Iraq
Ali Ghazi, a 12-year-old Iraqi boy, is pictured amomg relatives and staff from Iraq's diplomatic mission in Ankara. Photo: Iraqi embassy in Ankara.
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The 12-year-old boy returned to Iraq after being abducted as an infant by the Islamic State (ISIS) in 2014 is from the Turkmen minority, an Iraqi government official told Rudaw on Tuesday, highlighting the plight of the community’s missing members.
Hassan Khawam, spokesperson for the labor and social affairs ministry, said the boy - identified as Ali Ghazi Mohammed Jamil - “is Turkmen and was returned to Iraq on Monday.”
In Summer of 2014, ISIS launched a large-scale offensive, seizing control of nearly one-third of Iraq’s territory, particularly in the northern and western regions, including predominantly Turkmen regions.
Ali was abducted in the same year when the extremist group killed his parents, according to the Iraqi embassy in Ankara. The embassy added the child “was found in Turkey in 2022” and “placed in a childcare facility in Ankara under the supervision of Turkish authorities.”
The diplomatic mission further noted that it closely followed the case from the moment it received information about the boy, coordinating with Turkish security and legal authorities. This cooperation led to the verification of his identity and the completion of procedures for his return.
Khawam detailed to Rudaw that the search began after Ali’s photos circulated in social media groups comprising Iraqi nationals, eventually reaching the General Directorate of Survivors’ Affairs (GDSA), an affiliate of the labor ministry.
“After the boy was tentatively identified and his photo was sent to relatives, his uncle recognized him,” Khawam said, adding that a DNA test was conducted to confirm his identity. “The entire process took about a year to complete.”
For her part, Dhayma’ Mohammed, director of the Kirkuk office of the Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights (IHCHR) - an independent rights organization - told Rudaw that “the boy is originally from the Turkmen-majority Tal Afar district in Nineveh province.”
She added that “it is possible his family had fled to Kirkuk” after Tal Afar was seized by ISIS in 2014, and that when the extremist group advanced into parts of Kirkuk, “he was abducted there as an infant.”
Between early 2014 and October 2015, at least 18,802 civilians were killed in Iraq, primarily by ISIS, while thousands more were abducted, according to a 2016 report by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
An Iraqi non-profit dedicated to documenting human rights abuses against the Turkmen, the Turkmen Rescue Foundation (TRF), reports that around 1,300 Iraqi Turkmen - 700 men, 470 women, and 130 children - were abducted from Tal Afar during that period, with only a small number ever released.
Overall, an estimated 3,500 Turkmen were killed during the ISIS onslaught, and more than 5,000 remain missing, the TRF says.
Hastyar Qadir contributed to this report from Erbil.
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