The Sun Also Rises in Western Iran

Ardishir Rashidi-Kalhur | Exclusive to iKurd.net
President of the Kurdish American Education Society

Wednesday October 26^th, marks the 40^th Day after the tragic death of Jina Amini, a modest and unpretentious Kurdish woman, the ongoing loss of life of more protesters and ongoing retaliatory violence by the sanctimonious and sententious Islamic Republic of Iran’s ” morality police” based in Tehran. Jina’s death and more deaths found all over Iran, have revealed to the entire world more clearly just who the Iranian government really is, their character and creed, and the ideology that they govern the country by.

Iran is a multinational, multicultural country consisting of at least ten different and distinct nationalities while the military power and political decision making has been concentrated and solely left to those living in Tehran, namely the ethnic Farsi speaking group, who prefer to market themselves as the “Persians” outside of the country. It is interesting that hardly anyone in Iran really knows or understands the origins of the word “Persian” when that word is uttered within the borders of Iran except among a handful of Iranian academicians in Tehran and abroad.

The closest equivalent term to Persian is the word “Pars” singular, or “Parsian” plural, the original meaning of which was related in Part I & II, in previous articles under the title “Who Are the Persians” on this website and will be explained further in this article.

But first, why is Iran a country which for over the last hundred years has become increasingly difficult to govern? This is plainly evident despite the fact of its slow and progressive social transformation from a society based upon serfdom and feudalism to one of authoritarian rule under the feigned and ostentations monarchy seen during the Shahs’ regimes. The present theocratic dictatorship has not been able to create peace nor social stability among Iran’s diverse populations that consist of Fars, Kurds, Lurs, Azeris, Arabs, Baluch, Turkmen, Gilaks and other minorités.

One of the main reasons for this instability which we see unfolding itself all over Iran is rooted in the history of the socioeconomic deprivation, assimilative cultural policies and its continuing imposition of a culture of religious patriarchy which disseminates out of Tehran, attempting to keep control over the rest of the Iranian national minorities by force and fear.

Against these crude and makeshift forms of governments ruling from Tehran, there are many well documented revolts by Iran’s national minorities against the central government which have led to the bleak situation we see today. Be it during the rule of the Qajar, the Ill-fated Pahlavi regime, or now under the Islamic Republic of Iran, the central government of Iran under the control of the minority living in Tehran, has always adopted a heavy-handed military strike against uprisings to crush any struggles for democracy and their legitimate civil rights led by the national minorities.

Following is a brief recap of history of Iranian revolts from ancient times to the most recent. Ethnic nationalities revolting against Iran’s central government leading to the current turmoil is pushing Iran steadily toward an uncertain future, one with even more political instability and is cementing the likelihood of eventual decentralization and even disintegration of the country.

The Revolt of the Parsian the Guards in 550 BC:

As described in the aforementioned article titled “Who Are the Persians”, it was divulged that the word “Persian” is plural of the word “Pars”, defined more along the lines of a job title, and simply means a guard. Linguistically, “Parsi”, after the first Islamic victory over Iran in 636 AD, was Arabized to ‘Farsi”, its roots a variation of the Dari language. Colloquially it was dubbed as a “Dari-Variety” or in short a Dari-Vari language.

The Parsians were local hired guards contracted among the Achaemenid (Ha-Khoy-Manishian) tribe, themselves subjects to the Medes. The chief guard among them, after his father’s death was Cyrus (Kurr-Rash), known to have led the first Parsian rebellion with the help of a Kurdish blacksmith known as Kaveh in 550 BC to overthrow the Kingdom of Medes.

Upon the ascent to power of the “Guards”, they secured and maintained control over a wide range of territories and cultures across the region previously encultured by the Medes. During the Shah’s regime, they were known as the “eternal guards”, and during the Islamic Republic of Iran, they are known as the “Sepahe-Pars-Daran” or “Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps”. At the beginning of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, there was a debate between Persian Nationalists and Ayatollah Khomeini, whether to call the guards the “Iranian Revolutionary Guards” or The Islamic Revolutionary Guards”, at Khomeini’s order, the “I” for Islam won. His argument was that with “Islam” the guards could win over many other nations and create a world-wide government of the “Vilayet-e-faghih” or “Islamic jurisprudence” based on “Sharia Law”.

