Iran Regime Change Vs. Map Change

Ardishir Rashidi Kalhur | Exclusive to iKurd.net

This past week we have witnessed a blitzkrieg of attacks on Iran by the Israeli IDF which has decapitated key Iranian military and security leaders and has pulverized many military sites, missile launches and factories engaged in bomb making.

While many of the Iranian opposition groups are ecstatic about the prospect of an eventual downfall of the Islamic regime and regime change, other non-Persian nationalities including the Kurds in Iran are determined to see a change to the map of the Middle East after the potential fall of Iranian regime.

What an astonishing and unbelievable event! to see a country with allegedly having thousands of years of history with a mythical civilization to go into smoke in a matter of just days!

Why? We should ask ourselves, about this disastrous calamity that is befalling Iran so suddenly and so fast? Which only days into it Iran has been asked to surrender unconditionally!

Those who are familiar with the history of Iran, know well, that Iran, !throughout history, and especially since the Arab conquest in 636 A.D. under Caliph Omar, has never seen a day of peace and stability. Following the defeat and fall of the Sassanian empire, a dynasty founded by Ardashir the Unifier, with heritage rooted in the migrating Kurdish tribes of the Zagros Mountains in the South-Western region of the present-day Iran, opposition to the rule of Muslim Arabs over Iran began to take shape which continues to the present day.

One must keep in mind that the key reason for the Arab Muslim triumph over Iran is the collaboration of an individual known as the Persian-Soloman who disclosed to the invading Muslims the details of the Zagros mountain passages in to the heart of the Kurdish region.

Thus, the Kurdish culture was the first non-Arab culture that fell under the control of on-the-move invading Muslims charged with the Ideology of Jihadism under the banner of Islam and Islamic “brotherhood”. From there, and by the power of the Sword, not by Persuasion or Reason, Islam begun to expand throughout the Near East and as far as the South East regions and cultures in Asia and beyond.

Putting history into perspective, one can see two key determining factors to be the cause of today’s war between the West and Iran vis-à-vis Israel with an uncertain future for Iran to survive as a country. These two factors can be elaborated as follows:

1. Iran is a multi-ethnic society with a history of a tyrannical centralized power, in the recent century run by a minority group known as the Fars nationalists. The height of the Fars- Nationalism peaked during the era of the deposed Shah in 1971, when he held an ostentatious celebration claiming 2500 years of Persian history. Shah’s father, named Reza, was born to an ordinary family in Northern Iran, who as a young boy was inducted into the Qajar military beginning as a servant guard.

Rising in rank, he was sent to Russia to be trained by the Cossacks to return to Iran to protect the Qajar family against the growing unrest in Iran at the time. Being bold and ambitious, he grew in rank to the point he decided to overthrow the weak and bankrupt Qajar rule by a military Coup d’etat, and then declared himself to be the King of Persia in 1925.

After becoming a self-declared king with no hereditary legitimacy for the job, the Clergy class who had also opposed the Qajars, began to also oppose Reza Shah. With the coming of the WWI, he made a fatal decision to be a German sympathizer and of their allies the axis power. Following this, England who had helped him to gain power, gave 24 hours’ notice for him to evacuate his post as a king, to be sent to exile and be replaced by his son Mohammed Reza, the (now deposed) former Shah.

Opposition to the Shah continued by the Shiite Clergy, especially, Ayatollah Khomeini, and the Fars-nationalists led by Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq. This feud with the Shah Mohammed-Reza resulted in his first expulsion from Iran and the coming to power of the Persian Religious-nationalists.

This was short-lived as at this point the United States intervened and helped to oust Mosaddeq and returned the Shah back to power, while the clergy leaders were imprisoned or in the case of Ayatollah Khomeini, he was sent to exile in Najaf, Iraq, where the Shrines of Shiite Imams are located. The opposition to the Shah continued from there.

