1959 Kirkuk Massacre anniversary: Turkmen decry continued exclusion
On Monday, Iraq's Turkmen community marked the 66th anniversary of the 1959 Kirkuk Massacre, warning that the political marginalization they faced decades ago continues to this day.
Sawsan Abdul-Wahed Jaddou, a Turkmen representative in the Kirkuk Provincial Council, described the massacre as 'a wound that remains open in the Turkmen collective memory,' telling Shafaq News that 'the same exclusionary mindset behind the incident still exists today in different forms.'
The massacre occurred between July 14 and 16, 1959, following the first anniversary of Iraq's July 14 Revolution, which ended the monarchy. What began as political demonstrations in Kirkuk escalated into widespread violence, with Turkmen residents targeted by armed groups aligned with dominant political forces at the time. Dozens were killed or injured, properties were looted and burned, and several victims were mutilated in the streets.
Jaddou called the violence 'a calculated attempt to silence a founding component of Iraqi society,' linking the events of the past to what she sees as continued underrepresentation of Turkmen in Iraq's political and administrative institutions.
Today, the Turkmen are Iraq's third-largest ethnic group after Arabs and Kurds, with a population estimated between two and 3.5 million. They are concentrated in a geographic belt across northern Iraq—known historically as Turkmeneli—including Kirkuk, Nineveh, Erbil, Saladin, and Diyala, with smaller communities in Baghdad and other provinces.
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