Who are the Turkmen in Syria?

Who are the Turkmen in Syria?


The Turkmen are ethnic Turks who have lived in the region of Syria, Iraq and Iran since the 11th Century.
The community descends from Central Asian Turkic migrants who arrived in the region with the Turkic Seljuk conquest of Syria in 1055. Numerous other waves of migration followed. The Turkmen population is concentrated in the northern part of Syria, which borders with Turkey. The Turkmen are predominantly Sunni Muslim.
They are mainly concentrated in the north, in the Turkmen Mountain area in Latakia close to the Turkish border, as well as in Aleppo, Idlib, Homs, Tartus and the Damascus region.
There are no reliable population figures, but they are estimated to number between about half a million and 3.5 million.
At the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, thousands of Turkmen – long repressed under the governments of both Hafez and Bashar al-Assad - joined the Free Syrian Army, forming more than 10 brigades in northern Syria.
who are the Turkmen, where do their loyalties lie, and who are their chief backers?
As the name suggests, the Turkmen are closely aligned and related to the Turks, Some speak Turkish as well as Arabic, but most have kept cultural connections with their heritage.
The Turkmen settled in Anatolia in the 9th century and as far back as the 16th century made up a sizable portion of the Ottoman caliphate's army,
Under the Assad regimes in Syria, the Turkmen were banned from publishing or writing in Turkish. The government did not recognise them or other ethnic groups as minorities, preferring to stress the unity of the Arab nation.
But after World War I, with the dissolution of the Ottoman empire, the mainly Sunni Muslim Turkmen became another minority spread across the newly created Syria and Iraq.
In the 1960s and 1970s, campaigns to Arabicise the population by the Baath Party in Syria and Iraq left them marginalised. In the 1970s, for example, Syrian leader Hafez al-Assad banned the Turkish language, and seized Turkmen land.

The Turkmen take up arms
During the uprising against Bashar al-Assad in 2011, Turkmen fighters were among the first to organise against the government, forming their own brigades and aligning with the Free Syrian Army.
Supported by Turkey, a staunch foe of Bashar al-Assad, they took up arms against the regime soon after the start of the uprising in 2011.
The Turkmen are an essential component of the Syrian people who have played a positive role in the culture and history of Syria and their children are dedicated to the Syrian national approach. They affirm the unity of Syria’s land and people. They are willing and able to play their role as a bridge of civilization between the Arabs and the Turkish people by virtue of their knowledge of the language, culture, and habits of both parties.

Turkmen roles in the great Syrian revolution:

Turkmen opposition to the Assad regime and Baathist ideology stretches back tens of years. This fueled the repressive policies followed by the regime against the Syrian people, revolutionary ideas, the rebel youth, and intellectual Turkmen were especially exposed to oppression two fold:

First: They are Turkmen Second: They are Syrian patriots

The Turkmen offered up many victims in the history of the struggle against the dictatorial regime. The fiercest attack against the Turkmen was in the nineties of the last century when the regime captured hundreds of Turkmen intellectuals and imprisoned them on false and counterfeit charges.

One of the most important attributes of the fight against the Turkmen presence in Syria was that the fight against Turkish language and culture. It became illegal to speak or write in Turkish and illegal to practice or spread Turkish culture and organizations that wanted to do this would not get permission from the state. There was also a systematic political economic crackdown against the Turkmen that prevented them from developing their regions especially in the coastal region which is considered as one of the most beautiful tourist places in the world. Also, the government took much of the Turkmen property in these areas.As for the Golan Heights Turkmen who refused not to to resist the Zionist occupation and stood with the nation were betrayed by the regime and were punished for standing against the Zionist enemy and standing on the side of the nation forcing the Turkmen to live a life of poverty and difficulty in neighborhoods with minimal services.These and many other reasons which cannot be mentioned right now led the Turkmen community to sympathize with the Syrian revolution from the very start of its launch. They have stood in the ranks of the revolution during all its phases and in all its forms including the peaceful and military movements.

