Iraq: Pressure applied to members of the Turkmen minority by Iraqi authorities to assimilate to Iraqi culture; methods of persuasion

Referring to Iraq's internally displaced peoples the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) reported in February 2002 that

Many of [Iraq's internally displaced] are victims of the policy of forced arabisation of such oil-rich Kurdish regions as Kirkuk, Khanaqin, Sinnjar, Mandali, Jalawla and Mossul. Arabisation is the authorities' systematic policy of deporting the Kurdish, Turkmen and Assyrian populations to other areas. This policy, which predates 1963, was taken over by the first Ba'thist government after the coup d'état, was systematically developed in the 1970s and has continued at a faster pace since the second Gulf war. A veritable apartheid is organised in the region concerned: non-Arabs are prohibited from inheriting, repairing houses, or buying businesses or real estate. Their farmland is confiscated, they are barred from taking jobs in the oil zones or the town, etc. Then comes harassment, intimidation, arrests, torture and expulsion. Arab tribes some of whom have themselves been displaced by the regime, are settled in their place and are given land and material or financial advantages. (25).

The Iraqi Turkmen Front, a political organization that was established in 1995 to unify Turkmen political groups (RFE/RL 5 Mar. 1999) claimed in 2001 that

Since 1980, the Iraqi Government has resorted to various means in order to assimilate the Turkman. ... It did not only ban [the] use of Turkish in public places but it went so far as to penalize those speaking in Turkish with their relatives over the phone. Hundreds of Turkman villages and towns have been destroyed for various baseless reasons.

...

The Turkman have been exposed by the Iraqi governmnet to various pressures and assimilation actions aiming at eradicating their national identity and putting an end to their existence in the country (ITF 24 Nov. 2001).

Citing a 1998 report, Turkish scholar H. Tarik Oğuzlu stated that Turkmen are "allowed to stay in Kirkuk and get involved in economic life, provided that they disclaim their Turkoman identity" by re-registering as Arabs (Foreign Policy Institute 2001, 20-21). The ITF claimed that a rumour reportedly spread by the Baath Party prior to the October 1997 census, said "that any Turkman who was registered as a Turkman national would be deprived of all his rights and deported" and as a result many re-registered as Arabs "to ensure security" (24 Nov. 2001). Also concerning the 1997 census,

residents of Kirkuk ... Kurds and to a smaller extent Turkmen, were asked [by Iraqi authorities] to sign so-called nationality correction forms in order to be included in the [1997] census. Filling out these forms meant that they declared themsleves Arabs and rejected their ethnic origins. If one refused to do so, certain consequences would follow, above all being forcefully expelled from the region ... This measure was a successful element of a planned operation to arabize the region (ACCORD May 2001a, 56).

Further, a United Nations document from 2000 stated that "allegedly" those refusing to comply "with the order to leave their homes are subject to intimidation, arrest, economic hardship through the revocation of ration cards and, eventually, forced expulsion" (UN 14 Aug. 2000).

Among the laws that the ITF believe to be encouraging assimilation are changing settlement names to Arabic, denying the right for Turkmen to acquire real estate (Resolutions 434 of 11 September 1989 and 418 of 8 April 1984), expropriation of land (Resolution of 1081 of 27 September 1984) and forced migration (Resolution 1391 of 20 October 1981) (ITF 24 Nov. 2001). Furthermore, H. Tarik Oğuzlu noted that the "Baghdad regime have been paying large sums of money " to Arabs willing to move to Turkmen regions, and have given "Arabs who would like to marry Turkoman girls ... attractive rewards" (Foreign Policy Institute 2001, 19).

Iraqi officials have also reportedly requested registration and nationality officials to deny Turkmen the right to register their children with Kurdish, Turkmen or Assyrian names and instead allow officials to change them "to Arabic names without the parents' consent" (RFE/RL 22 Feb. 2002). The use of the Turkmen language in Kirkuk government offices was banned in January 2002 (ibid. 11 Jan. 2002).

