Country: Iraq

Group: Turkmen

Date Finalized: 10/26/21

Team: Natasha Chandra (lead), Jocelyn Chen, Ash Pessaran, Zaida Arellano Reyes, Mason McNeel

Content warning: sexual assault

The Turkmen people in Iraq continue to suffer from sexual assault and there is evidence to support this. The data quality is a 3 because there are multiple accounts of the Turkmen being subject to sexual assault from many sources.

The Turkmen, who they live in the northern part of Iraq, claim to be the third largest ethnic group in Iraq; (Minority Rights Group, 2015). More than half of the population practices Sunni Islam while the other half are mostly Shia (Minority Rights Group, 2015). The Turkmen speak a Turkish dialect, and continue to even after attempted Arabization from Saddam Hussein (Minority Rights Group, 2015). Around 2007, tensions between the Kurds and the Turkmen of Iraq began escalating (Minority Rights Group, 2015). However, in 2014, the gains made by ISIS quickly trumped their disputes when ISIS took control of Turkmen-majority districts and burned Turkmen homes (Minority Rights Group, 2015). On June 16, 2014, ISIS attacked multiple villages, blew up mosques, kidnapped Shia Muslims, and killed many residents (Minority Rights Group, 2015). The Turkmen faced arbitrary arrest and imprisonment, execution, torture by beating, burning, electric shock, starvation, and mutilation (Kerkuklu, 2007). In addition, ISIS fighters also tortured and raped women, often in front of their husbands and children (Kerkuklu, 2007; Al-Ali, 2016; Minority Rights Group, 2015). In the Salah al-Din governorate, ISIS videotaped these activities (Institute et al. 2014, Bor, 2019, Puttick, 2015). In 2016, Turkmen leaders reported that more than 600 Shi’a Turkmen women and children are in ISIS captivity, many of whom are raped and killed (Minority Rights Group, 2015). Unfortunately, the Turkmen community stigmatizes women who have suffered sexual assault (McKay, 2021). One of the victims stated, “If our wife or sister was raped, we cannot talk about it” (McKay, 2021). While many more report on ISIS’s heinous acts and detail the situation of ethnic minority women in Iraq, human rights groups believe that many more cases of sexual assault were not reported due to the stigmatization that is present in survivors of sexual assault (Minority Rights Group, 2015).

Sources

  1. Al-Ali, N. (2018). Sexual violence in Iraq: Challenges for transnational feminist politics. European Journal of Women’s Studies, 25(1), 10–27. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1177/1350506816633723 on [date]
  2. Bor, G. (2019). Response to and reparations for conflict-related sexual violence in Iraq: The case of Shi’a Turkmen survivors in Tel Afar. LSE Middle East Centre. https://genderandsecurity.org/sites/default/files/Bor_-_Response_to_Reparatns_ for_ Con-Related_SV_in_Iraq.pdf
  3. Institute for International Law and Human Rights, Minority Rights Group International, No Peace Without Justice, and Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (2014). Between the millstones: The State of Iraq’s minorities since the fall of Mosul. [Report]. Retrieved from https://minorityrights.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Between-the-Millstones-English.pdf.
  4. Kerkuklu, M.S. (2007). Turkmen of Iraq. http://www.turkmen.nl/1A_Others/Turkmen_of_Iraq_Part_I.pdf. Retrieved on 23 October 2021.
  5. McKay, H. (2021, March 5). The ISIS War Crime Iraqi Turkmen Won’t Talk About. New Lines Magazine. https://newlinesmag.com/essays/the-isis-war-crime-iraqi-turkmen-wont-talk-about/. Retrieved on 23 October 2021.
  6. Minority Rights Group. (2015, June 19). Turkmen. Minority Rights Group. https://minorityrights.org/minorities/turkmen/. Retrieved on 23 October 2021.
  7. Puttikk, M. (2015). No place to turn: Violence against women in the Iraq conflict. Minority Rights Group International. Retrieved from https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/ceasefire-report-no-place-to-turn.pdf