Now that the Islamic revolution is failing the Iranian people both inside the country and out, the “guards-IRGC” have found themselves in a self-made predicament of how to keep Iran together as a unified country. The same Persian nationalists within the current regime and many of the ex-patriates who prefer to call themselves “Persians” are tacitly supporting the guards and are in favor of the guards overthrowing the Islamic part of Iranian regime but keeping Tehran and the Persian minorities to remain in charge of the country. This political subterfuge of the current uprising will end up in use of the same method of ruthless force to keep Iran together at any cost by persecuting the minorities who are labeled and accused of being as “Tajzyeh Talab” or “Separates”.

Among the history of revolts by the Iranian National minorities the following worth to be mentioned:

The Iranian National Minority’s Revolts Against the Central Government Since 20^th Century

It is worth mentioning that in 1922, Iran was still called (Persia=The land of the appointed guards), and in the eye of the world, anyone from Iran was assumed to be Persian. Only in 1935 and after the objection of the minorities in Iran to this designation, the name “Persia” was replaced by the word Iran, to become the current name of the country. Against this falsification and cultural identity theft, and ensued discriminations the central government faced many revolts, briefly described below.

The Kurdish Revolts:

– Starting with the revolt of Ismail Simko the head of the Kurdish Shikak tribe. The year 1922 saw the onslaught and annihilation of Simko’s tribal forces by the Persian army dispatched from Tehran under Reza Shah.

– 1946 saw the establishment of the Kurdish Republic of Mahabad and the offer of the hand of “friendship” deceitfully extended to the Kurdish leadership by the Persian government under Ahamad Qavam and the subsequent acquiescence of the then opposition leader Mohammad Mosaddeq offering false peace to the Kurdish leaderships. This political trick by the Persians, led to the arrest and execution of Kurdish President Qazi Mohammad in 1947 and a quick end to the burgeoning Kurdish Republic with intent to break away from the belligerent central government in Tehran.

– 30 years later, the Kurdish Revolt of 1979 by various Kurdish political forces armed to counteract the indiscriminate brutality of the Islamic Revolution against Iranians, and the especially severe treatment of the Kurdish people was putdown by the guards. This time, at the beginning of negotiations, the Persian religious-nationalists invited the Kurds to the discussion table just to find out that the newly formed government was using the same tactics with the same political intentions used by Ahamad Qavam and Mosaddeq thirty years prior. With a lack of trust in Khomeini and his Islamic Republic, the Iranian army invaded Kurdistan to commit one of the most vicious atrocities in the history of Iran against the Kurds. Their vengeance against Kurds did not end in Iranian Kurdistan, through their clandestine terrorist network, they orchestrated the assassination of the leaders of Kurdish political parties abroad as well as killing of other opposition leaders like Shapour Bakhtiar.

The Kurdish revolts against the central government in Tehran continues to date and the Kurds are considered to pose the most serious threat to the survival of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the decentralization of government power ruling from Tehran. The Kurds spell the end of the influence of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard in Iraq and in Syria and the regime knows this well. It is in Rojhalat, Eastern Kurdistan, the rays of hope are rising to bring permanent change to the way the Iranians have been governed.

The Azerbaijan Revolts:

Historically, the people of Kurdistan and the people of Azerbaijan have a common cultural root. Religiously they were both parishioners of the Magian cast who became Zoroastrians with their Fire-Temples built in in Western Azerbaijan. Linguistically, the root of Kurdish Kurmanji, Sorani and Azeri commonly derive from the Pahli root language which dates back to the time of the establishment of the Kingdom of the Medes. The Achaemenid in the east was formed as a vassal state of the Medes. The rudimentary language of the Achaemenids derived from Dari, and they had no known religious history except that after the Parsian Revolts in 550 BC, is when a modified version of the Magi and Zoroastrian religion beings to form and practiced by the Parsi-Mobads who built replica temples of the Magi at Darius order as their king (Daryoush=Du-Ru-Euysh)

In the Kingdom of the Medes, modern day Kurdistan was considered to be the Southern Media, while the Azerbaijani region was referred to as the Northern Media. The original language of the Azeri people was closely related to, and easily comprehended by Kurmanji speaking Kurds and is still spoken in some remote parts of Azerbaijan that has not been Turkified. After the invasion of the Turkic tribes from the East (namely, the Ughuz Turks, the Turco-Mongolian Timurids, Genghis khan and his descendants the Khanates), and their settlement in Azerbaijan the original Azeri language mostly vanished under the fear of wholesale atrocities committed by the Turks against the Iranian people, especially against the Azeris. The Azeri language disappeared from being commonly spoken only to be replaced by a Turkic language (a policy still used by the Turkish government against Kurds in Turkey) spoken today in most parts of the old Azerbaijan (who are not Turks by origin but in fact descendants of the Medes).

