Persecution of Iraqi Turkmen in Ba'athist Iraq

The Persecution of Iraqi Turkmen in Ba'athist Iraq refers to the persecution of Iraqi Turkmen by the government Ba'athist Iraq, specifically under Saddam Hussein.

Persecution of Iraqi Turkmen in Ba'athist Iraq
Grave of Necdet Koçak, a Turkmen intellectual executed by the Iraqi government in 1980 in Baghdad, located in Kirkuk
Location	Ba'athist Iraq
Date	1979–2003
Target	Iraqi Turkmen
Attack type	Massacres, Deportations
Perpetrator	Government of Saddam Hussein
Motive	Anti-Turkish sentiment, Arabization

History

The 1957 Iraqi census was recognized as the last reliable census before the Arabization policies of the Ba'ath regime.^[1] It recorded 567,000 Turkmen out of a total population of 6.3 million.^[2][3][4][5] This put them third, behind Arabs and Kurds.^[6]

Later censuses, in 1967, 1977, 1987 and 1997, were all recognized as highly unreliable, due to suspicions of Arabization by the various regimes in Iraq.^[7] The 1997 census claimed that there was 600,000 Iraqi Turkmen,^[8] while the total Iraqi population was 22,017,983.^[9] The 1997 census only allowed citizens to choose Arab or Kurdish. As selecting Kurdish also made them targets, many Iraqi Turkmen selected Arab.^[7] Throughout Ba'athist rule, many Iraqi Turkmen would register as Arabs in order to avoid being targeted.^[10][11]

On January 24, 1970, the Ba'athist government recognized the rights of Iraqi Turkmen to teach their language at schools, the establishment of a Turkmen education directorate in the Ministry of Education, the creation of a legal Turkmen writers union, the establishment of the Directorate of Turkmen Culture, and the publishing of a weekly government newspaper and monthly government magazine in Turkmen. However, the Ba'athist government presented the Iraqi Turkmen as a distinct ethnic group with no relations at all to the Turkmen of Central Asia or the Turks of Turkey. Hundreds of Turkmen schools opened in Iraq, although they were closed shortly after. The Iraqi constitution adopted on July 16, 1970, recognized only Arabs and Kurds as the components of the Iraqi nation.^[12]

Although Hassan al-Bakr was the president in 1974, Saddam Hussein was active in the government and implemented many policies against the Turkmen. He changed the names of many settlements, including the changing of "Kirkuk" to "Al-Tamim". Iraqi Turkmen were only allowed to sell their real estate to Arabs. On April 26-29, 1976, Turkish president Fahri Korutürk visited Iraq at the invitation of Iraqi President Hassan al-Bakr, after which he visited Mosul, Kirkuk and Basra. When Fahri Korutürk came to Kirkuk, he was given a welcoming ceremony by the Turkmen. After Korutürk left, the Iraqi government arrested and interrogated many Turkmen. During the Iran-Iraq war, Iraqi Turkmen were heavily conscripted into the Iraqi army and sent to the front lines.^[13]

After Saddam Hussein came to power in 1979, discrimination increased against Iraqi Turkmen.^[14] When Saddam Hussein first came to power, he ordered the execution of the highest Iraqi Turkmen community leaders, which was remembered as Turkmen Martyrs' Day.^[15][16] Arabization policies by the state also intensified.^[17] The Iraqi government first banned the Turkish language in 1972. Under Saddam Hussein, in the 1980s, further bans on the Turkish language were made and enforced, and Iraqi Turkmen were prohibited from speaking Turkish in public, in schools, and on the media.^[18] While Iraqi Turkmen were targets of several massacres, such as in 1924, 1946, and 1959, the Iraqi Ba'ath Party was responsible for the massacres on Iraqi Turkmen between 1979 until 2003.^[14] Notable massacres included the 1980 executions, the 1991 Altun Kupri massacre, the 1996 Erbil massacre, and the massacres during the Anfal campaign, which had also targeted and killed Iraqi Turkmen despite primarily targeting Kurds.^[19] Over 20 Turkmen villages and settlements were depopulated and destroyed by the Iraqi army during the Anfal campaign.^[20]

