In the Conflict Zone: the Situation of the Shia Kurds and Turkmen in Iraq

Al-Khoei Foundation Speaker: Zena Al-Esia

IRAQ AND ‘THE OTHERS’

Mosaic of cultures: Cultural diversity is high.

Under attack: Minority groups have suffered systematic discrimination and persecution during Saddam’s regime and today by ISIS terrorism.

The neglected: The Shia Kurd (Fayli’s) and Turkmen minorities of Iraq, are commonly overlooked.

SHIA KURD

Shia Kurds: Also known as Fayli Kurds Population: Difficult to accurately

estimate (Due to deportation & ethnic cleansing), between 1 million to 2.5 million.

Fayli culture: Ethnically related to the Kurds, but a different dialect.

Stateless: 120,00o persons in Iraq are stateless (UNHCR report, 2012).

THE INVISIBLE FAYLI KURDS

THE TURKMEN

Ethnicity: Ethnically Turkic, first settling over 1,400 years ago.

Culture: 3rd largest ethnic group in Iraq. speaking a language that derives from Turkish. Both Sunni and Shia.

Population estimates:1957 1997 Today

9% of total 2.72% of total 13% (UNPO)

TURKMEN

Source: UNPO

DOUBLE MINORITY

Double minority: a distinctive feature of the Kurdi Fayli’s and the Turkmen. Both are and non-arab and both are Shia.

Double target: Saddam’s regime targeted them on the basis of their ethnic identity, whilst ISIS targeted them on the their religious beliefs.

SADDAM’S PERSECUTION

Arabisation: A targeted policy of nationalism forcing minorities to assimilate and identify as Arab.

Key features: Forced relocation programs Displacement No recognition of minority status Cultural erosion- Renaming of schools,

streets, market, villages to Arabic names. Mass deportation and Stripped of

citizenship (Shia kurds)

ISIS PERSECUTION

ISIS militants are carrying out "a wave of ethnic cleansing" against minorities in northern Iraq since 2014. (Amnesty International).

Systematic targeting: Targeting of the Shia and other ethnic groups such as Christian and Yezidi’s whom they consider to be infidels.

ISIS TARGET TURKMEN & FAYLI

Violence: massacres villages, acts of torture, rape, kidnapping, execution.

Amerli Siege: In June 2014, ISIL seized the area round the Turkmen Shi’a town of Amerli, placing the town and its remaining 13,000 inhabitants (including 10,000 women and children) under siege. Resident forces defending the town against ISIL themselves.

‘REMEMBER US’

Recommendations

Status report: We call on the member states to investigate the current state of these minorities, as they have been neglected within the UN’s latest report on minorities and UNIOM report on internally displaced people.

Commission inquiry: Into the massacres of the Turkmen villages and the perpetrators to be bough to justice.