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Developments related to Iraqi Turkmen

To shed some light on the Turkmen situation in Iraq; there are 2 main political camps of Iraqi Turkmen.

- Turkmen Cephesi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_Turkmen_Front
- Turkmen Brigades https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkmen_Brigades_(Popular_Mobilization_Units)

In 2015-2016 Turkmen Cephesi wanted to form their own militia trained by Turkey, Turkey made such attempts north of Mosul however the plans ended with no results. The Turkmen brigades rejected this move from the Turkmen Cephesi, they have 3 brigades under the PMU led by Seyyid Yılmaz Neccaroğlu and Şehbaz Yılmaz Neccaroğlu.

Basically that means the question about the Turkmen turned into a small political battle between Turkey and Baghdad, the latter under PMU/Baghdad gained the upper hand. However if you ask me, Turkey did not really support any Turkmen effort in Iraq. They threw their weight behind Barzani, except for his independence referendum.


Having said that, they're well integrated and seek no seperatism. But of course they feel close to Turkey as well.
Can you tell me whether these brigades under PMU command are due to religious reasons(shia turkmen) or because of Iraqi security???
as long as turks and arabs are divided on religious grounds situation in Iraq won’t improve
I can’t understand how arabs are willing to work more with separatist kurds rather than with turks
 
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Can you tell me whether these brigades under PMU command are due to religious reasons(shia turkmen) or not???
as long as turks and arabs are divided on religious grounds situation in Iraq won’t improve
I can’t understand how arabs are willing to work more with separatist kurds rather than with turks

PMU is not fully Shi'a, its largest units are Shi'a (Badr Brigades, Kataib Hezbollah, Peace brigades) however they have many units with Sunni background, as well as Christian background. In Anbar they're called the Tribal PMU.

The Turkmen brigades are mixed. The reason for PMU having so many units based on background is that it unified all these separate local militia's under a state managed force. It's a good thing, without PMU/state backing the Peshmerga would harass the Turkmen brigades for example. The ironic thing is the whole goddamn Peshmerga is backed by Baghdad financially.



Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi approved the appointment of 40,000 Sunni fighters to the Popular Mobilization Forces. According to Al-Monitor, his move was decided in order to give a multiconfessional image to the Forces; however, Sunni fighters began to volunteer even before the al-Abadi's decision. Adding Sunni fighters to the Popular Mobilization Units could set the stage for the force to become the core of the envisioned National Guard.[58] According to The Economist, as of late April 2016 the Hashd had approximately 16,000 Sunnis.[82]

It has been observed that the Sunni Arab tribes that took part in al-Hashd al-Shaabi 2015 recruitment are those which also had good relations with Nouri al-Maliki during his tenure as Prime Minister.[83]

According to Yazan al-Jabouri, a secular Sunni commander of anti-ISIS Liwa Salahaddin, as of November 2016, there were 30,000 Iraqi Sunnis fighting within the ranks of PMUs
 
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Those are good news. Great to hear they’re well accepted and they’re integrated, as it should be.
 
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We should help our iraqi turkmen brothers any day and any time.

You can't just support Turkmens even if we want to. That would create negative reaction from Iraq and others. So we have to do it roundabout way. Send help to Iraq and send help to Turkmens, so in reality it becomes twice as expensive or more to support our turkmen brothers.
 
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