Turkmen add new level to Iraq fighting
Eight-year-old Jena Fetah crosses the hospital floor, and using her bandaged hands, she tries clumsily to lift herself onto her sister Ruyha's bed. Before Jena succeeds in her efforts, the girl's father, Ahmet, issues a warning from his own cot across the room. The reason for his intervention is nine-year-old Ruyha is far more badly burned than her younger sibling. She is immobilised in the centre of the bed and her sheets are suspended above her so as not to touch her exposed flesh and scalded skin. Given the extent of Ruyha's burns, the doctor estimates it will be at least eight months before they can grow and graft enough healthy skin to cover all the wounds. Ahmet's burns are severe, too; but limited to his face and hands. His left leg was also shattered by shrapnel. All three members of the Fetah family are housed in a special burns ward at a hospital in Ankara. They were part of a badly wounded group of eight Iraqi survivors of a bombing in Tuz Khurmatu that were evacuated to Turkey for specialist medical treatment. The reason the Turkish government extended its healthcare facilities to these patients is that the residents of Tuz Khurmatu are Iraqi Turkmen (Turkish-speaking indigenous Iraqi tribes). Beyond a shared language and culture, the approximately two million Iraqi Turkmen also represent a political foothold for Turkey in the oil rich regions of northern Iraq.
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