Syrian Turkmen Movement

This article is about an early predecessor of today's Syria Turkmen Bloc. For the later reestablished organization, see Syrian Democratic Turkmen Movement.

Syrian Turkmen Movement Suriye Türkmen Hareketi
Leader	Ali Öztürkmen
Founded	2011 (2011)
Dissolved	15 February 2012 (2012-02-15)
Merged into	Syria Turkmen Bloc
Headquarters	Turkey
Ideology	Syrian Turkmens' interests Turkish nationalism
National affiliation	Syrian National Council
Politics of Syria Political parties Elections

The Syrian Turkmen Movement (Turkish: Suriye Türkmen Hareketi) was the first opposition movement of Syrian Turkmens. Founded by Ali Öztürkmen, who left Syria for Turkey soon after the Syrian uprising in 2011, it strived to politicize Syrian Turkmens to take to the streets as "Turkmen". In February 2012, it joined forces with the newly founded Syrian Turkmen Group to form the larger Syria Turkmen Bloc.^[1]

Mainly based on social networking, the movement also attended the Conference for Change in Syria held on 1 June 2011 in Antalya, Turkey, and all of the Istanbul conferences of the Syrian Opposition, striving to have the Turkmen minority explicitly mentioned in all reports.^[1]

In November 2011, the Movement joined forces with the newly formed Syrian Turkmen Group to launch a broader political party, the Syria Turkmen Bloc, which was officially established in February 2012. Inmidst the merger phase, they however suffered a split, with both leaders of the constituent organizations, the Movement's Ali Öztürkmen and the Syrian Turkmen Group's Bekir Atacan, leaving to launch yet another activism-based movement, the Syrian Democratic Turkmen Movement.^[2]

References

1. ORSAM 2013, p. 8.
2. ORSAM 2013, p. 9.

Bibliography

• ORSAM, ed. (March 2013). Syrian Turkmens: Political Movements and Military Structure (PDF). ORSAM–Middle Eastern Turkmen Report. Vol. 22 (= ORSAM Report No. 150). Ankara. ISBN 978-605-4615-47-6.