This is the official declaration of the establishment of the State of Iraq. The Iraqi Government attached this declaration to its application for membership to the League of Nations and committed itself to abide by the provisions contained therein. In this document, the existence of the Turkman was officially and for the first time recognised and vast rights granted to the Turkman. It is unfortunate that neither the Turkman nor the Turkish Foreign Office was aware of the presence of such an important document until recently. The declaration is composed of two parts. The first part is composed of 10 articles covering the commitments in respect of the rights of minorities and of fundamental rights and freedoms. The second part covers the Iraqi government's commitments related with international agreements, inter-national relations, and admission of Iraq to the League of Nations, membership thereof and similar commitments. The most important aspect in the first part is article one which runs as follows: - "The commitments expressed in this part are recognised as the fundamental laws of Iraq and no laws, by-laws, and no official movement could be in contrary thereto nor could they supersede the same neither now nor in the future." This is of crucial importance in respect of other articles. The said declaration guarantees the freedom of religion, conscience, and worship and with this declaration, the Iraqi government commits itself not to discriminate against people by religion, language, and race. Everybody is granted the right to be taught in his own language. Iraqi citizens are free to conduct personal or business talks, and be involved in religious and press and publication activities in any language they may deem fit. Besides, minorities are granted the right to establish foundations, associations, and research institutions. The Declaration recognises the Turkish language as an official language. Turkish is allowed to be used in addition to Arabic at the government offices including courts of law located in the areas where the Turkman are living. The fifth paragraph of article three provides as follows: "Without any prejudice to the fact that Arabic is the official language of the Iraqi Government and provided that it is not against the special arrangements introduced by the Iraqi Government, for the purposes of the use of Turkish and Kurdish as specified in article 9 hereof, the Iraqi Government shall make necessary arrangements to make sure that all Iraqi citizens whose mother tongue is other than Arabic use their own language both in written and spoken form at the courts of law." First paragraph of article 8 provides as follows: - 1. The Iraqi Government shall make sure that the children of those Iraqi citizens whose mother language is not the official language of Iraq, living in cities and townships in numbers representing a certain percentage of the population receive education in their own language at primary schools within the overall order of education. This facility shall however not prevent the Iraqi Government from imposing Arabic as the compulsory language at these schools." The second paragraph of article 8 also provides for the use of budgetary allocations and funds by the minorities. 1st and 2nd paragraphs of article nine provides as follows: The second part of the first paragraph reads as follows: "However, the official language shall, in addition to Arabic, be Turkish or Kurdish in Kifri and Kirkuk townships under the administrative district of Kirkuk where majority are of Turkman race. 2. The Iraqi Government guarantees that the public servants at the government offices in the said townships except for a reasonable number of exceptions will be adequately equipped with the knowledge of Turkish and Kurdish languages. The article 10 further provides that all the provisions contained in the declaration are under the guaranty of the League of Nations. The Iraqi Government commits itself not to amend any provisions in the declaration without prior consent of the majority of the Council of the League of Nations. Therefore, the existence and fundamental rights of the Turkman have thus been recognised in an official document. |