1959 Kirkuk massacre

The 1959 Kirkuk massacre was a massacre of Iraqi Turkmen in Kirkuk, Iraq, which lasted from 14 July to 16 July 1959. The perpetrators were Kurds from the Iraqi Communist Party, the massacre also changed the previously positive Turkmen-Kurdish relationship in Iraq and created a long-lasting ethnic-based stigma. The event is deeply rooted in the collective memory of the Iraqi Turkmen. The massacre is described as an ethnic, rather than political tension.

Background
Kirkuk, one of the major cities of Iraq, used to have two main communities before the 1970s: the Kurds and Turkmen. Both of them claimed the city, however unlike the Kurds and Arabs, the Turkmen did not take part in the ethnic-nationalists struggles, although they still tried to maintain their ethnic and cultural identity. According to Mansoor the Turkmen were "caught in the crossfire between the two large groups."

The Kurds moved to Kirkuk to avoid the harsh economy in the countryside, increasing their number in Kirkuk due to the oil industry, meanwhile the number of the Turkmen was declining. The demographic change was followed by the appointment of ethnic Kurds in many important posts in the city, which had historical importance to the Turkmen. This made them feel marginalized and outcast.

The massacre took place exactly one year after the Iraqi coup d'etat in 1958, when Qasim became the Primer Minister of the country and declared the republic. The Mosul revolt (provoked by Arab nationalists) was put down with the help of communists, Iraqi nationalists and the Kurds. Soon the communists became so influential that they were damaging Qasim's prestige. The conservative and nationalist forces tried to manipulate and destabilize the leftist Qasim regime. The culmination of this insurgency was the Kirkuk massacre of 1959, which had begun with the attack by communists and Kurds; the two groups were allied as the former associated the Turkmen with Turkey, the West and NATO while the Kurds desired a clear Kurdish majority in Kirkuk.

14 July
The situation in the city was already tense over the election of a mayor of Kurdish origin in early July 1959. On 14 July every ethnic group, including the Turkmen, was on the streets to attend the parade and celebrate the Iraqi coup d'etat. When the official parade cortege had reahed the 14 July Coffee Shop on the Atlas Streets, the Kurds backed by the Popular Resistance Force (PRF) began to attack Turkmen shops and their owners, looting houses and workplaces, and chanting anti-Turkish slogans. During the first day of the massacre 20 Turkmens were massacred and 70 were wounded. Although the army units were called in to restore orders, since majority of the soldiers were of Kurdish origin, they refused to fire on Kurds.

15 July and 16 July
The Turkmen tried to seek asylum in the Castel of Kirkuk (Turkish: Kale), however they also were attacked by the Kurds by firing mortars. During the massacre there were cases of torture. Dwellings and two cinema hall's were bombed out.

When the Iraqi army arrived, they declared curfew, during which the execution of Turkmen notables such as Ata Hayrullah, Cahit Fahrettin, and Kasim Nefteci continued. One of the Turkmen witnesses, Kubat Mukhat, later described how his family was massacred: The gunmen, who we had never seen before, opened fire on us in our house with automatic weapons. They killed my two brothers Cihat and Nihat and my sister Emel in front of us. They could not go to hospital due to a curfew, and all of the wounded people died. According to Henry Astarjian, who described the events as pogrom, had claimed that 50 Turkmen intellectuals were killed and buried alive during the second and third day. The Kerkuk administrations made claims that the number of killed was 32, while another 20 were buried alive.

The massacre stopped when the Iraqi army took total control.

Death toll
At first the authorities believed that the number of killed was 120 and 140 were wounded, all Turkmen. Later Qasim claimed that 79 Turkmen were killed, including 40 were buried alive, and 140 were injured. The number of looted Turkmen property was 120.

Reaction in Iraq
While the Communist party was influential in the Iraqi politics in the early 1959, after the massacre their influence was weakened. Mutilated bodies of Turkmens were shown on TV and magazines, blaming and demonizing the communists. In fact, due to the politics in Iraq he found communists to be responsible for the crime, rather than the Kurds. Due to Qasim's pressure the ICP apologized in early August. The prime minister used the massacre to persecute communists and their sympathizers in the Iraqi army. The preparators were sentenced to death, 26 in total. Qasim said "even Hulagu and the Zionists did not commit such an atrocity."

Reaction in Turkey
The massacre was censored in Turkey. There was a belief among the Iraqi Turkmen that the 1960 coup d'etat in Turkey against Adnan Menderes was organized by the Turkish army as a resistance against the censoring of the massacre. However, various Turkish newspapers reported on the event and accused the Turkish government of being passive about the problems of Turkish minorities in other countries, including Iraq.

Elsewhere
The event was covered by The New York Times. The Moscow radio also covered the event on 20 July, claiming that the organizers were a group called Turan, whose goal was to destabilize Kirkuk and Mosul, and make them be part of the Republic of Turkey. Qasim's persecution of communists following the massacre, created worry in the Soviets.

In culture
The massacre greatly influenced Turkmen literature and collective memory; it became central for survival in both cultural and political fields among the community. In collective memory the massacre was an attempt to assimilate the Turkmen, to leave them without leaders and intellectuals.

After the massacre Iraqi Turkmen became influential in politics, resisted pressure to protect their language and culture. The first non-governmental organization of the community (Iraqi Turkmen Culture and Assistance Association) was founded on 9 November 1959 which soon became the representative of the Turkmen in the following years under the Ba'ath regime. A year after Turkmen Teachers organized a training congress to obtain the rights of the community, in 1961 Turkmen magazine Kardashlik was published. An Iraqi Turkmen writer, Ali Marufoglu's story City Monsters is dedicated to the massacre.

Each year the massacre is commemorated on July 14th and the victims are remembered. A monument dedicated to the victims exists in Kirkuk, Mosul and Tal Afar.