Why Iraqi Turkmens are excluded from the new government
Iraqi Turkmens say they have been excluded from the new Iraqi government because they refuse to follow a sectarian approach to politics.
Iraqi Turkmens had hoped that political circumstances would turn in their favor after oil-rich Kirkuk passed from Kurdish rule to the control of the federal government. Yet the Turkmens were disappointed when Iraq's newly appointed prime minister, Adel Abdul Mahdi, excluded Turkmens from his Cabinet.
Ali Mehdi, the spokesman for the powerful Iraqi Turkmen Front, said the Iraqi government blatantly ignores Turkmens. He demanded that one of the eight unfilled Cabinet seats be given to a Turkmen.
The ostensible excuse for the exclusion of Turkmens is that Turkmens are politically divided and that the government, which aims to set up a technocratic system, is ignoring nationalistic demands that could aggravate division. But Turkmen representatives speaking to Al-Monitor said other groups are also divided, and that the new Cabinet features political celebrities.
Nine Turkmens elected as deputies in the May 12 elections have set up a Turkmen Group in the parliament to work together.
