ATAA Condemns Massacres of Turkmens in Northern Iraq,Conveys Sympathies to the Families of the 400 Victims

July 11, 2007

The ATAA strongly condemns this week’s terrorist attacks that targeted the Turkmen areas of Kirkuk, Telafer, Yengice, Leylan and Kiflri, and which ended in a massacre in the township of Amirli that claimed the lives of 150 defenseless Turkmens and seriously injured another 240 Turkmens.

The Peshmerge Kurdish militia, which the Kurdish KDP and PUK parties appointed to law enforcement in the region, failed to detect a truck packed with high explosives which easily passed numerous security checkpoints and entered the center of Amirli.  Soon thereafter, the explosives were detonated, destroying 35 homes, several public and office buildings, a market place, and killing all persons within a 150-foot radius.  Many of the dead and injured were children.

Amirli, a peaceful and quite Turkmen town, has a population of 12,000 and is administered by the province of Kirkuk.  Saddam Hussein had attempted to annex Amirli to the province of Salahaddin in an unsuccessful ethnic cleansing campaign to Arabize the town.  The Turkmens welcomed the U.S. invasion and toppling of Saddam Hussein, believing that human rights would be restored for Turkmeneli -- the Turkmen region between the mainly Kurdish north and the mainly Sunni Arab central region.  Turkmeneli has been populated by Turkmens over 1000 years and sits on vast oil fields.  Since the U.S. invasion, Kurdish overlords have installed themselves as the new oppressors, attempting to take control of the land and the oil.  On July 3, 2007, Human Rights Watch published a 58-page report regarding the severe oppression of Kurdish governance in, “Torture and Denial of Due Process by Kurdish Security Forces.”

The Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITF) expressed that the Turkmens will not yield to intimidation and terrorism, they will not be displaced from their homes and homelands, and violence undermines the legitimacy of any referendum regarding the future of Kirkuk.  There are over 3 million Turkmens in Iraq.  The Turkmens constitute a highly educated and economically productive part of Iraqi society.  The Turkmens are the only group in Iraq who do not have a militia.  Their request for weapons cards that would permit them to legally possess firearms is under consideration by the United States, a request that was reiterated by Turkmen leader and Senior Iraqi Parliamentarian Sadeettin Ergec duing his visit to Washington, DC last week.

The ATAA supports a unified Iraq based on human rights, democracy, and an equitable sharing of resources.  The ATAA supports the recognition of the Turkmens as a constituent indigenous population along side Kurds and Arabs under the Iraqi Constitution.