Abstract:

When the USA occupied Iraq in 2003, it succeeded in demolishing Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime with an aim to establish a democratic political system. To attempt to create a democratic and fair political system in Iraq was difficult for the USA because Iraq had never experienced democracy or had a democratic society. The Saddam regime was one of dictatorship, who governed with tribes, ethnic groups over a long duration. The establishment of a democratic political system involves a holistic integration of cultural, ethnic and religious bodies.  Hence, it is important for constitutional writers and politicians to implement consociational theory for pluralization of society. Consociational democracy is based on Lijphart’s theory which explains power-sharing order in deeply divided ethnics society. It is a model of democratic governance that transforms politically differentiated cultures and groups into a stable democracy (Lijphart, 1969). However, the democratic system has not provided equal rights among different society in Iraq. For example, the Shiites have been given too much power in the federal government, the Kurds are happy because they have taken regional authority, while the Sunnis rights were neglected in current political orders.             On the other hand, although Iraqi Turkomans are the third largest ethnic group in Iraq, their rights have been ignored significantly. According to UN Data (2018), currently the population of Iraq is approximately 40 million, and Iraqi Turkomans are a community of around 3-3.5 million (%9-10), predominantly living in the Iraqi provinces of Kirkuk, Baghdad, Mosul and Diya (Saatci, 2017). In fact, Iraqi Turkomans have a broad background in Iraq’s history. When the Turkmens came to Iraq in 760(A.C), they had administered Iraq until the end of World War I. Especially during the Ottoman Empire, Iraqi Turkomans possessed an important role in Iraq. After the First World War, when the Ottoman Empire lost power in Iraq, the Iraqi Turkomans lost their priority and became a second-class citizen. King Faysal who was the first king of Iraq, did not want to share his authority and he saw Turkmens as a threat for his state, and his policy continued until 2012. After Iraq was occupied, the US tried to establish a new democratic system, but Iraqi Turkomans were not represented equally such as Kurds or Shiites. Iraqi Turkomans also faced political and ethnic violence within both terms of office. When Iraq’s constitution was written, Brendan O’Leary and John McGarry predicted that new constitution would solve many problems among minorities, especially towards power sharing in Iraq. However, in practicality it failed and led to many problems, for example, many Sunnis or Turkmens were politically violated, and they decided to boycott the general election. This study will analyse the Iraqi Turkomans legal position to the 2005 Iraq Constitution by using Consociationalism theory, and qualitative methodology. As a theoretical framework, Lijphart’s four conditions of power-sharing, the grand coalition, autonomy and minority veto will be used. The final aim of this paper is to demonstrate the rights of Iraqi Turkomans within previous Iraqi constitutions.

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