Ankara backs some Turkmens in Iraqi politics, shuns others
By ostracizing Turkmen politicians who supported the 2017 independence referendum in Iraqi Kurdistan, Turkey could be shooting itself in the foot.
While trying to place its Turkmen kin back at the center of its influence on politics in Iraq, Turkey is falling into the trap of discriminating between Turkmens who align with its policies and those who beg to differ. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu’s recent trip to Iraq has exposed Ankara’s drift away from its claim of embracing all Turkmen groups.
In his April 28 talks with Iraqi officials in Baghdad, Cavusoglu pressed for Turkmen participation in government bodies — a welcome move for the Turkmens, who have come to feel forgotten in recent years. The optimistic sentiment, however, dissipated the following day as Cavusoglu traveled to Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). Four of the five Turkmen members of the Kurdistan parliament were kept from participating in the welcoming protocol for Cavusoglu and his meeting with the Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITF), the main Turkmen party in Iraq.
Some Turkmens say they have even been kept from entering Turkey.
Standing out among them is Muna Qahwachi from the Turkmen Reform Party, who, in February, was elected second deputy speaker of the Kurdistan parliament. On May 23, Qahwachi said she had been barred from traveling to Turkey for backing Kurdistan’s independence referendum in 2017 and criticizing Turkey’s military intervention in Syria’s Afrin the following year.
