Below is an article published by RUDAW:

Several Turkmen members of the Kurdish parliament are meeting in Erbil today to discuss the formation of a bloc to “unite the position” of the Turkmen.

“We are in the middle of forming a bloc in order to unite the views and position of the Turkmen,” Jawdat Najar, an MP from the Turkmen Reform list told Rudaw.

The autonomous Kurdistan Region has a sizeable Turkmen community, most of whom live in the capital Erbil.

Different Turkmen groups run in provincial and parliamentary elections. In the current parliament that was elected last September they have five members.

According to Aydin Maruf, an MP from the Turkmen front—the biggest Turkmen group in Iraq—today’s meeting is the second in less than a week.

“The first meeting was held inside the parliament building [last Wednesday] by four MPs and forming a united bloc was debated,” said Maruf.

Maruf said that there is consensus among the MPs to name the new bloc the Turkmen Alliance.

The Kurdish parliament has 111 seats and it works independently from Baghdad. It was first established in 1992 following the Kurdish uprising that led to autonomy and the creation of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

With 38 seats, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) is the largest group in the parliament today. Second comes the Change Movement (Gorran) with 24 seats.

However, other minority groups such as the Assyrians, Chaldean and Yezidis have their quota seats and hold governmental positions, mainly in their constituency areas.

The Turkmen MPs say that the new bloc is to serve the interests of their community in the Kurdistan region.