The educated Azeris are aware of their history and of their divided loyalty which historically ties them to both the Iranian people (mostly Kurdish), while linguistically they have become a part of the so called the Pan-Turkic people and promote the ideology promulgated by Erdogan and alike in Turkey to one day create a continuous pan-Turkic states linking Turkey to the Turkic states in Central Asia. Currently Turkey is spending vast amount of their wealth, pouring in billions of dollars to promote the Pan-Turkic faction of the Azeris in Azerbaijan to gain political control within Iran while the Iranian government is appealing to the original identity of the Azeris to remain as an intrinsic part of the Pan-Iranian people and to not give in to Turkish ploys which would ultimately separate Azerbaijan form Iran. In early 20^th century, during the Iranian constitutional crises, the two most pro-Iranian leaning Azeris were Sattar Khan and Bagher Khan, both of whom the Iranian people admired for their Pro-Iranian political leadership and for their support of the constitutional monarchy which was pitted against the Qajar monarchy’s absolute rule by the religious leaders.

In 1945, parallel to the creation of Kurdish Republic of Mahabad, The Azeris created an autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan, under the Democratic Party of Azerbaijan (DPA). However just like the fate of Kurdistan Republic of Mahabad, the Democratic Party of Azerbaijan was dissolved, failing to join Iranian Azerbaijan to the Soviet Azerbaijan (which is now an independent state after the fall of the soviet communism).

Today, many honorable Azeris, are distancing themselves from their government imposed Turkish language and culture and actively seeking an alliance with the Independent Republic of Azerbaijan who unfortunately ruled by the remnants of the Turkic Khanates and under Turkey’s political influence. The population of Azeris in Tehran is such that they, the Azeris, believe that they can take over the political apparatus in Tehran. Their belief is not just wishful thinking and was demonstrated by the so called “green movement” under Mir-Hossein Mousavi, an ethnic Azeri who served under the current leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, who is also himself of Azeri descent. Another Azeri group, the Southern Azerbaijan National Awakening Movement, is calling for the total secession of Southern Azerbaijan from Iran. There are many Azeris who strive to free themselves from both the Persians and the Turks and their Turkic-Islamic ideologies and would prefer to join forces with Kurdistan Liberation Movement, particularly in order to free the Azeri women from under the dark veil of the Jafari-Islamic culture which is also the branch the Islamic Republic of Iran adheres to and is considered a milder version the Islam practiced by the Taliban or the Sunni ISIS.

The Arab Revolts

The populace of the Iranian province of Khuzestan (aka Arabistan), where the author of this article lived for five years, are considered to be of Arabic origin and they have their own distinct history of struggles against the central government in Tehran. Khuzestan is the place of early Mandean or Sabian religion where John the Baptist, Baptized the very early Christens in the region. The triple layered of discrimination against the people of Khuzestan has been on the basis of ethnicity (Fars vs. Arabs), religion (Shiite Fars Vs. Sunni Arabs) and living in an impoverished economic condition. Economically Khuzestan is known as the Golden state of Iran due mostly to its many oil fields and grain production. The Iranian economy hinges upon the oil wealth of Khuzestan, yet the people of Khuzestan are deprived of this wealth generated in their own homeland. In 1924, Ethnic, religious and economic discrimination against the Arabs of Khuzestan led to the Sheikh Khazal al-Kabi rebellion which was crushed by the central government forces leading to the eventual arrest and death of the Arab rebellion leader in Tehran. Today the struggle for liberation of Arabic-Khuzestan is led by the Arab Struggle Movement for Liberation of Ahwaz (ASMLA) with leadership based in Europe.

The Baloch Revolts

Like Kurdistan and Azerbaijan, Baluchistan and its population of close to 13 million people is divided across international borders who live mostly in Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Unlike the Kurdish and the Azeris movement which are secular-nationalist in nature, the Baloch rebellion in Iran (Jundullah) which is a part of a larger Baluchistan Liberation United Front Army, are mostly Sunni religious-nationalist in nature and are under extreme discrimination by the regime in Tehran.

