In Tuz Khurmatu, these offices happened to be located in a largely Turkomen part of town, and were natural flashpoints.

ECONOMIST: Ethnic rivalry in Iraq's relatively peaceful north

This has put them into conflict with the small Turkomen minority in the north, which fears being dominated by the Kurds.

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After the war, the Turkish government promised to send troops to protect the Turkomen, and Turkomen parties have been announcing that the time for such intervention has come.

ECONOMIST: Ethnic rivalry in Iraq's relatively peaceful north

Turkomen nationalists fear that Tuz Khurmatu, which the Baath regime placed in a predominantly Sunni province, will be attached to the Kurdish north in a future federal Iraq.

ECONOMIST: Ethnic rivalry in Iraq's relatively peaceful north

Turkey considers itself the Turkomen's protector, and the Turkish press is quick to pick up on allegations of persecution suffered by their co-linguists, particularly if they come at Kurdish hands.

ECONOMIST: Ethnic rivalry in Iraq's relatively peaceful north

Now, however, America says that it is trying to prise the Kurds out of their security role, and to institute a government in which the town's four ethnic-confessional groups (Kurds, Turkomen, Arabs, and Christians) are equally represented.

ECONOMIST: Ethnic rivalry in Iraq's relatively peaceful north

Each party took 41 seats, most of the rest going to mild Islamists, Turkomen, Christians and Yazidis (followers of a sect that is said to descend from Roman-era worshippers of the god Mithras), nearly all with the blessing of the two big Kurdish parties.

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