Foreign Ministry Spokesman Öncü Keçeli said Türkiye supports and prioritizes the Iraqi Turkmen’s rights and interests, as he called on Iraqi authorities to preserve the demographic structure of the province amid population movements of the Kurds toward Kirkuk as the country held a census for the first time after almost four decades.
“In this framework, the peace and security of our Turkmen brothers and sisters, who constitute a significant portion of Kirkuk’s population and serve as a bridge of friendship between Türkiye and Iraq, are among our main priorities in bilateral relations with this country,” Keçeli said, in response to a question regarding Kurdish population movement toward Kirkuk.
He continued by saying that Ankara has been closely following recent developments regarding the issue and even though the census did not collect information on ethnicity, the Iraqi Turkmen and Arab communities were concerned about the mass movements of Kurds.
“Clearly, this irregularity would lead to the inclusion of many people who are not originally from Kirkuk in the province’s population. This fait accompli would also impact the elections that will be held in the future,” the foreign ministry spokesman said.
He noted that the Iraqi Turkmen have been subjected to persecution and massacres in the past century, as he said Ankara expects Iraqi authorities to prevent any injustice toward the Turkmen population.
He also said that Türkiye expects Iraq to preserve the demographic structure of the province, prevent any attempts to tamper its current composition and ensure that the residents of Kirkuk live in a framework agreed upon by the original constituents of the province.
Turkmen are a Turkic-speaking minority whose total population is estimated to be some 3 million.
Northern Iraq’s minorities also complain of the extensive PKK presence in the region, most notably the terrorist group’s collaboration with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), a dominant political party accused of giving more freedom of movement both in the city and rural parts of Sulaymaniyah to the PKK.
The PKK, which killed thousands in Türkiye, is a banned organization in Iraq but Türkiye wants its full recognition as a terrorist group. Tensions have been rising between Türkiye and the PUK since the PKK increased its attacks on Turkish troops.
Turkmen officials and the Iraqi Turkmen Front have expressed fear of attacks from the PKK and demanded the Baghdad government terminate the group’s existence.