Turkmeneli

Turkmeneli (Turkish: Türkmeneli, lit. 'Land of the Turkmens'), also known as Turkmenland, and historically as Turcomania and East Turkmeneli (Doğu Türkmeneli), is a geopolitical term used to define the vast swath of territory in which the Iraqi Turkmens inhabit. The term incorporates the Iraqi Turkmen settlements running from Iraq's border with Turkey and Syria and diagonally down the country to the border with Iran. It is sometimes referred to as East Turkmeneli to distinguish from the Syrian Turkmen homeland, known as West Turkmeneli. Apart from the designation of the region as Turcomania in a 1785 map by William Guthrie, there's no certain mention of the region in published works until the establishment of the Iraqi Turkmen Front. Furthermore, ITF maps of Turkmeneli were often controversial and exaggerated. The Turkmens consider the capital of Turkmeneli to be in the city of Kirkuk and its boundaries also include Tal Afar, Mosul, Erbil, Mandali, and Tuz Khurmatu. According to Liam Anderson and Gareth Stansfield, the Turkmens note that the term Turcomania an Anglicized version of Turkmeneli — appears on maps published by William Guthrie and Adolf Stieler