Turkmen

Of their own free choice, when proper elections do come, Kurds, Sunni Arabs, Shi'ite Arabs, Turcomens and the various Christian minorities will be deciding whether this country called Iraq can survive.

For its part Turkey also opposes the Kurdish preference, conceiving itself as protector of Iraqi Turcomen, and fearing that Iraqi federalism will excite Kurds in eastern Anatolia.

We attended a meeting of the Mosul city council, which was instructive in debunking the myth that Arabs, Kurds, Turcomen, Assyrian Christians and Yezidi cannot live and work together.

"The opposition groups are not united on what constitute possible or desirable methods for achieving change." She adds, "the parties and currents found within the Iraqi opposition are implicitly parties of exclusion: the Kurdish parties are not designed to include Arabs; the Arab Nationalist groups are unlikely to win Kurdish, Assyrian, or Turcomen membership; the Shi'i Islamist groups are by definition closed to people of other religions as well as Sunni Muslims."

The Iraqi Turcomen Front, which has Ankara's ear, has said that it is deeply worried a war would lead to a Kurdish state in which there would be no place for the Turcomens.