraqi constitution” to represent the core of Article 140 of the new Iraqi constitution, under pressure and manipulations from the Kurdish political parties of Messrs. Barazani and Talabani, with the complicity and support of the ”Occupation Authorities” to suit the Kurds’ agenda and to reinforce the Kurdish parties’ hegemony not only in their already recognised autonomous region (Duhok+Erbil+Sulaymaniya), but also in the Turkmen regions of Iraq and specifically in Kerkuk Governorate which contains the huge oil reserves of the north of Iraq around the city of Kerkuk.

Dr. H. AYDINLI denounced the abusive and hegemonic power given to the Kurdish political parties of Messrs. Barazani and Talabani in Iraq> since the occupation of the country in 2003 and the illegal practices used by them to change the demographics of the Turkmen towns and cities in the Turkmen region starting from Kerkuk city.

Further Informing Senator Ms Olga ZRIHEN, Dr. H. AYDINLI denounced the Kurdish parties’ claim on Kerkuk as being a Kurdish city by giving her ample proofs to the contrary, as Kerkuk has been for centuries mainly a Turkmen city and the main cultural centre for the Turkmens in Iraq>.

He further informed Senator Ms Olga ZRIHEN of the late developments in Kerkuk and the demographic alteration of the city made by the Kurdish political parties which brought and installed more than 600.000 Kurds from the Kurdish autonomous region as well as Kurds from Iran, Syria and Turkey disguised as Iraqi Kurds originally from Kerkuk and allegedly expelled from Kerkuk by the previous Ba’ath regime, in order to change the demographic composition of the city in preparation for the referendum scheduled by them to be held before the end of 2007 on the final status of Kerkuk.



Dr. H. AYDINLI ended his intervention by thanking Belgian Senator Ms Olga ZRIHEN for her interest in the Iraqi Turkmens’ cause and for the attention she showed while listening to his introductory speech, adding that Belgium being at the centre of Europe, Belgian politicians and decision makers should take the initiative to denounce the occupation of Iraq and ask for the unconditional withdrawal of the foreign occupation forces in order to bring stability to Iraq, security for its people, start the reconstruction of the country, create jobs for the millions of unemployed and bring real democracy to our country.

Mr. Muzaffer ARSLAN and Mr. Ali MEHDI made their personal statements, confirming in details the presentation made by the ITF Representative.

The opportunity was also given to Dr Sheth JERJIS and Ms Nermeen al-MUFTI to present their views and thoughts about the Turkmens of Iraq, their suffering and the violation of their human rights.

Ms Olga ZRIHEN seemed moved by the presentations made by the members of the Turkmen delegation, confessing that she had only recently heard a little about the Turkmens of Iraq and that she was unaware of the violations of their rights and the discriminations they have faced for so long in Iraq. She showed compassion and requested to be kept informed about the Turkmens and their cause.

ITF Europe Representative promised to keep her posted about the evolution of the Turkmens’ situation in Iraq.




Written by Dr. Hassan Aydinli

THE TRAGEDY OF THE TURKMEN CITY OF TEL AFER

The following is one of the Statements delivered at the European Parliament in Brussels on 27th March 2007 at the “Iraqi Turkmen: The Human Rights Situation and Crisis in Kerkuk” Conference.

By Merry Fitzgerald

Since the illegal occupation of Iraq by the Anglo-American forces in April 2003 the inhabitants of the Turkmen city of Tel Afer are living under siege. Thousands of innocent Turkmens have been killed by the US and the Kurdish militias forces during multiple attacks on the city.

Tel Afer which is the largest Turkmen city of Mosul province, it is also the biggest sub-district of this province (with its 500.000 inhabitants). It has an important and strategic location in the north-west of Iraq, about 60 km from Mosul, 85 km from Turkey and 70 km from Syria.

Tel Afar is known as being the northern base of the 1920 Iraqi revolt against the British occupiers, indeed, that revolt began from Tel Afer and it was the first stage towards liberating Iraq from the British occupiers.

The Kurds want to control Tel Afer because they claim that Tel Afer is dividing so-called 'Iraqi Kurdistan' from Sinjar claimed by them as being part of their region and so-called 'Syrian Kurdistan'. Therefore, for the Kurds controlling and annexing Tel Afer is very important in uniting the parts of their illusionary state.

