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Turkmeneli, 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 historically have had a dominant population. The term incorporates the Iraqi Turkmen homelands 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.
In particular, the Turkmen/Turkoman consider the capital of Turkmeneli to be disputed city of Kirkuk and its boundaries also include Tal Afar, Mosul (second largest city in Iraq), Erbil, Mandali, and Tuz Khurmatu. According to Liam Anderson and Gareth Stansfield, the Turkmen/Turkoman note that the term "Turcomania" – an Anglicized version of "Turkmeneli" – appears on a maps of the region published by William Guthrie and Adolf Stieler, however, there is no clear reference to Turkmeneli until the end of the twentieth century.
The sky blue color, known as gök mavisi in Iraqi Turkmen, symbolizes the Turkic peoples heritage. While there is no fixed shade, the hexadecimal color #52B5F7 is widely used. The crescent and star are common symbols in Turkic and Islamic iconography, representing cultural and religious heritage. The two horizontal white lines are interpreted as symbolic representation of the region on which Turkic peoples inhabit between the Danube in Austria (the maximum extent of the Ottoman Empire) to the Great Wall of China.
Vahram Petrosian suggests that the Iraqi Turkmen Front's (ITF) forwarding of the idea of the recognition of Turkmeneli may pave the way for a future Kurdish-Turkmen conflict.
In 2016 Wassim Bassem reported that the Turkmen/Turkoman have been calling for their own independent province in the Tal Afar district. Their demands had coincided with calls for the establishment of other new provinces for the Christian and the Yazidi minorities.
On 17 July 2017, Turkmen representatives proposed that Tal Afar and Tuz Khurmatu become an autonomous Turkmen region and asked for a "special status" for Kirkuk at a summit in Baghdad under the name "Future of Turkmens in United Iraq". Iraqi Turkmen to propose "special status" for Kirkuk, Anadolou Agency They also called for "training and equipping the Turkmen Hashd al-Shaabi forces." Iraq meeting tackles Turkmens' future in post-Daesh era, Anadolou Agency
Iraqi Turkmen nationalists were divided between those who wanted to join Turkey and those who wanted an independent Turkmeneli.Nationalism Today: Extreme Political Movements Around the World 2, 2020, pp. 392-393, Iraqi Turkmen nationalists advocated for a Turkmeneli stretching from Tal Afar to Mandali, with its capital in Kirkuk.Iraq and Rupert Hay's Two Years in Kurdistan, Paul J. Rich, 2008, pp. x, After the expiration of the Treaty of Lausanne in 2023, many Iraqi Turkmen expressed hope that Turkmeneli, especially Mosul and Kirkuk, would become part of Turkey.Iraqi Turkmen: The Controversy of Identity and Affiliation, 2021, pp. 16, Dr. Ali Taher Al-Hamoud
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