ERBIL
More than 400 Turkmens are in the hands of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, says a report issued Thursday.
The Iraqi Turkmen Rescue foundation, based in Baghdad, submitted the report to the Iraqi parliament’s human rights committee Thursday.
“There are about 450 Turkmens kidnapped by ISIL who are still alive including 50 children and 70 women and girls, ” Akram al-Bayati, chairman of the Turkmen Rescue foundation, told The Anadolu Agency.
The report describes the situation of Turkmens in the provinces of Nineveh, Kirkuk, and Saladin in northern Iraq and Diyala in eastern Iraq, according to al-Bayati.
“The report seeks contribution from the parliament, the government of northern Iraq, the central government and international organizations to free the kidnapped Turkmens within the context of freeing all the kidnapped Ezidis and Christians by ISIL,” al-Bayati said.
“The crimes committed by ISIL are categorized as genocide crimes as ISIL has committed mass massacres and destroyed many places of worship,” Soran Omar the chief of the parliament’s human rights committee, told The Anadolu Agency without going into specifics.
Moreover, Turkmen women are enslaved by ISIL, Omar added.
Turkmens are ethnic relatives to Turks, with whom they share a common culture. Iraqi Turkmens are the third-largest ethnic group living in northern Iraq.
The Turkmen Rescue foundation is an independent Iraqi body that aims to protect Turkmens’ rights.
Iraqi government troops have been fighting, supported by a U.S.-led coalition which has been conducting airstrikes against the group for five months.
Iraq has been gripped by a security vacuum since June 2014, when ISIL stormed the northern province of Mosul and declared what it called a "caliphate" in Iraq and Syria.
