The Iraqi Turkmen Front (, al-Jabha al-Turkmāniya al-Irāqiya; ), also abbreviated as ITF, is a political movement representing the Iraqi Turkmen people. It was founded on April 5, 1995 as a coalition of several Turkmen parties operating within the framework of Iraq's unity. The party aims for the Turkmen community to have greater political involvement, increased recognition and more rights. Since the fall of Saddam Hussein, the party has contested control of Kirkuk and other areas of northern Iraq, claiming that Kirkuk belongs to the Turkmen people. The ITF claims a region named Turkmeneli (literally meaning the "land of the Turkmens") as the homeland of the Iraqi Turkmen. Turkmeneli includes within its boundaries Kirkuk, Tal Afar, Erbil, Mandali, Mosul and Tuz Khurmatu. The Iraqi Army and Peshmerga have not allowed them to form their militia and take control of the areas where they live. The party played an active role in the fight against the Islamic State to defend the region of Turkmeneli (especially around Kirkuk) and the Iraqi Turkmen population from the genocide that ISIS committed against Iraqi Turkmen. Composition The Iraqi Turkmen Front is a coalition of the following political parties: Iraqi National Turkmen Party (INTP), founded in 1988 and which operated in the northern Iraqi no-fly zones Turkmeneli Party, founded in 1992 in Northern Cyprus as the Turkmen Union Party Provincial Turkmen Party Movement of the Independent Turkmen Iraqi Turkmen Rights Party Turkmen Islamic Movement of Iraq Election results In the December 2005 Iraqi legislative election, the ITF list (#630) polled 76,434 votes, or 0.7% nationwide, according to the uncertified published results. The overwhelming majority of those votes were cast in Kirkuk Governorate, where the ITF won more than 10% of the total. Most of the rest of the ITF's votes were in Saladin Governorate. According to the full official results of that election, the ITF is entitled to only one seat in the permanent National Assembly. The party has been funded deeply by the Turkish administration and military. In the aftermath of the first Iraqi parliamentary election in 2005, the ITF lodged a number of formal complaints to the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq alleging vote fraud on the part of the Kurdish parties and protesting the Commission's decision to allow Kurdish internally displaced persons and refugees to vote in the places from which they had been expelled under Saddam Hussein. In the election, they received