Turkmen Front of Iraq

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Iraq Turkmen Cephesi
ITC
Flag of the Turkmen Front of Iraq
Party leader Assad Salihi
founding April 24, 1995 by Turhan Ketene
Alignment Turkmen nationalism
Colours) blue (flag of the Turkomans)
Parliament seats In the Parliament of Kurdistan : 1 of 111
Website www.kerkuk.net

The Turkmen Front of Iraq ( Turkish Irak, Turkmen Cephesi , Arabic الجبهة التركمانية العراقية al-Jabha at-Turkmaniyya al-ʿIraqiyya , also known as ITC forshort) is a Turkmen party of Iraq that is close to Turkey.

It has set itself the goal of representing all Turkmen of Iraq (Turkomans) and strives for the autonomy status of the Turkmeneli region . The current chairman has been Assad (Erşet) Salihi since May 2011 , succeeding Sa'd al-Din Arkidsch . The party runs the TV channel Türkmeneli TV , a newspaper and a website. Your focus is the city of Kirkuk .

history

The ITC was founded on April 25, 1995 as a merger of several parties:

  • Turkmen Provincial Party
  • Iraqi Turkmen National Party
  • Movement of Independent Turkmens
  • Iraqi-Turkmen Justice Party
  • Turkmen Islamic Movement of Iraq

Since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 , the ITC has claimed control of Kirkuk and other cities with significant Turkmen populations ( Turkmeneli ). However, these areas are in the Kurdistan Autonomous Region . The ITC also rejects a federal state based on ethnic groups . Because that would mean that the Kurds would rule most of the Turkmen areas. They are more in favor of a division according to the current provincial borders. However, the ITC has also expressed the wish for an autonomous Turkmen region that will stretch from Tal Afar to across Kirkuk and beyond.

In the current Iraq crisis since 2014, many cities with Turkmen residents were conquered by IS. The ITC then decided in March 2015 to set up a Turkmen brigade within the Iraqi army with 1,500 men to fight against IS. The fighters should be trained by the Turkish army, which has various bases in Iraq, where they train various anti-IS groups.

Election results

In the first election to the Council of Representatives of Iraq in January 2005 , the ITC won 1.1% nationwide with 93,000 votes and three seats. In the next election in December 2005 , it fell with just under 88,000 votes to 0.7%. The ITC attributed this poor result to reprisals from the Kurdish side. Many Turkmens were prevented from voting or no ballot boxes were put up in Turkmen districts. The ITC was also against granting the Kurds, who returned to Kirkuk after the war in 2003, the right to vote.

At the next election in 2010 , the ITC entered into alliances with various party lists in various governorates. The candidates of the ITC for the Kirkuk governorate were on the list of the Iraqi national movement of Iyad Allawi . In this way they were able to win 10 mandates with around 128,000 votes. In the last election in 2014 , the ITC was able to keep its number of 10 seats. The ITC got the majority of its votes from the Kirkuk governorate in all elections.

The ITC also takes part in the elections to the Kurdish regional parliament , where it received one of the eleven minority seats in 2013 with 0.08% of the vote.

Web links

  • ITC website (Arabic, German, English, Persian, Russian and Turkish)