Revolts by other Nationalities in Iran

The other well-known rebellion was in the northern Iranian province of Gilan, known as the Jungali Movement of Gilan, which took place between 1914-1921 and was led by Mirza Kuchak Khan Jungali for the establishment of the Gilan Republic. Like other secessionist movements for the establishment of democracy and self-determination by national minorities in Iran, the movement was crushed by the forces of the central government in Tehran and resulted in Kuchak Khan’s death by decapitation and subsequent display of his severed head to inculcate a deep fear in the public, warning them not to rebel against the central government in Tehran. Barbaric methods of fear and intimidation were used by the Shah’s regime (and by the current regime) by dragging the decapitated bodies of the opposition through the streets of Kurdistan, or hanging them from high atop electric poles to maintain “morality!” and “law and order” dictated down from Tehran where the dark culture of doom and gloom and oppression still rules.

With the Islamic revolution of 1979, beating, stoning, chopping of limbs and body dismemberment has been regularly practiced by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Jina Amini’s death is due to this uncivilized form of governance and its “Immoral law and order” practiced in Iran. In plain sight, a Kurdish woman was beaten to death by the so called “morality police” on September 16^th, 2022, followed by the still ongoing revolts and more death caused by the government of Iran with no end in sight. This Tuesday, October 25^th, will be her 40^th Day after her death, and the world community should honor her with a moment of silence.

What is next for the many national minorities whose civil and national rights have been repeatedly violated by the Central governments in Iran?

At the present, the Religious-Nationalists group have ruled the Iranians for over forty years. Today, Iran and its political structure is ruled by the children of Mullahs, known as the Akhund- Zadeh generation. They are the product of the Islamic Republic of Iran ideology and the most elite among them are the decorated IRGC, the Sepah-e-Fars-Daran leaders whose position were also glorified under the Shah as the “eternal guards”. It is against this group and their constant oppression of the Iranian people that individual like Jina Amini and thousand others like her have revolted to change Iran. As far as the Kurds in Iran are concerned, with absolute determination and resolute perseverance the Kurds shall continue their uncompromised demand for democracy and Self-Determination for Kurdistan. This will in turn inspire the rest of the Iranian nationalities to demand the same and not allowing it to become a diluted and diverted movement to be

hijacked by other anti-government political groups waiting to gain power at the expense of the national minorities struggle and sacrifice for democracy and freedom in Iran.

In absence of a viable leadership in Iran, the Kurdish people must remain aware of the history of their repeated oppression and be wary of the deceit-in-negotiation tactics often employed by these opportunist groups. The sole aim of the past, present and the future regimes has been and will be to squelch Kurdish aspirations for self-rule and the eventual freedom of land, life and culture from the central government of Iran and its history of political oppression, culture assimilation and economic monopoly dictated out of Tehran.

Protesters hold a banner with the slogan in Kurdish “Jin, Jiyan, Azadi” (Woman, Life, Freedom) as they take part in a rally in support of the demonstrations in Iran over the death of Mahsa Jina Amini, in Berlin, October 22, 2022. Photo: AFP

Finally, The Kurdish men and women support the Farsi equivalent of the Kurdish slogan “Jin, Jiyan, Azadi” to reverberate across Iran and within the Farsi speaking regions rendered as Zan, Zendagi, Azadi. We shall stand in solidarity with all people fighting oppression by tyrannical forces everywhere! Our best hope of redress sees that Kurds everywhere shall start an awareness campaign among their Communities about the Kurdish culture and language undergoing forced assimilation by the Central governments of Iran. Kurdish leaders should submit an official letter of complaint to the United Nations and especially to UNESCO regarding the systematic destruction of the Kurdish language and renaming of people’s names, towns and geographic locations of Kurdistan from their original ones.

Based on the history of these revolts and struggles by the national minorities in Iran, their demands for full civil rights and self-determination will not cease even though like in the past it can be temporarily halted by use of extreme force and fear as used in the past as well as the present. The outside world and especially the United Nations Human Rights Council, The United States and European Union must bear continuous pressure on the government of Iran to stop their blatant violations of the civil rights of women and the national minorities in Iran. Furthermore, they shall empower the Kurds who have carried the brunt of the struggle against the regime and to encourage them to offer a ray of hope to all the Iranian people that has risen out of Kurdistan.

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.