The Persian dominant ethnic group (less than 50 per cent of the state's total population) is ruling Iran in the name of the Persian Aryan race and Shiite Islam. The rulers and ministers, judges, diplomats, army officers and executives must be followers of the Shiite sect of Islam. The ruling elite has been claiming legitimacy from the Persian Ethnic-Nation and Shiite religions for political legitimacy. Tall claim about Aryan ancestry but there is nothing Aryan in Qizilbash.
Iran like
many other nation-states is divided along ethnic and religious fault lines.
Competition between different ethnic groups has escalated into conflicts; thus
in Tehran between the Turk and Persian the two dominant groups in Ahwaz between
Arab and Persian, Shiite and Sunni, in Baluchistan between Baluch and Persian,
Shiite and Sunni, in Kurdistan between Kurd and Persian Shiite, Sunni.
The Safavid
dynasty Qizilbash a Turkic tribe from 1501 to
1722 established the Twelver school of Shiite Islam The Safavid dynasty was the beginning
of the Shiite dynastic rules and the founder of Iran (Persia till 1935). Since 1501
the Shiite religion has been the only mobilising source to bond the Persian to Shiite
Arab, Shiite Azari-Turk, Gilani people
(Gilaki) against the Sunni Ottoman Caliph in the 17th century and later against
the Kurd, Baluch inside Iran and the external Sunni majority world.
The ethnic politics in Iran have been
suppressed by the Persian and religious elites. Claim to ethnicity is treated as a crime.
The tension between Persian and Azari-Turk united and fused by religion for centuries, will not survive the modern age. The Iranian Turk and Persian or
Iranian Arab and Turk apart from Shiite religion have little in common. The
ethnicity politics is on the rise.
The
Baluch, Arabs, and Kurds have been excluded from policy-making and political
power based on ethnic and religious background.
People are the only legitimate source of
power. The popular vote has delegitimised dynastic rule and the popular vote is
delegitimising religious rules. It has opened the ethnic cleavage because
people vote locally on local issues those issues have been suppressed by Tehran politicians.
The doctrine of individual autonomy and national self-determination and the rise of
ethnic politics have encouraged the Azari-Turk to challenge the religious elites
in Tehran and also in their homeland, Azerbaijan.
The Baluch
and other ethnic groups' exclusion from power has provided golden
opportunities for ethnic nationalism to mobilise their Masses to overthrow the
system of government and seize power on behalf of their population. In the past, Iranians solved the Baluch nationalist conflicts by buying off the educated as
well as tribal chiefs and they will not stop using the Baluch power against the
Baluch. Recently the Shiite elite in Tehran have recruited 10000 Baluch border
guards to suppress the Baluch religious demand and nationalism.
The economic mismanagement,
insecurity and competition among the Iranian elite over the state power denies the
Persian and religious elite opportunities to solve the ethnic conflicts
inside Iran between different rival ethnic groups.
The Baluch-educated, nationalist,
religious scholars notable and tribal chiefs have been ignored and humiliated
by Tehran's direct rule. And their culture, religion, and way of life have been
ignored by aliens.
The
Baluch in Iran are subjected to active targeted formal and informal
discrimination to exclude them from regional and National
powers.
The surge
of ethnic politics in the region and the world, and the legitimate claim to national
self-determination has legitimised the Baluch struggle for National
liberation. If the organisational and resources are discussed and the Baluch masses are mobilised, the conditions in Western Baluchistan can lead the
Baluch struggle for national liberation to National liberation.
M. Sarjov is a political activist based in London strives
for an independent Baluchistan.
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