The Kurds also have economical reasons for wanting to own Tel Afer, there is the Rabi’a border gate, between Iraq and Syria, which they want to take hold of in order to profit from its huge income, in the way they are already profiting from Habur gate between Iraq and Turkey (all the incomes, customs duties etc from Habur gate go exclusively to the Kurds’ treasure, while at the same time they are receiving the largest share of the Iraqi annual budget).

The Kurds are also thinking in controlling the new border gate, supposed to be opened between Turkey and Iraq, which lies in the area belonging to Tel Afer. If they succeed in controlling this new border gate then they will hijack it as they did in Habur and thinking to do with Rabi’a.

Another economic reason why the Kurds want to control Tel Afer is because of its fertile soil. According to experts on the completion of the irrigation project in the region, the income of the agricultural crops will equal that of the region’s oil revenues.

The Kurds also want to control the Tel Afer region because of the Aski Mosul lake with its dam which produces at the moment about 500 Megawatts and whose production could be increased under normal circumstances.

It is important to note that Tel Afer was the only city outside the Kurdish autonomous region which was not looted and burned by the Kurds on the first day of the occupation as they did in Kerkuk, Tuz Khurmatu and other Turkmen cities and towns because the Turkmens guarded and protected the official buildings of their city.

Kurds and certain groups in Iraq are trying to divide the Turkmens in Tel Afer in particular and the Turkmens in general, by saying that so many percent are Sunnis and the other Shias. But the Turkmens everywhere in Iraq are concerned in their just cause and do not differentiate between Shias and Sunnis.

On 15th April 2003, an officer called Khalil Ibrahim entered Tel Afer and he met the notables of the city telling them that the coalition forces had put him in charge of the city and the Peshmerga would enter the city on the same day and that the notables should receive the Peshmerga. When the Peshmerga entered the city they immediately went to the Mayor’s office, tore the Iraqi flag and raised instead the yellow flag of Barzani. On seeing this young Turkmens rushed into the Mayor’s office and in their turn they ripped of Barzani’s flag and raised the Iraqi flag again.

On the second day, the Turkmens discovered that Peshmerga occupied the Mayor’s and the Customs offices and had appointed a Kurdish governor for their city and that they had began looting the public offices and transferring all the documents, furniture etc to the Kurdish area. At the same time the Peshmerga began raiding Turkmen houses under the pretext that they were searching for governmental vehicles. As the Turkmens resisted, the Peshmerga left the city after looting everything.

One week later Jowdat Nadjar was sent by Barzani to the city to tell the Turkmens that Barzani was very upset and that they should know that they are part of Kurdistan and should be under his control. The Turkmens’ answer was that the Peshmerga had began attacking them and looting everything and that they should know that Tel Afer is not part of so-called Kurdistan.

Despite this, the Kurdish leadership opened two offices in Tel Afer, for PUK and PDK, and they began forcing the people to be with them. They offered lots of money to those who accepted. Thereafter the Kurds organized an election to elect a new mayor and new city council, hoping that their men, Kurds or those who were bought, would win, but they didn’t. Meanwhile Al-Arabiya TV interviewed Massoud Barzani who said, commenting on a question saying that if Turkey would open another gate with Iraq near Rabi’a this would affect Habur gate. He said: “we will never accept this and we will use force if necessary”.

The Turkmens of Tel Afer elected the Mayor and city council members they wanted in June 2003 and the Mayor controlled the city, but the Peshmerga who had turned into National Guards supported by the US occupier began provoking the city through every day raids alleging searching terrorists. When the Kurdish incidents began in Hassaka and Qamishly Syria on 13th March 2004, Barazani sent tens of his followers to Syria as a solidarity sign, 45 of them were arrested by the Syrian border authorities and were submitted to the nearest Iraqi police station which is Tel Afer police station. The Kurds asked the Chief of the Police Station and the Mayor of Tel Afer to free them, but they both refused. A week later the Mayor was assassinated while on his way from Mosul to Tel Afer and the Americans and peshmerga in Iraqi National Guard uniforms intensified their attacks on Tel Afer alleging that the city was harbouring Arab terrorists.

