His Excellency, President George Bush
President of the Unites States of America.

Your Excellency:

The transitional constitution of Iraq is a promising event for a civilized move to a democratic government for Iraq. We appreciate the efforts of the Coalition Forces in the establishment of the pillars of a democratic and civilized government in our country. However the law contains many contradictions, the first contradiction in our opinion is the consideration of both Arabic and Kurdish as the two official languages of the country. The Turcoman citizens; the third ethnic group after the Arabs and Kurds, feel that article 12 of the law that recognizes the equality of the Iraqi citizens regardless of their gender, opinion, creed, ethnicity, religion, sector or national origin in the eyes of the l aw and prohibits discrimination against Iraqi citizens in accordance to the International Proclamation of the Human Rights contradicts and rejects this acceptance.

The second contradiction is that the law is recognizing the legitimacy of the region of Kurdistan as having a national assembly, a council of ministers and judicial regional authority for the Kurds, where as it prohibits granting the same rights to other Iraqi citizens. In spite of the fact that the law has granted the administrative, cultural and political rights of the Turcoman and Chalidoasserians, the sovereignty principles has been granted only to the Arabs and Kurds, as states in article 9 of the law thus prohibiting other Iraqi citizens from enjoying the same rights.

The Turcoman citizens of Iraq like to voice their concern on continuation of the policies of oppression and hegemony dictated by some of the articles of the law and constitution. Article 27 for example states that the formation of armed forces or militias not under the direct control of the leadership of the Iraqi government is prohibited. However, article 54 permits the government of the region of Kurdistan to control police, and internal security forces.

The Turcoman citizens also fear the imposed migration of large numbers of Kurdish militia (peshmerge) to the areas where Turcoman live such as, Kirkuk, Alton Kopru, Tuz and districts surrounding these areas. The Kurdish militia intends to create a new demographical pattern that favours their own ulterior motives, particularly concerning article 58, which delineates the final status of the city of Kirkuk.

Further, the current law has ignored the Iraqi government’s commitment of 1932, which was a precondition for acceptance of Iraq into the international community and League of Nations. The commitment admitted that the Turcoman constituted the majority of the inhabitants of Kirkuk and Kifri and accepted the adoption of the Turcoman language in litigation. Furthermore, the obligation stated in article 30 which granted a fair representation for the Turcoman in the Iraqi General Assembly, is incredible, and the methodology of this practice has not been incorporated into the current law. The Turcoman citizens fear that issue of legitimizing of the Turcoman marginal representation in the government’s administration as has actually happened in the current governance council shall be the practice of the future applications.

The Turcoman citizens herby appeal to the government of the United States and your Excellency to help in solving these problems and granting a fair representation equal to other basic ethnic groups in the Republic of Iraq.

Sincerely,