Below is an article by Assyrian International News Agency:

he advance of the terrorist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) -- an offshoot of al-Qaeda -- in Iraq has left Iraqi Turkmen facing danger and forced migration, as they do not have their own security force, unlike Kurds and Arabs.

The predominantly Turkmen cities of Telafer and Tuz Khurmatu are under threat from ISIL terrorists, who seized large parts of the city of Mosul in northern Iraq on Tuesday [10 June 2014] and also the Turkish Consulate in the city early on Wednesday [11 Jue 2014].

Following the capture of Mosul by the terrorists, around 300,000 people have left the city to seek shelter in the country's autonomous Kurdish region. The Turkmen are not expected to number more than a couple of thousand among those fled, as the Turkmen population lives most densely not in the city center but in towns such as Telafer, near Mosul.

Around 400,000-450,000 Turkmen are estimated to live in Telafer and its small surrounding towns. Unlike in Mosul, the people in Telafer do not have any easily accessible town to flee to should the city be faced with an attack. Nakip, who is a Turkmen from Kirkuk, is deeply concerned for the safety of the Turkmen in Telafer, as ISIL, having reportedly taken hostage 48 people posted in Turkey's Mosul consulate, including Consul General Öztürk Ylmaz, has gained control of the area around Mosul.

"If Telafer comes under attack [by ISIL], and the central [Iraqi] government does not intervene, then Turkey should consider a military operation," Nakip said, emphasizing that Turkey should urgently get in touch with both the Iraqi central government and the Kurdish government in northern Iraq for a solution.

Although Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called the Iraqi Parliament to convene on Thursday [12 June 2014] to declare a state of emergency, the Iraqi army cannot be depended on to protect Turkmen, as members of the Iraqi armed forces fled from Mosul instead of fighting ISIL.

In Telafer, as in some other Turkmen towns in Iraq, the Turkmen population includes both Shiite and Sunni members. ISIL, as a radical Sunni Islamist group, might particularly target Shiite Turkmen in the region.

Ali Semin, a Middle East analyst at the Istanbul-based Wise Men Center for Strategic Studies (Bilgesam), is highly concerned about such an eventuality. "If ISIL attacks Shiite Turkmen in Telafer, this will pose a huge danger for Turkmen. Steps should be taken to prevent a split between Sunni and Shiite Turkmen," Semin has told Today's Zaman.

Tuz Khurmatu is also under immediate threat, as in the village of Yengice, only three kilometers from Tuz Khurmatu, ISIL reportedly killed two Turkmen on Wednesday [11 June 2014]. The village of Bastaml?, 15 kilometers from Tuz Khurmatu, has also been seized by ISIL, according to the Do?an news agency.

ISIL has also taken control of Suleyman Bek, a small Turkmen town in the province of Saladin, Nakip said. Tuz Khurmatu, which is situated in the same province, is estimated to have a population of nearly 200,000.

"Turkey may face a wave of Turkmen migration if Mosul turns into a city torn by civil war, like Aleppo," Semin warned.