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Pan-Iranism is an irredentist ideology that advocates solidarity and reunification of Iranian peoples living in the Iranian continent and Iranian plateau (Falāte Īrān), including Ossetians, Kurds, Armenians, Persians (including the Tajiks and Qizilbash), Hazaras, Pashtuns, Baluchis, and Zazas. Virtually all Pan-Iranists also include the Azeris and Uzbeks, who although speak a Turkic language with considerable Persian vocabulary, are partly or fully of native Iranian descent. These peoples lived within the same empire most of the time until the mid-1800s, when much territory - including the region comprising the present-day Republic of Azerbaijan - was lost to the Russian Empire, . See also: Greater Iran and The Great Game.
History
In the early 1920s, Dr. Mahmud Afshar Yazdi (1893-1983), who was a European-educated Iranian political scientist (himself of Turkic Afshar descent and father of Iraj Afshar) introduced the Pan-Iranist ideology as a concept of national unity in reaction against the rising tide of Pan-Turkism and Pan-Arabism, which were seen as potential threats to the territorial integrity of Iran. In 1926, Afshar wrote the following in his "Ayandeh" (The Future) magazine:
National unity is today one of the most important international questions and realities. Whether we want it or not, in the future our nation will enter this political current, and this reality will one day became the mainstay of our state politics, as it has become the axiom of most states, especially the Ottoman state. Every politician must be well aware of this because national unity is the common border between domestic and foreign policy.
Unlike similar movements of the time in other countries, Pan-Iranism was ethnically and linguistically inclusive and solely concerned with territorial nationalism, rather than ethnic or racial nationalism.
With the collapse of the Qajar dynasty, which had descended into corruption, and the rise of Reza Shah Pahlavi in 1925, who began introducing secular reforms limiting the power of the Shia clergy, Iranian nationalist and socialist thinkers had hoped that this new era would also witness the introduction of democratic reforms. However, such reforms did not take place. This culminated in the gradual rise of a loosely organized grass roots Pan-Iranist movement made up of nationalist writers, teachers, students, and activists allied with other pro-democracy movements.
In the 1940s, the Pan-Iranist movement gained momentum after the Allied invasion and under the influence of Nazi Germany. During this period, nationalist intellectuals also sought to prove that Turkic-speaking Azeris are racially Iranian and called for eradication of Azerbaijani language. Yet the attempts to establish a monoethnic Iranian identity were undermined by the fact that in a population approaching 19 million by early 1950s, no more than some 40% were Persians.
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, two political parties were formed based on the Pan-Iranist ideology, namely Mellat Iran and the Pan-Iranist Party of Iran (Hezb-e Pan-Iranist). Though sharing this same political foundation and similar viewpoints on many issues, the two groups greatly differed in their organizational structure and practice. Both these parties are currently active inside the country and abroad. Since the Iranian Revolution, there have also been other lesser known groups, both within Iran and without, which have adhered to Pan-Iranism.
See also
- Greater Iran
- Iranian peoples
- Iranian languages
- Persian Empire
- History of Azerbaijan
- History of Iran
- History of Afghanistan
- History of Tajikistan
- History of Uzbekistan
Further reading
- Hezbe Pan Iranist by Ali Kabar Razmjoo (ISBN 964-6196-51-9)
- Engheta, Naser (2001). 50 years history with the Pan-Iranists. Los Angeles, CA: Ketab Corp. ISBN 1-883819-56-3.
References
- Binder, Leonard (1999). Ethnic conflict and international politics in the Middle East. University Press of Florida. p. 22. ISBN 0813016878, ISBN 9780813016870.
Pan-Iranism had a brief ideological life among a small group of Iranian fascists, but has fizzled and seems unlikely to gain new life. Like pan-Turkism, its essential aims are irremediably irredentist, evoking images of Nazi-era expansionism. For pan-Iranism, the irredenta are Bahrain, parts of Afghanistan, parts of Central Asia, Caucasian Azerbaijan, and the border regions of Iraq.
{{cite book}}: Check|isbn=value: invalid character (help); Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - Abrahamian, Ervand (1982). Iran Between Two Revolutions. Princeton University Press. p. 123. ISBN 0691101345, ISBN 9780691101347.
{{cite book}}: Check|isbn=value: invalid character (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - Oberling, P. "AFŠĀR". Encyclopedia Iranica. Retrieved 9 July 2009.
AFŠĀR, one of the twenty-four original Ḡuz Turkic tribes
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters:|trans_title=,|month=, and|coauthors=(help) - ^ Vahdat, Farzin (2002). God and juggernaut: Iran's intellectual encounter with modernity. Syracuse University Press. p. 78. ISBN 0815629478, ISBN 9780815629474.
{{cite book}}: Check|isbn=value: invalid character (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - Perspectives on Iranian identity, pg.26
- Baloch, Inayatullah (1987). The problem of "Greater Baluchistan": a study of Baluch nationalism. Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden. p. 25. ISBN 3515049991, ISBN 9783515049993.
Under the influence of Nazi Germany, Raza Shah started the movement of Pan-Iranism.
{{cite book}}: Check|isbn=value: invalid character (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Central Asian Research Centre (1953). Central Asian Review. Central Asian Research Centre (London). p. 64.
Persian "nationalism" was in the air and ran riot in politics, literature and daily life. As century advanced, pan-Iranism gained momentum. It was sought to prove that the Azarbaijanis were Iranian by race; some clamoured for the eradication of the Azari language.
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