Archive for the ‘Turkmen of Iraq’ Category
Kerkuk – Capital City of Turkmeneli (Iraqi Turkmenia) and the Pseudo-Kurdish Claims
Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis, American Chronicle
A comprehensive diagram of the History of the Turkmen city of Kerkuk is presented in the new book about the Iraqi city, which has been elaborated by Mofak Salman Kerkuklu, one of Iraq´s foremost Turkmen scholars and intellectuals. I will publish the book in a series of articles; in this first part, I republish the various historical chapters of Mr. Mofak Salman Kerkuklu´s new contribution. In forthcoming articles, I will publish parts of the book that shed light on the recent atrocities committed there by the terrorist militias of the pseudo-Kurdish “leaders´ Talabani and Barzani. Read the rest of this entry »
Negotiating Nationhood on the Net: The Case of the Turkmens and Assyrians of Iraq
Hala Fattah, Royal Institute of Interfaith Studies, Amman.
A central argument that has swirled around the contours of the Iraqi nation from its inception in the 1920s has migrated to the Internet. The argument pits the legitimacy of Iraq as a nation-state against that of a whole host of different “national” communities settled within the modern state. The claim has been made that Iraq has never cohered into a nation because successive governments have prevented the assimilation and integration of “the multiple histories of Iraqis” into “a single narrative of state power”.1 The argument is more a Western construct than an indigenous formulation. State-centered ideology is not monolithic and has its ebbs and flows: in certain periods (such as under the monarchy), Iraqis did indeed forge solid ties of marriage, commercial partnerships, and social relationships across ethnic and sectarian lines.2 Moreover, Iraqi nationalism appeals to certain groups more than others. Various observers have noted that, over the last eighty years, some of the Kurds and some of the Shi’a have been somewhat more ambivalent about their Iraqi identity than others in the country. Recently, different ways in which social groups both inside and outside of Iraq are currently reformulating their ties to Iraq and notions of “Iraq” have appeared on the Internet at the same time that the country passes through one of the severest tests in its history. Read the rest of this entry »
Turkmens, Turkmeneli and the Musul Region
By Orhan Ketene
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. Read the rest of this entry »
Turkmen Should Be Given Human-Rights Protections
Guler Koknar, Orhan Ketene
The suffering of 3 million Turkmen under the Iraqi dictatorship of Saddam Hussein has been as acute as the privations of the Kurds and Shiites, as well as compounded by Kurdish persecution. The latter, nevertheless, are protected under the wings of the United States and enjoy its exclusive anti-Saddam political backing. In contrast, the doubly oppressed Turkmen have been cold-shouldered and left to the tender mercies of both Saddam and the Kurds. That aloofness tarnishes America’s humanitarian mission. It also makes dubious U.S. national-security hopes for a stable and enlightened Iraqi dispensation in the post-Saddam era indispensable to ensuring access to Persian Gulf oil, which triggered our 1991 military opposition to Saddam’s adventurism in Kuwait.