ATAA President's Letter to Congress regarding human rights violations against the Iraqi Turkmens

Dear Congressman-woman/Senator:

I serve as President of the Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA), which is the voice of over 250,000 Turkish Americans and 60 local Turkish organizations nationwide.

I am writing to express the ATAA’s grave concern regarding human rights violations against the Iraqi Turkmens in northern Iraq, including massacres, rapes, extrajudicial killings, incommunicado detention, torture, mistreatment, forced population displacements, takings of real property, as well as the denial of basic freedoms and democratic rights. The Turkmens suffered gravely under Saddam Hussein and welcomed the United States, believing that freedom and human rights had finally arrived for them.  But Kurdish overlords in the region have replaced Saddam Hussein as the new oppressors. On July 3, 2007, Human Rights Watch published a 58-page report, “Torture and Denial of Due Process by Kurdish Security Forces,” detailing these and other violations.  Please see, hrw.org.

The Turkmens number over three million and constitute Iraqi’s third largest ethnic indigenous group, after the Kurds and Arabs.  The cultural and historical heritage of the Iraqi Turkmens spans over a millennium.  Situated between the mainly Kurdish north and Sunni Arab central regions of Iraq, the Turkmen homeland, Turkmeneli, includes the major cities of Mosul, Erbil, Diyala, Salahaddin and Kirkuk.  The Turkmens are educated and economically productive.  They are the only Iraqi group who does not have a militia.

Between June 24 and July 5, 2007, the ATAA hosted a first time ever visit by a delegation of the Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITF) to the United States.  The ITF is a popularly supported Iraqi political party that represents the Turkmens.  The ITF delegation was headed by Chairman Dr. Sadettin Ergec, and also included ITF UK and North America Representative Asif Sertturkmen, ITF Representative in Kirkuk Hisham Bayraktar, ITF Turkey Representative Ahmet Muratli, and Iraqi Turkmen National Party leader Jamal Shan.

On June 26, the ATAA hosted its second Capitol Hill Forum of 2007, at which Dr. Ergec discussed “Iraqi Unity and Solidarity Based on Human Rights, Equitable Sharing of Resources, and Territorial Integrity”.  On June 27, ATAA President-Elect, Gunay Evinch, arranged high-level meetings for the delegation at the White House/National Security Council, Department of State and Pentagon.  On June 28, the Delegation met with key members of the UN Security Council and Secretary General’s Office.  The Delegation also attended ATAA Town Hall Meetings in New York and Detroit.  In Detroit, the ATAA co-hosted the ITF Delegation with the Lebanese American Chamber of Commerce, International Visitors Council of Metropolitan Detroit and Voice of Detroit Radio, as the Dr. Ergec briefed the Chaldean Christian and Arab American community and business leaders on the dire situation of defenseless Christians and Turkmens struggling against abuses by Kurdish leaders and militias.

Chairman Ergec, who also serves on the Iraqi Parliament’s Constitutional Review Committee, informed American government and heritage community leaders that:

1- If the Iraqi Constitution states that Iraq comprises Arabs and Kurds, it must also state that such composition includes Turkmens whose Iraqi heritage is just as important.

2- The planned referendum under Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution with respect to whether Kirkuk should be included in the Kurdistan Regional Government should be postponed until the demographics of Kirkuk, which have been altered by Kurdish militia in violation of the fundamental rights of the Turkmens, is corrected and a proper census has taken place.

3- The Kirkuk Property Claims Commission which is considering over 36,000 claims by Turkmens who have suffered displacement and the taking of their properties by Kurdish settlers, must be provided sufficient resources to complete its work faster than the current deadline of ten years, if property rights and peaceful enjoyment of ones property is to have any serious meaning for Turkmens.

4- Kirkuk should be given a Special Status pursuant to the Transitional Authority Law Article 56 (c), which states: “Any group of no more than three governorates outside the Kurdistan region, with the exception of Baghdad and Kirkuk, shall have the right to form regions from amongst themselves.  The mechanisms for forming such regions may be proposed by the Iraqi Interim Government, and shall be presented and considered by the elected National Assembly for enactment into law.  In addition to being approved by the National Assembly, any legislation proposing the formation of a particular region must be approved in a referendum of the people of the relevant governorates.”

5- Kirkuk law enforcement duties should not be given to Kurdish Peshmerge or any other militia, but instead comprise an ethnically diverse group of professionally trained police officers.

6- Select Iraqi Turkmen security personnel should be provided weapons cards in order to legally possess weapons for security purposes and to protect defenseless Turkmen.

7- Iraqi local and national electoral systems should be developed by a team of Iraqi professionals of diverse backgrounds, with the assistance of leading institutions in democratic development such as NDI and IRI.  Elections should take place under the supervision of international monitors.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.  The ATAA thanks you for your special attention to this dire human rights situation in northern Iraq.

Sincerely,

Nurten Ural
President, ATAA

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