Reportedly, in 1999 the Iraqi government warned the education administration in the Kurdish region against any effort to establish schools for Turkmen claiming that this was "part of a scheme ... to break up the country" (ibid. 3 Dec. 1999). In 2000, Middle East News reported that a "letter from the Directorate of Education in Kirkuk ... stated that studying and speaking Kurdish or Turkmen [was] banned in all Kikuk schools" (31 Jan. 2000). The same report notes a 19 January 2000 report in the Erbil newspaper, the Turkoman Ale, that quoted the ITF as stating that

studying in the Turkoman language [was] allowed only at schools in the liberated areas, although previously the Iraqi government had tried to close down these schools on a charge of treason in order to deprive 350,000 Turkmen living in those areas from learning in their mother tongue (ibid.).

According to the Iraqi constitution "the only language of education permitted in Iraq, aside from Arabic, is Kurdish (RFE/RL 3 Dec. 1999). According to the RFE/RL and the Turkish Daily News, the latter citing the INAF News Agency, the Iraqi government "policy of ethnic cleansing" was growing "more aggressive" in January 2002 (RFE/RL 11 Jan. 2002; Turkish Daily News 18 Jan. 2002). This has included in Kirkuk and in Bayji, the dismissal of Turkmen oil workers from their jobs after which vacancies are filled by Arab workers (RFE/RL 22 Feb. 2002).

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Austrian Centre for Country of Origin and Asylum Research and Documentation (ACCORD). May 2001a. 6th European Country of Origin Information Seminar - Final Report: "Iraq Country Report (Presentations by Mr Akif Atli and Ms. Hania Mufti 13 November 2000)." [Accessed 6 June. 2002]

Atif Atli was a "legal assistant with the UNHCR Branch Office in Ankara and Hania Mufti is described as having worked "on human rights issues in the Middle East for more than twenty years [and was] ... the London director for the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch (ACCORD May 2001b, 5).

_____. May 2001b. "About the Country Experts." [Accessed 11 June 2002]

Foreign Policy Institute [Ankara]. 2001. H. Tarik Oğuzlu. The Turkomans of Iraq as a Factor in Turkish Foreign Policy: Socio-Political and Demographic Perspectives. [Accessed 4 June 2002]

International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH). February 2002. Iraq: An Intolerable, Forgotten and Unpunished Repression. [Accessed 6 June 2002]

Iraqi Turkman Front (ITF). 25 November 2001. "Iraqi Turkman Front." [Accessed 4 June 2002]

Middle East News. 31 January 2000. "Turkmen, Kurdish Banned in Kirkuk Schools." (NEXIS).

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). 22 February 2002. Iraq Report Vol. 5, No. 7. David Nissman. "Three Hundred Turkmen Workers Dismissed from Kirkuk Oil Company." [Accessed 6 June 2002]

_____. 11 January 2002. Iraq Report Vol. 5, No. 1. David Nissman. "Turkmen Language Prohibited in Kirkuk, Ethnic Cleansing Continues." [Accessed 6 June 2002]

_____. 3 December 1999. Iraq Report Vol. 2, No. 44. David Nissman. "Baghdad Opposes Minority language Schools." [Accessed 7 June 2002]

_____. 5 March 1999. Iraq Report. Vol. 2, No. 9. David Nissman. "The Iraqi Turkomans: Who They Are and What They Want." [Accessed 3 June 2002]

Turkish Daily News. 18 January 2002. "Turkmen Language Claimed to be Prohibited in Kerkuk." [Accessed 4 June 2002]

United Nations. General Assembly. 14 August 2000. "Situation of Human Rights in Iraq." [Accessed 6 June 2002]

Additional Sources Consulted

Amnesty International

Country Reports 2001

Danish Refugee Council

European Country of Origin Information Network

Global IDP Database

Human Rights International

Human Rights Watch

IGC

Iraqi Turkmen Front

Irak Türkmenleri Kültür Dernegi

Kerk ük Vakfi

Turkish Daily News

Turkmeneli Co-operation and Cultural Foundation

Turkmeneli: Homeland of the Iraqi Turkmen

UNHCR

United Kingdom, Immigration and Nationality Directorate. Iraq Assessment 2002