The Iraqi government expelled and displaced thousands of Iraqi Turkmen from their homes in northern Iraq and replaced them with Arab settlers.^[21] Iraqi Turkmen villages and towns were often destroyed to make space for Arab settlers, who were rewarded with land and money for settling in Iraqi Turkmen homes. The city of Kirkuk was one of the main targets for Arabization. Although the Iraqi Turkmen were not always expelled, Arab neighborhoods were established in their settlements, and the demographic balance changed as the Arab migrations continued and the Arab presence expanded.^[22]

Several presidential decrees and directives from state security and intelligence organizations had specifically focused on Iraqi Turkmen. On May 6, 1980, Iraqi Military Intelligence issued directive 1559, ordering the deportation of Iraqi Turkmen officials from Kirkuk. It instructed the Iraqi Army to "identify the places where Turkmen officials are working in governmental offices to deport them to other governorates in order to disperse them and prevent them from concentrating in this governorate".^[23] In addition, on 30 October 1981, the Revolution's Command Council issued decree 1391, with paragraph 13 noting that "this directive is specially aimed at Turkmen and Kurdish officials and workers who are living in Kirkuk".^[23]

Iraqi Turkmen who remained in their traditional settlements continued to face Arabization policies. School names, neighborhoods, villages, streets, markets, and mosques with Turkic names were changed to Arabic names. Many Iraqi Turkmen villages were demolished without being rebuilt, especially during the 1990s.^[11]

When the Iraqi government began settling Palestinians in Turkmen and Kurdish houses in Kirkuk, Jalal Talabani advised Kurds and Iraqi Turkmen to put their differences aside and fight to retake their homes.^[24]

During the 1991 Iraqi uprisings, Iraqi Turkmen were divided among the pro-Iranian Shia Islamist faction, the pro-Kurdish faction, and the nationalist pro-Turkey faction. Iraqi Turkmen scholar Kerim Yildiz stated that during the 1991 Iraqi uprisings, Turkmen participation was significant in the areas of Kirkuk where the uprising quickly spread.^[25] In many separate incidents during the uprisings, Turkmen activists took control of police stations before retreating after the Iraqi army arrived.^[26]

The pro-Kurdish faction gained the support of many Turkmen and was significantly active during the uprisings. According to Kerim Yildiz, “numerous Turkmen from Kirkuk and surrounding areas took part in the initial wave of protests and supported Kurdish militias in attacking regime checkpoints and police stations.”^[27] Entessar added that “Turkmen who aligned with the Kurds during the uprising often did so pragmatically, not ideologically, and the experience laid the seeds for later nationalist tensions over Kirkuk’s status.”^[28] The pro-Iranian faction was also very active, and the Shia Turkmen uprising mirrored the Shia Arab uprising in southern Iraq and used the same rhetoric.^[29][30] The pro-Turkey faction was mostly led by Turkmen intellectuals exiled in Turkey who lobbied for Turkish intervention against Saddam Hussein. The pro-Turkey faction was the least militarily involved in the uprising when compared to the pro-Kurdish and pro-Iranian factions.^[31] In Turkey, Pan-Turkist publications criticized the United States for ignoring Turkmen suffering and called for the prevention of the Kurdish seizure of Kirkuk.^[32]

