Iraqi Turkmens

Iraqi Turcomans

Flag used by Iraqi Turkmen and officially by Iraqi Turkmen Front.
Total population
3,000,000 (2013 Iraqi Ministry of Planning estimate) 567,000 or 9% of the total Iraqi population (According to the 1957 census- considered to be the last reliable census that permitted the minority to register) Other estimates have varied between 600,000+ to 3,000,000+ (see demographics)
Regions with significant populations
Baghdad  · Diyala  · Erbil  · Kirkuk  · Nineveh  · Saladin
Languages
The Iraqi Turkmen dialect is often called "Turkoman", "Turkmenelian" or "Turkmen".
Religion
Sunni Islam and Shia Islam
Related ethnic groups
Oghuz Turks (Turkish people  · Syrian Turkmen  · Turks in Lebanon)
a The Iraqi government in its 1957 national census claimed there were 136,800 Turks in Iraq. However, the revised figure of 567,000 was issued by the Iraqi government after the 1958 revolution. The Iraqi government admitted that the minorities population was actually more than 400% from the previous year's total.

The Iraqi Turkmens (also spelled Turcomans, Turkomens, and Iraqi Turkmans), Iraqi Turks, or Turks of Iraq (Arabic: تركمان العراق‎‎, Turkish: Irak Türkmenleri, Irak Türkleri) are a Turkic ethnic group who mostly adhere to a Turkish heritage and identity. They form the third largest ethnic group in Iraq, after Arabs and Kurds. Iraqi Turkmen mainly reside in northern Iraq and share close cultural ties with Turkey, particularly the Anatolian region. The term "Turkmen" seems to be a political terminology because it was first used by the British to isolate the Iraqi Turks from Turkey during the Mosul Question during the 1930s.

The Iraqi Turkmens are the descendants of various waves of Turkic migration to Mesopotamia beginning from the 7th century until Ottoman rule. The first wave of migration dates back to the 7th century, followed by migrations during the Seljuk Empire (1037–1194), the fleeing Oghuz during the Mongol destruction of the Khwarazmian dynasty (see Kara Koyunlu and Ag Qoyunlu), and the largest migration, during the Ottoman Empire. With the conquest of Iraq by Suleiman the Magnificent in 1534, followed by Sultan Murad IV's capture of Baghdad in 1638, a large influx of Turks settled down in the region. Most of today's Iraqi Turkmen are the descendants of the Ottoman soldiers, traders and civil servants who were brought into Iraq during the rule of the Ottoman Empire.

Following the establishment of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, the Iraqi Turkmen wanted Turkey to annex the Mosul Vilayet and for them to become part of an expanded Turkish state. However, due to the end of the Ottoman monarchy, the Iraqi Turkmens found themselves increasingly discriminated against by policies of successive regimes, such as the Kirkuk Massacre of 1923, 1947, 1959 and in 1979 when the Ba'th Party discriminated against the community. Although they were recognized as a constitutive entity of Iraq (alongside the Arabs and Kurds) in the constitution of 1925, the Iraqi Turkmen were later denied this status.