The Kurds supported by the Americans continued terrifying operations to force the Turkmens to leave their city. When a few US patrols were attacked in and around Tel Afer the Americans took this as a pretext to besiege strike and devastate the city. Thousands of Turkmens fled to nowhere and while the Americans and Kurdish Peshmerga in Iraqi National Guard uniforms were bombing and raiding the city; the Turkmeneli TV transmitter was their first target, there were checkpoints controlled by the Kurds on the way to Tel Afer to stop any aid, food, water, medicines, tents, blankets etc. from reaching the devastated city. At the same time they refused the TV and media to enter the city.

After several days the only help which could reach the outskirts of Tel Afar was from the Turkish Red Crescent because the Turkish government threatened to enter Iraq to help the devastated city. Hundreds of Turkmen civilians were killed and hundreds of young Turkmens were arrested.

The Turkmens who were driven out of their city could not go back because their houses had been destroyed.

The US forces are still now in the historical Al-Qala’a area of Tel Afer and they have emptied tens of houses from their owners for their safety, and they are harbouring the PUK and PDK offices.

The airstrikes and raiding continued on the city, trying to control it in one way or another.

In August 2005, 8.500 US and Iraqi military forces (those New Iraqi army brigades from the northern division were almost all Kurdish militias) again attacked the city.

The US and Iraqi troops sealed off the city, enclosing it behind a massive wall of sand with military checkpoints. Then the city’s inhabitants were forcefully evacuated leaving them to fend for themselves. The Red Crescent was overwhelmed by the magnitude of the exodus and was unable to provide shelter, water, or food for many those who fled. The city was then relentlessly pounded for more than a week by Abram’s tanks, F-16s, helicopter gun-ships, and heavy artillery. At least four mosques were bombed and the Sarai area was hammered persistently with 500 and 1000 lbs bombs. The Iraqi newspaper Azzaman reported “Eyewitnesses spoke of ‘scores of casualties due to indiscriminate bombing”.

The siege was executed according to the normal protocols; massive destruction of personal property, levelling areas where resistance appeared, snipers picking of anything that moves on the city streets, and the routine rounding up of anyone who seems at all suspicious. Rumsfeld’s lone mantra “surround, isolate and destroy”.

Thousands of Tal Afer residents were trapped inside Sarai by the cordon of tanks and barbed wire that was flung around the district to prevent resistance fighters from escaping. Significant parts of Tel Afer were destroyed. Electricity and phone services were cut off and hospitals were breaking down. The Iraqi human rights Centre issued an urgent appeal to the Iraqi government to stop the assault and allow rescue teams to access the area to deliver food, water and medical supplies.

Dr. Muhammad Qasim, the Director of the Tal Afer Branch of the Iraqi Red Crescent announced that 90 percent of the residents of the city had left as refugees because of the battles raging there as US occupation troops attacked the city.

He added that more than 170 cases of poisoning due to American chemical or poisoned gas bombs had been brought into hospitals outside Tal Afer in the nearby cities of Mosul and Ba’aj.

Through Mfakarat al-Islam, Dr Qasim called on what he called “honest satellite TV stations to come to Tel Afer and broadcast what was going on there to the world”.

The purpose of these systematic attacks and intimidations carried out in Tel Afer was to break the spirit of the Turkmens and to frighten them into emigrating. The final objective is to annex this Turkmen city to the Kurdish Autonomous Administration; especially that the so-called Kurdish constitution already included Tel Afer in the region they claimed.

The Iraqi Turkmens ask the Europeans to put pressure on both the American occupation authorities and the Iraqi government to fulfil their promises, rebuild the city and compensate the families and help the 70% of the population to return to their city.

They demand, that both authorities stop the siege of the city which began three years ago, and provide sufficient medicines and foodstuffs for the city.

They insist that there should be an international presence, supervised by the United Nations, to stop the US forces and the Kurdish militia from continuously raiding the city and killing its inhabitants.

They sincerely hope that the Europeans will take their responsibilities and help the Turkmens of Iraq who are being ethnically cleansed and who suffer under double occupation of the US and Kurdish militias since April 2003.