Country: Iraq

Group: Turkmen

Date Finalized: October 19, 2022

Team: Juwairiah Afridi (lead), Aria Robinson, Noelle Colling, Samuel Kniery

Content Warning: Sexual Slavery, Rape, Forced Marriage, Kidnapping, Forced Labor

Approximate Time Period: 2014-2017

The Turkmen ethnic group is one of the major ethnic groups in Iraq, settled mostly in the north of the country (MN, 2017). Sunni Muslims comprise sixty percent of the Turkmen population, followed by Ithna’ashari and other Shi’a (MR, 2017). Additionally, a small population of the group is Christian (EUAA, 2021). The Turkmen’s historical origin varies, but the group identifies predominantly with its Ottoman heritage. In June 2014, ISIS gained control of the city of Mosul (Bor, 2019). On June 16, 2014, ISIS occupied a Turkmen city to the west of Mosul, Tel Afar (MN, 2017). The Turkmen make up ninety percent of the population in Tel Afar (Bor, 2019). During its occupation, ISIS targeted the Shi’a population within ethnic groups. In Tel Afar, ISIS kidnapped Turkmen women due to their religious and ethnic identities (Zineelabdin,  2021). ISIS perpetrated conflict-related sexual violence crimes against Turkmen women and girls, mainly through systematic sexual enslavement and forced marriages. ISIS abducted, and then often transported Turkmen women and girls to different regions. Several Turkmen girls subjected to forced marriage were also under the age of eighteen (Zineelabdin, 2021). Moreover, there are cases of ISIS forcing Turkmen women to act as suicide bombers (Zineelabdin, 2021). The central government of Iraq failed to document and report on the statistics of the Turkmen women and girls kidnapped throughout the ISIS occupation. Therefore, there is no clear number of Turkmen women and girls kidnapped (Bor, 2019). Nonetheless, varying sources estimate that ISIS abducted between sixty and five hundred Turkmen women and girls (Zineelabdin, 2021). A media leak in 2021 revealed that there are 400 women actively missing, providing a more current number (ORSAM, 2021).

On March 1, 2021, Iraq’s government passed the Law on Yezidi Females (HRW, 2021). This law acknowledged the crimes committed against the Turkman, Yezidi, Christian, and Shabacks minorities (HRW, 2021). These crimes included sexual enslavement, forced marriage, and rape, among others. The Iraqi Government would provide survivors with compensation and other modes of support to reintegrate individuals into society. However, since the law has been passed it has not been substantially implemented and applied.

Data Quality: Data quality is rated a 2/3 due to the lack of information despite reliable sources. While several reliable organizations have reported on Turkmen women and girls subjected to forced labor, there is a lack of statistics regarding the subject. This is due to Iraq’s central government’s disregard of documentation during and after the ISIS occupation from 2014 to 2017.

Sources

  1. European Union Agency for Asylum (n.d.). 2.15.1. Turkmen. (n.d.).. Retrieved October 19, 2022, from https://euaa.europa.eu/country-guidance-iraq-2021/2151-turkmen
  2. Bor, G. (2019). Response to and reparations for conflict-related sexual violence in Iraq: the case of Shi’a Turkmen in Tel Afar.
  3. Kılıç, C., Magruder, K. M., & Koryürek, M. M. (2015). Does trauma type relate to posttraumatic growth after war? A pilot study of young Iraqi war survivors living in Turkey. Transcultural Psychiatry, 53(1), 110–123. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363461515612963
  4. Minority Rights Group. (2015, June 19). Turkmen. https://minorityrights.org/minorities/turkmen/
  5. World Report 2022: Rights trends in Iraq. (2021, December 14). Human Rights Watch. https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2022/country-chapters/iraq
  6. Zineelabdin, B. D. A. (2021). ENDLESS ISIS PERSECUTION: ABDUCTED TURKMEN WOMEN. POLICY, 196.