After the 1991 Iraqi uprisings and the Kurdish victory, the USA established no-fly zones over Iraqi Kurdistan. The no-fly zones had split the Turkmen region, with half being under the no-fly zones under Kurdish authority, and the other half still under Iraqi authority. Turkmen organizations in Iraq were completely banned. Some Turkmen organizations were given asylum in the KRG, where they continued to face restrictions and sometimes even massacred by the Peshmerga. There was a large wave of Turkmen immigration to Iraqi Kurdistan. Many of the Turkmen traveled further to Turkey. The Turkish government was reluctant to confront the Iraqi government about the persecution of Iraqi Turkmen. On February 28, 1980, after the execution of Turkmen intellectuals, the Turkish foreign ministry sent condolences, although claimed that the Iraqi Turkmen were Iraqi citizens and that Turkey should not interfere in Iraqi affairs. Many Iraqi Turkmen felt betrayed by Turkey.^[33] Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, Turkey consistently issued strong condemnations when Iraqi Turkmen faced persecution by Kurdish groups, while deliberately overlooking persecution by Arab groups. Kerim Yildiz stated that "Turkey is quick to condemn Kurdish actions against Turkmen while remaining cautious about Arab-Turkmen conflicts to avoid antagonizing the Iraqi central government or upsetting Arab allies."^[34] Philip Robins added that "Turkey’s support for Turkmen in Kirkuk and elsewhere is closely linked to its anxiety over Kurdish nationalism spilling across borders. This solidarity shapes a differential policy response that is less concerned with Arab repression, which is often seen as part of the Iraqi state’s legitimate authority."^[35] Gareth Stansfield further added that "Turkey’s restraint regarding Arab-Turkmen conflicts in Iraq reflects its broader regional balancing act. Open confrontation with Arab governments over Turkmen issues risks diplomatic isolation. Hence, Turkey often prioritizes countering Kurdish threats over Arab ones in its Iraqi policy."^[36] Following ethnically motivated attacks by Arabs on Turkmen after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, political analysts noted that "Turkey’s muted reaction to Arab-perpetrated violence against Turkmen reflected a calculated decision not to destabilize ties with the Iraqi government, which Turkey saw as a critical partner in combating Kurdish separatism."^[37]

After the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the cultural repression of Iraqi Turkmen was lifted, and the Iraqi Turkmen played a significant role in the De-Ba'athification and development of Iraq after Saddam Hussein.^[38] In 2003, most of the disputed territories of northern Iraq were captured by the Peshmerga, which began a revenge campaign against Arab settlers, ultimately reversing the Arabization of the Kurdish settlements and earning a brutal reputation to the point that Arab settlers would flee as soon as the Peshmerga entered any settlement. In the Shia Turkmen village of Bashir, the Arab settlers remained. The top imam of Bashir claimed that it was because the Turkmen had no armed group, and that the Peshmerga was only interested in Kurdish settlements.^[39] The Arabs refused to leave without a court order, after which the Turkmen residents threatened that displaced Turkmen were planning a march back to Bashir in which every Arab that remained in the village would be killed. Before any clashes, the US hosted an agreement which only evicted the undocumented Arabs, though tensions persisted as the documented Arab settlers remained.^[40] Sunni Arab vigilante groups eventually began shooting Turkmen returnees in Bashir and sparked clashes, while tensions in other regions were high between Arabs, Kurds, and Turkmen.^[41] Iraqi Turkmen, whether Sunni or Shia, viewed Sunni Arabs as oppressive and claimed that Sunni Arabs had not only persecuted Turkmen, but everyone else in Iraq who was not a Sunni Arab.^[42]

After the 2003 invasion of Iraq, ban on the Iraqi Turkmen Front was lifted, and many of its members were elected into the Iraqi government.^[43][44][45] However, other social problems persisted, including sectarian tensions between Sunni and Shia Turkmen, the tension with Kurds due to overlapping goals, the continued tension with Arab settlers, as well as problems with the Iraqi government over its refusal to permit Iraqi Turkmen to form their own security force.^{[38][46][19][40]}

During the Iraqi Turkmen genocide by the Islamic State from 2014 to 2017, many of the Islamic State militants and leaders had been officers in the Iraqi Army under Saddam Hussein.^{[47][48][49][50]}

See also

• Anti-Turkish sentiment
• Ba'athist Arabization campaigns in northern Iraq
• Human rights in Ba'athist Iraq