2. With the Shah back in power, the fight against the Shah continued in exile by Ayatollah Khomeini, while to curb and satisfy the growing power of the Persian nationalists and the followers of Mosaddeq, in 1971, with huge income from sale of oil, Shah put up the ostentatious and fabricated display of so called “Persian Imperial History”, This fabricated history and pageantry was nothing short of a comedy show drawing ironic smirks from the world leaders who were attending the party, known as the 2500 years celebration of the “Persian Empire”.

This pompous display of a vainglorious and unfounded history of Iran, against its Islamic history for over 1400 years, was the fuel over the fire of the ousted religious leaders who had an ax to grind against a deceitful and criminal monarch who unlike the European monarchs had no history of Royalty and leadership among the Iranian people. Only 8 years after this lavish celebration, Ayatollah Khomeini was able to overthrow the Shah and like his father he and his family were sent to exile in 1979.

This time, in order to hold power and keep the so called feeling of the Persian Nationalism alive the religious leaders in Iran, the Ayatollahs created a new ideology based on Persian- Religious-Nationalism, by which they have held the power to rule Iran for the last 45 years.

Their main instrument of power has been the most elite force known as the Sepah-e-Fars- Daran, or The Army of the Persian Keepers, AKA the IRGC, or simply the Guards, by which they have heavy handedly crushed other ethnic minorities in Iran and assassinated their leaders by acts of Terrorism.

The regime has also cleverly used the fervent sentiments of “Islamic- Shiite-Martyrdom Ideology” to recruit jihadists to fight their fight for them and expand their influence and domination in the region. With this ideology they held power and declared all culture and opinion outside this ideology as their opposition and as the enemies of God.

This regime proceeded to spend enormous amounts of resources to develop or purchase nuclear bombs, with which once they have or will have the bomb, they will be used for the elimination of Israel, and the expulsion of America and American forces out of the Middle East. Needless to say, this ultra-Persian-Religious-Nationalism has been the leading cause of the present situation that has led to war between the West and Iran, vis-à-vis Israel.

What should the United States do?

The US must consider the interests of the diverse ethnic groups within Iran and also consider the security of the region including Israel both of which would be safeguarding the national interests of the United States in the long run.

What do the People of Iran Need:

This question will be broken into two parts:

a. Regime Change: is what the majority of the Fars people want. The view of the majority of Fars people who prefer to be called “Persians” and who are in minority by comparison to rest of other nationalities living in Iran, differs from the view of the non-Fars {non-Persian) people who also live in Iran. Among them are, the Kurds, Azeris, Baloch, Arabs, and several other minorities.

Majority of this group, the Persians, are for Regime Change by which the elements of the previous regime along with elements of the current regime (especially the military & some cooperating members of IRGC) will return to power to form a new regime to continue their business as usual as they did during the previous regime. They are ultra-aloof Persian Nationalists who have shown zero respect for other national minorities.

In fact, starting with the Shah’s father they started arresting, imprisoning, and killing influential leaders of the ethnic minorities, so they could confiscate their lands and properties for the enrichment of the “Pahlavi” family.

Pahlavi was a name applied to Reza Khan by the Persian nationalists who were the modern “king makers” of Iran given to a former soldier’s family to be introduced to the Iranian people as a counterfeit monarch for the sake of holding Iran together and preventing the breakaway of other national minorities such as Kurds, Azeris, Mazandaranis, Gilakis, Arabs, and Baloch.

What Do the National Minorities Need:

b. Map Change: Considering the similarity to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the United States must not make the same mistake of direct invasion of Iran. This will undoubtedly rally the loyal religious-nationalists who are pro-regime, and by force, bribe, or by evoking the religious passion among the minorities, they can put up a prolonged fight of resistance making it impossible for the United States to establish control on the ground soon after an invasion.

If not invasion then what?

Currently, the United States already has a welcome presence in the Kurdish region of Syria (Rojava), and in Northern Iraq (KRG), from where the United States can offer help to the Kurdish people in Iran (Rojhelat) to defend themselves against the ongoing attacks by the Islamic Regime of Iran ground forces against the Kurdish people.

