Iraqi Turkoman

Iraqi Turkmens

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) Most estimates have been around 3,000,000 to 3,500,000. Including Syrian Turkmen, this number is as high as 7-8 million.
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
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 Turkmans; Turkish: Irak Türkmenleri), also referred to as Iraqi Turks, or Turks of Iraq (Arabic: تركمان العراق‎‎, Turkish: Irak Türkleri), along with Syrian Turkmens are a Turkic ethnic group who mostly adhere to a Turkish and Iraqi heritage and identity. Most Iraqi Turkmen are the descendants of the Ottoman soldiers, traders and civil servants who were brought into Iraq from Anatolia during the rule of the Ottoman Empire. Despite their name, they are not directly related to the Turkmen people of Turkmenistan, and do not identify as such.

Today, the Iraqi Turkmen form the third largest ethnic group in Iraq, after the Arabs and Kurds. According to the Iraqi Ministry of Planning, in 2013, the Iraqi Turkmen population numbered 3 million out of Iraq's 34.7 million inhabitants. The minority mainly reside in northern and central Iraq and share close cultural and linguistic ties with Turkey, particularly the Anatolian region.

The terms "Turkmen", "Turkman", and "Turkoman" have been used in the Middle East for centuries (particularly in Iraq, Syria, and Turkey) to define the common genealogical and linguistic ties of the Oghuz Turks in these regions. Consequently, the Iraqi Turkmen (as well as the Syrian Turkmen and Anatolian Turkmen) do not identifity themselves with the Turkmen people of Turkmenistan. Sebastien Peyrouse, who is a Senior Research Fellow with the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, has summarised the terms thusly: