Azad Moradian

I do have honorable Farhang, how about you!!!!!!

I know that people like you do not tolerate the truth as always. Do yourself a favor and read the history of Iran. You will learn that Iran was established by Persians (Cyrus the Great) and was flourished and defended by all Iranian including Kurds, Azari Turks, lors, Iranian Arabs, Mazandaranis etc. Just remember the war bet/ the Iran and the Iraq and how all Iranian fought the invader and denfended every Inch of our soil and our honor. People like you that are actully the agent of England and America want to destroy this solidarity and ptriotism among all of us Iranian. Iran(Persia) belong to all people living in Iran including Kurds, Azaris,Arabs, Lor, Balochi etc, but I'm sure it is not your country because you are a separatist. I feel so sorry for you and your friend because all of you sold yourself and your honer to the Americans and British Animals. Look for honer and Iranian Farhang and be a honorable Iranian.

To Farhang (Bi Farhang)

What the hell are you talking about? Have you gone insance? Iran is not just for persians it's for all Iranians. To jamesh kon boro bi farhang...I feel sorry for you and amsaleh tou.

No to Separatists, Yes to a Powerful Iran

How dare you to post such a crap on this website? Federalism is the foundation of separatism and is not acceptable for us Iranian. Don't forget that for the last 1500 years Iran was ruled by Arabs, Turks, Turkmans, Kurds etc. and the Persian were the victim of their genocide and atrocities. If you don't like to live in Iran you must leave and establish your own country somewhere in a desert.

Very Well Put

Dear Azad,

Firstly I would like to say VERY well said. I love your article and I hope to see more of it as soon as possible.

"The U.N. Security Council seems intent on moving the international viewpoint towards a confrontational stand against Islamic republic of Iran. The facts that the Islamic government has lost an opportunity to contact UN and US directly, on nuclear issues, gives the Iranian opposition groups an incredible opportunity to take advantage of this new situation."

this is true but unfortunately i don't think that it is being used very well by oppsition groups here in LA.

All we can do is wait and see what time, and those who rise to action have in store for us.

The only way of acheive democracy

In my opinion federalism is the system of government in which power is divided between a central government and the government of each state. SO, I don't see any problem with your point of view.
thank you

The wily Persians III

Prior to Reza Shah’s ill advised 1935’s directive to all foreign countries to refer to Persia from then on as Iran, Persia was the Greek’s bestowed name of the country outside Iran and all its inhabitants, every single one including Kurds,  were Persians. Hence the Persian warriors, Persian Gulf, Persian cat, Persian rug, Persian kiss, etc.

To Kurdish Warrior

Good points.If we like our country, which is true and , in my opinion we should tried the best option to keep our country safe and sound. Federalism means democracy and living together with respect and dignities

Kurds in Iran

I agree with most of your idea about Iran and Iranian. I am not a Kurd but I know have the people ,who called themselves Persians, threat and deals with Kurds and the other minorities in Iran. Iran is for all Iranian, there are no different between Persian who dominated power year and years and others. I think Federalism is the only answer for Iran post Islamic Regime. We have experienced Royal system and Republic system based on the central power in hand of First class citizen (Persian0 for more than 80 Years. Please open your eyes look at at the spending Iranian's budget on Persian Area's and the other parts

To Fred

I understand your points however I don't agree with you on Kurds are Perisans..They are IRANIANS..Pls adj your misunderstanding. As mentioned earlier, federalism is the key to the path of democracy for future Iran. I don’t believe this has to do anything with foreign intervention which is nonsense unless you talk about those who are separatists (a very small minority). The day when IRI is gone, a secular government is replaced, the mayor of that region is from the same ethnicity, the regions language is presented as the official along with Farsi, The money of our resources are divided equally, our cultural festivities are not prohibited is the day when we call Iran a democracy.

Long Live IRAN

That is a nice combination Ali P

to me it sounds like what a TRUE IRANIAN is, hamkhoon ba Geelaki, Lor, Kurd, Azari, Fars,... and all that makes the great Iran!

I don't doubt that you're EXTREMELY handsome as you humbly mentioned too

IRANdokht

Azad Giyan,

Please look at Ali P.'s message one more time, most of us Iranians, when we scratch below the surface and look at our family tree (Shajareh Nameh) we find we have Kurdish, farsi, azerbaijani, baluchi, turkmani, gilaki, mazandarani, arab, armani, ashuri, uzbak, pashtun, greek, georgian and all kinds of ethnic backgrounds in our family bloodlines.

I am not saying that everything you are saying is wrong, but labeling people in Tehran or other big cities of Iran as "Persian" and therefore the other, (Khodi va gheir e khodi) and because of the language they use as supporters of the mullahs, is just wrong. All these cities are made up of people with various ethnic and religious back grounds.

As you have seen many of the leaders of Iran in the past 1000 years have been from various ethnic backgrounds. And the language Persian has been the official, rasmi language used by a number of regions, in Iran, Afghanistan, Central Asia, Mughal India and the Ottoman empire. Persian has only functioned an official lingua franca of this vast region because other regional languages like Kurdish, Azari and Pushto etc... have been more regional and oral languages with many, many dialects. What I am trying to say is that just because the region stretching from Central Asia to Turkey uses Persian as the language of cultural and official communication it does not mean that they all are part of some unified Persian conspiracy to disenfranchise other regional languages or to wipe out non native Persian speakers.

Persian is not unique in this regard, Arabic became a lingua franca of regions stretching from Morocco to China during the height of the Islamic golden age. Today Spanish is spoken all over Latin America, Spain and Africa. French also carved a vast region in Asia, Africa and Europe where people used French for culture and official communication. Russian has become a language used from Eastern Europe to Central Asia to Siberia. Chinese is used by many diverse ethic groups that live in China and East Asia. Today me and you, two Iranian Kurds are using English, and people around the world are using English. So languages like Persian, Arabic, French, Russian, Spanish, English and soon Chinese are lingua Franca languages, they function beyond the constraints of one ethnic group and one language group.

I do agree with you that like Switzerland and Austria, our region needs to allow room for regional autonomy and cultural preservation. Kurdish in Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Armenia and Azerbaijan should be given the chance to be used, taught and to survive. Azerbaijani speakers in Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and the republic of Azerbaijan should be allowed to have cultural and linguistic dialog and remove the gap that has taken place during the soviet period. Baluchi's in Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, Pashtun's in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Turkmen in Iran and Turkmenistan and Arabs of Iran, Iraq and the Persian gulf should all be allowed to re establish cultural, trade and linguistic ties to their family and brethren across the modern day national state boarders. Federalism is a good model and in the past 2 thousand years people of the region all learned 3 to 4 local languages and moved across administrative boarders freely. Look at Europe now, after a 100 year war between France and England and many wars between France and Germany they are all talking European Union, an European identity is being born.

Therefore, the mainstream Iranians need to become sensitive to the cultural linguistic, issues and rights of ethnic minorities who have a valid fear of being assimilated and ethnic minorities need to also appreciate that external world superpowers want to take advantage of the political problems in these countries and put one group against the other to ensure their own interests. Blood shed and separatism will never succeed. Look at Separate Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iraqi-Kurdistan, small territories, land locked, insecure and too weak to feed, educate or protect their populations. I am very afraid for Iraqi-Kurdistan if the US pulls out of Iraqi.

Azad Giyan, the problems in Iran are political and all Iranians are effected by it, no one group is doing better than the other. Tehran and Shiraz and Esfahan may seem more rich, affluent and active but look at how many problems also exist for the people who live in the big cities, for women, youth, workers, issues like drug addiction, prostitution etc... And Many people who live in these big cities are migrants from all parts of Iran including Kurdistan. Please be realistic, you can not cut off your nose despite your face.

I agree that this regime and the last regime, spend less money on the ethnic areas and today Kurdish, Baluch and Turkman areas are treated worse because they are Sunni Moslems and Azerbaijani and Arab khuzestan is under pressure for being populated by minorities with real issues of discrimination. But the problems of Iran and in fact all of the nations of our region (The Balkans, Middle East, Near East, Ghafghaz, West Asia, Central Asia and South Asia) are political and need to be resolved politically. People in these nations are also rightfully afraid of separatism, I think Kurdish Iranian movements like yours need to reach out to Persian speaking Iranians and Azari Iranians and make it clear the goal is cultural preservation of Kurdish and Kurdish language and working towards the common goal of resolving Iran's political stagnation effecting all Iranians.

In Turkey, you now have a government that for the first time has allowed a large number of Kurdish MP's in parliament, the AK party is allowing the teaching of Kurdish and TV and radio programs in Kurdish. unfortunately members of PKK who are a strange mixture of Marxist nationalist ideologies are so inflexible that they have forced this moderate Turkish government leaving it no choice within the Turkish domestic political scene but to attack Iraqi-Kurdistan and destabilize both Turkey's recent positive moves towards resolving the Kurdish problem and the economic revitalization of south eastern Turkey and destabilizing the fairly robust Iraqi-Kurdish region that does not want to be drawn into a conflict with Turkey. The solution is globalism, multiculturalism, not carving up already weak small and insecure states...

Zor Spas for your article,

Kak Raadan

The wily Persians II

 Kurdish Warrior (peace maker is more becoming)It seem you have missed my point which simply put is that there is NO race of Persians on this planet earth.  Once we, Iranians, stop falling for this foreign designed fallacy and understand there is no race of oppressor within us rather a national culture that tolerates oppression then by all means we have taken the first step on the path   to emancipation. Then and only then the nation can decide on the governing form and not before. As for a Kurd not ever been a King or Vali-faghih, besides the fact that neither a whole number of others, I see it as a matter of pride that a Kurd can not be accused of such(antiquity excluded). And BTW, absence freedom in our Iran and any public credible opinion data, that “majority of ten million Kurds” wanting federalism remains to be seen.. 

Federalism is the answer for future Iran

Although there might be some minimal mistakes such Persians being minority however I agree with the author. Just fewer than 51% of Iranian population are Persians. What I don’t understand is why every time we talk about federalism, people accuse us for working toward secession. There are more than 10 million Kurds in Iran and the majority are for federalism. It is true that khamenei is Azeri, Pahlavi is Mazandarani, but please name me a Iranian Kurd who has been in a similar position??????O..Yes..Talebani..damn thats Iraq not Iran.....
To OneIran; Shame on you for accusing your fellow Iranians, separatists. You are nothing but a racist, ignorant individual who has no idea about the subject. Have you ever visited Kurdistan, Baluchistan, Kuzestan region? These regions are underdeveloped because of the ignorant central governments over the last decades. It is people like who create the thought of separatism among other ethnicities. Get educated and have some compassion for your fellow Iranians.

The wily Persians

You state: “2. Persians are a minority who has been the dominating power since the end of WWI and all other minority groups have revolted at some point during the 20th century and continue to do so in this century.”
1- Please define the “Persian” in your “Persians are the minority”.
2-where have these wily Persians been hiding from the ethnologists all these times.
3-Since according to you the “Persians have been in power since WWI”, is it safe to assume that Reza Shah Pahlavi, an ethnic Mazandarani, Ruhollah Khomeini from central Iran or as some claim that he was from the Indian subcontinent and Ali Khamenei, an ethnic Azerbaijani are in fact Persians.
Being a Kurd gives me the privilege to tell another Kurd that we are all part of the priceless PERSIAN tapestry which’s value goes to zilch should it be tampered with.  Moreover being part of the original Persia, like it or not, any Kurd anywhere in the world is a Persian and has the right to migrate back to his/her motherland at anytime.

Ali P.,

You are a proud Iranian, and you know it. There is only one Iran with different people, different languages, different cultures, and different religions. And that's the beauty of it!

All these different people have lived together for thousands of years peacefully. It has always been the foreign invasions and interventions that have polluted the Iranian history. We are people of culture, hospitality, and peace. We are Iranians with thousands years of glorious civilization and history.

Pure Iranians love their culture, their people, and their country. We love our people. We love Turks, Kurds, Lors, Farsis, Baluchis, Khorasanis, Gilanis, Khuzestanis, and you name it, because we love Iran. And that's why we will never allow foreigners and their agents divide us.

Long Live Iran!

Someone please tell me what the hell I am!

I don't know how to take sides in this kind of discussions, so let me ask everyone if they can tell me what I am!

My grandfather, in one side, is from "Geelaan".

My grandmother, in one side, is from "Lorestaan".

My grandfather , in the other side, is from "Azerbaijan".

My grandmother , in the other side, is from "Kurdistan".

My father was born in "Khoraasaan".

My mother was born in "Faars".

(sounds like it, but I don't think we were jeepsees(sp?) !)

I was born, and raised in Teheran.

I don't speak anything other than Farsi ( oh, wait, Persian!) with Tehroonee accent, and I  have a fair skin color.

 Also very intelligent and extremely handsome :-)

And single ;-) 

Am I considered a "Persian"?

If so,

      a) Great! Long live Persians and Persia! We're so cool! We have kept this country together all these times. You all are just jealous of us!

If not,

    b) Damn Persians! You exploited us all all these years! There is more to Iran than just Persians! It's time to put an end to this atrocity.

 Long live ........!

(Fill in the blank with whatever you think I am!)

Ali P.

P.S. If you can't figure it out, and if you are confused about your own identity, just shout, like me, as loud as you can :

                                  Long live IRAN !

Democracy 101: Education, Loyalty!

Although federalism is theoretically an ideal form of government, it unfortunately does not work in countries like Iran, not at least at this time. While the majority of the population cannot even read and write (let alone know their political rights and today's sophisticated and often fallacious international relations), federalism would result in disintegration of the country into small pieces that only the big powers would benefit.

The Kurdish struggle in Iran (and elsewhere) has never been for the sake of establishing democracy in the whole country. It has been for the sole purpose of secession, and that is not acceptable to the majority. Kurdistan is an inseparable part of the Iranian soil and will never be detached from the motherland. The Kurdish separatists must realize this fact and learn how to live in harmony with others.

Ever heard of the Iranian constitutional revolution?

JJ, are you crazy? Why do you allow such crap to be posted on this website?

Just for the record:

Persians are a minority who has been the dominating power since the end of WWI and all other minority groups have revolted at some point during the 20th century and continue to do so in this century.

Sure. Khamenei is an Azeri, Khomeini came from God only knows where, the Pahlavis were Mazandaranis, Mossadegh was a Qajar, but Persians are dominating power since WWI!!!

Kurdish struggle for human rights and self-determination is the longest and most mature democratic national movement in Iran, the only one to have developed a constitution for a democratic society (The Republic of Kurdistan, Mahabad 1947).

Ever heard of the Iranian constitutional revolution of 1906?!

role of Kurds in building Federalism and Democracy in Iran

I agree with you federalism is the best alternative for Iran