Discrimination
The position of the Iraqi Turkmens has changed from being administrative and business classes of the Ottoman Empire to an increasingly discriminated minority. Since the demise of the Ottoman Empire, the Iraqi Turkmen have been victims of several massacres, such as the Kirkuk Massacre of 1959. Furthermore, under the Ba’th party, discrimination against the Iraqi Turkmens increased, with several leaders being executed in 1979 as well as the Iraqi Turkmen community being victims of Arabization policies by the state, and Kurdification by Kurds seeking to push them forcibly out of their homeland. Thus, they have suffered from various degrees of suppression and assimilation that ranged from political persecution and exile to terror and ethnic cleansing. Despite being recognized in the 1925 constitution as a constitutive entity, the Iraqi Turkmens were later denied this status; hence, cultural rights were gradually taken away and activists were sent to exile.
Read more about this topic: Iraqi Turkmens