DISCUSSION ON CONCEPTS OF “TURKMEN” AND “TURKMENCE”

Conflicts on the expressions “Turkmen and Turkish”

The expressions “Turkmen , Turkmen language and Turkish “ , used in the report of Revolution Command Council , lead to conflicts among the Turkish Intellectuals from Iraq. Actually, there were reasons why they had called the Iraq Turks as “Turkmen “ ; but what was meant by “Turkmen language and Turkish “ was not mentioned in the report. Another interesting aspect of the topic was Alphabet. Until that date, the Turks had used the farmer alphabet, the Arabian Alphabet , in their books and magazines. Then, a commission was set up in order to decide which alphabet would be used in the magazines and books and determine the education policy which was mentioned in the Turks cultural rights. After a long research, it was confirmed that he Iraq Turks were inclined towards Latin Alphabet and this was presented to the Government. And then, the Government declared that the commission was no longer responsible for the post. So, the commission was immediately annulled. Baghdad Government discussed whether the alphabet would be appropriate for the country. Furthermore, according to the research recently carried out, the narrow – minded preferred the Latin Alphabet while intellectuals preferred the Arabic Alphabet. In this way, it was definitely confirmed that Latin Alphabet and Turkmen Language would be used in the media and books provided the Turks with education.

That Turkish was ignored in the report was actually a warning about the measures which were used by Baas Supporters. At one hand Baas Regime pretended to provide the Turkmen with their rights. On the other hand, it separated the Iraq Turks from communities using the Latin Alphabet and the Turkish Alphabet, by putting the former alphabet into practice. So, the proportion of benefiting from the cultural rights was minimised. Moreover, because of education, Turkmen children would have to continue to speak Arabic. And they would merely be able to learn the Ottoman Turkish Language existing only in Iraq and Azerbaijan. That is to say, they would have to learn Turkish either by going to Turkey or by making use of their own facilities. Besides, the primary school graduates would come across new difficulties. Places of great importance like Kerkük would be separated from Turkish and also they would not be able to improve themselves to a great extent. Actually, the people in this area had great works of literature in the spoken language of Turks; defined as Turkmen Language.

This language existing in the spoken word was not used in the written word. The Iraq Turks had accepted Turkish used in Turkey in the written words such as poetry, narration, article, essay, etc... For this reason, it was impossible to use the local language in education. Since the spoken word did not have a background as rich as the written word, the dialect defined as Turkmen Language by the Government could not be used in education and media. Following this, the expression “Education in Turkmen Language” was not changed. However, alphabet became the only issue and Turkmen Language meant Turkish education with Arabic Alphabet. A lot of schools chose Turkmen Education which had not been defined yet. Meanwhile, some censuses whose aim was to confirm the students ethnic origins, were held in the Primary Schools of the regions where Turks lived. So, Turkmen education was decided to be put into practice in 199 Turkish primary schools, but only in Kerkük, “The Turkmen Education” was practised in 115 primary schools which consisted of 63 boys and 52 girls. Despite this point of view; “The Turkmen Education” was not embraced. Besides, on 11th March 1970 Baghdad Government and the Kurdish came to an agreement on the representation of the Kurdish in a National Assembly, establishment of a Kurdish Autonomous Zone, the appointment of a Kurdish President and Prime Minister, sharing the national income in a fair way and the acceptance of Arabic and Kurdish in this zone. Since enmity between the Kurdish and the Government came to an end, and peace was settled in the North, Baghdad Government did not need to please the Turks anymore.