The Turkmen played a key role in the protests against the Assadi Baathist regime in all their localities including Lattakia, Aleppo, and Homs especially in Baba Amro where Turkmen make up 40% of the residents, in Damascus and other places where Turkmen are present.

Many Turkmen activists have been victim of arbitrary arrests during this time as well as many insults, especially those who were accused of being traitors and being loyal to other countries which always the strategy of a tyrant. With the beginning of the second phase of the revolution and the arming of the revolutionaries the Turkmen were among the first to take up this task and form fighting brigades in the places where they live. They began to fight against the criminal regime forces next to their brothers from all walks of life,

There are other valiant and brave fighting Turkmen brigades and battalions in all parts of the country. These battalions and brigades include individuals from all walks of life in Syria, assuring the unity of the goal that all the Syrians are fighting for.

Political Organizations:

The years of oppression and tyranny that the Syrian people lived under over the years was a serious challenge to forming political parties or opposition groups against the ruling power in Syria. The Turkmen were victims of this since they attempted to organize, even simple charitable and intellectual organizations, but these historical groups that were formed at various phases in history were fought against, such as family organizations and tribal organizations that contribute to a sort of communal reunion.

When the Syrian revolution was launched the Turkmen were participating on the ground taking part in peaceful protest and taking up arms. Without question there were political organizations that expressed the views and positions of the Turkmen Syrians, request that their rights be protected in the Syrian opposition arena and in other political arenas. In response to these needs some Turkmen parties were formed and launched:

These political organizations have confirmed Turkmen adherence to the unity of the Syrian territory and the national rights of Turkmen covered by the Syrian ceiling that does not exclude or marginalize anyone.

In addition to the Turkman political organizations, the Turkmen took as a priority civic society organizations. Many of charitable organizations were formed and launched to meet the needs of the poor, the families of martyrs, and spreading culture among Turkman youth.

Turkmen leaders assert that their community suffered discrimination and repression under Ba’athist rule. Turkmen were unable to teach the Turkish language and Turkmen cultural and historical subjects in schools, Turkmen villages were given Arab names and Turkmen land was appropriated These factors, as well as tribal divisions within the community and the lack of a large contiguous area within the country

Turkmen leaders also assert that under the Hafez al-Assad government, their community was viewed as a potential “fifth column” for Turkey, which had a hostile relationship with the Syrian government for much of Hafez al-Assad’s rule. They also state that Hafez al-Assad’s position on the Turkmen was adopted by his son Bashar al-Assad after the onset of the Syrian uprising and the Turkish government’s consequent support for the Syrian opposition. As a result of this history of dispossession, Syrian Turkmen opposition leaders are seeking the recognition of their community as an integral part of the country and their cultural and linguistic rights guaranteed in a post-Assad Syrian constitution

Syria’s Turkmen communities are located in several strategic areas, including the Jabal al-Turkman region near the city of Latakia, the city of Aleppo and its northern suburbs stretching towards the Turkish border and in villages north and north-west of the city of Homs near an important highway linking Damascus to the generally pro-Assad coastal governorates of Tartus and Latakia. There are also important populations of Turkmen in the southwestern governorates of Dera’a (bordering Jordan) and Quneitra (in the Golan region bordering Israel), the northwestern governorate of Idlib near the Turkish border and in the northeastern governorates of Raqqa and Deir ez Zor.

 Syria’s Turkmen communities are active participants in the Syrian opposition and stand to benefit from this participation in any post-Assad Syrian state. , in the context of weakened al-Assad government control over many regions of the country, provides Syrian Turkmen opposition groups with a benefactor as they position themselves to participate in a potential post-Assad transition period. Syrian Turkmen leaders appear to be pursuing citizenship-based representation in a future Syrian government and thus far appear to be carefully seeking to legitimize their community’s status as “Syrians” in a diverse Syrian polity.