Since the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the regime has viewed the Kurds as infidels and a threat. Their hatred for Kurds is deeper than that for the Jewish people and Israel.

On many occasions the Iranian regime has accused the Kurds as Separatists and called the establishment of a free and independent Kurdistan to be like creating a second Israel next door, which will be an existential threat to their regime and the eventual separation of Kurdistan from Iran to join the rest of Kurdish regions.

This collaboration of the United State with the Kurds of Iran, will help Kurds to establish an interim local security and an economy detached from that of Iran’s central government. In essence, it can be the realization of President Wilson’s Fourteen Points for Peace 1918 after WW1 in which he wrote that Minorites under the Ottoman control (Kurdish Nation) was to be preserved to allow their autonomy and eventual independence. Now, more than 1918, the fifty million Kurds of today deserve to establish a State on their own free from the culture of death and destruction imposed on them by the radical Islam.

The role the United States can play to solve once and for all the problems with Iran and its dysfunctional system of governance past to present, is extremely crucial. The United States action can be a source of hope and promise of freedom for all the Iranians, or it can turn into an unaccomplished mission-abort nightmare that will results in continuation of life in Iran under despair and hopelessness.

Many Iranians, especially among the Kurdish population, and tragically during the Jina Amini uprising have come to sacrifice so much to free themselves from the brutal rules of the Central government in Tehran. The primary aim of the central governments in Iran, past to present, has always been to kill the Kurdish language and culture and kill the Kurdish leaders if they rose to speak of democracy and rights to self-determination.

Instead, these regimes have put in place an intensive policy of assimilation for Kurds and other national minorities in Iran so they become Persianized and accept the Religious-nationalist culture of the Fars which has produced today’s culture of terrorism and death. Knowing the history of Iran, the country can only be held together

by use if force, fear, torture and execution and rule by dictatorship from Tehran as the center of power.

In the coming days, and weeks, the United States leadership shall make a life, and map- altering political decision not only in regards to Iran, but also about the entire Middle East region. The freedom of the Iranian people, the security of Israel, and the long-term national interests and security of the United States will be best served by recognizing the key strategic importance the Kurdish people can play as an independent State in fighting Terrorism.

They have fought this fight shoulder to shoulder with the United States in Rojava-Syria and in the Kurdish Region in N. Iraq against the ISIS. They are surely ready and can do the same in Iran and establish security in case of civil unrest following the possible collapse of the Iranian regime.

The United States efforts to empower other Iranian opposition groups must be conditional that such groups, if they create a new government to replace the current regime, must be predicated on the condition that such group or groups after coming to power will not fight the Kurds in Iran while having the full political rights to freely determine their own future.

In conclusion, the policy of Regime Change will only be a glass half empty solution which will perpetuate the policy of replacing of one bad regime with another bad one without realization of aspiration of the people of Iran for political freedom.

On the other hand, an alliance between the United States and the Kurds of Iran, like the one that already exists with the Kurds of Rojava and the Kurds of Iraq, can be the best strategic option the United States can take. This option will not only prevents a direct US invasion of Iran and potential massive loss of lives, but also it can lead to the eventual Map Change of Iran and the region which will secure the future freedom for the Iranian and the Kurdish peoples, but also that of the United States national interest and security and that of Israel.

Ardishir Rashidi-Kalhur, the President of Kurdish American Education Society, Los Angeles, U.S.

The opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of iKurd.net or its editors.

Copyright © 2025 iKurd.net. All rights reserved

Related posts:

Iran – Toxic Theocracy – Part I Iran – Toxic Theocracy – Part II Who Are the Persian – Part I Who Are the Persian – Part II Iran in Turkey’s Geopolitical Game Plan – Part I Iran in Turkey’s Geopolitical Game Plan – Part II Open letter to Robert Malley, about his Tweet concerning human rights and Iran protesters Who Are the Persians, Part V