Al-Khoei Foundation Speaker: Zena Al-Esia. Mosaic of cultures: Cultural diversity is high. Under...
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Transcript of Al-Khoei Foundation Speaker: Zena Al-Esia. Mosaic of cultures: Cultural diversity is high. Under...
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 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)
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.
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.