Iran's volatile ethnic mix

Several northwestern cities in Iran have recently been rocked by demonstrations and riots by ethnic Azerbaijani citizens.

They were protesting a cartoon published in an official government newspaper that depicted the Azerbaijani minority as a cockroach and instructed people to deny it food until it learns to speak Persian.

Last Sunday, thousands of Iranian Azerbaijanis gathered outside Parliament in Tehran to chant in their native Turkic language and demand the rights to operate schools in their own language. As his police forces heavy-handedly dispersed the demonstrators, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, praised the loyalty of the Azerbaijani citizens and thanked them for "supporting the Islamic Revolution." The massive Azerbaijani response to the cartoon is the latest in a string of ethnically based protests and violence that have occurred in Iran this year, highlighting the country's multiethnic nature, which is little appreciated in the West.

Western policy makers need to take into account the fact that ethnic politics influences Iran's foreign policy choices and will be a factor in the current regime's future stability. Azerbaijanis, Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen and Baluch are concentrated on Iran's peripheries, sharing ties with people in neighboring Azerbaijan, Iraq, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Since ethnic Azerbaijanis make up a third of Iran's population, for example, Tehran is fearful that neighboring Azerbaijan could become a source of irredentism for its own Azerbaijani population.

In the last six months, at least 30 people have died and hundreds have been arrested in scores of violent confrontations between government forces and Kurds, who make up close to 10 percent of the population of Iran.

Once Israel detects Iran's Islamic tyrants are getting too close to actually launching the unthinkable (trying finishing the Shoah via nukes), direct broad-based military action will be forth coming in order to safe guard Israel's national survival. We can only hope America, the U.K. & other allies act in tandem with Israel regarding Tehran's threats.

Israel is on the front lines of Iranian promoted terrorism via Hamas and Hiaballah. They will be dealt with too coupled with Assad's Syria. The disturbing unknown is what course of action will Egypt take on Israel's southern flank in Sinai once war does break out?

x5452 your point about the Soviet manipulation of boundaries is well taken, but it does not automatically provide the answer. Many ethnic groups around the world are not living in a unified state. Many are divided by state boundaries. Azeris have a country as a result of the breakup of the former Soviet Union, but there are more Azeris living in Iran. Should Iran absorb the Azeri state, or should the Iranian Azeris breakaway from Iran and join the Azeri state?

You have highlighted the situation of the Crimean Russians and South Ossetians in Georgia that apparently form the majority of the population of that region. Those regions were arbitrarily placed in Ukraine and Georgia respectively by the Soviet government. Your arguments are logical and meaningful. However, is the answer to reverse decisons make more than half a century ago? There are a significant number of Ukrainians and Georgians living in their country and don't want to join Russia. This is not a new phenomena. Should Kosovo be joined with Albania, Chechnya independent, Kurds have their own country, N.Ireland join Ireland? The solutions many not be the same for each situation. Fortunately, there is no Soviet Union to start moving country boundaries. Perhaps the solution of South Ossetia is the the autonomous region with a degree of self-government within Georgia?

"Encouraged by the gains of their ethnic fellows in neighboring states, such as the Kurds and Turkmen who are playing a primary role in the new Iraqi government's political process, many of Iran's minorities have been demanding their rights recently."

The civilized world has reason for common cause it would seem with these Iranian minorities in furthering democratic rights. Ahmadinejad might get a clue and see this is the direction in which a positive legacy can be achieved rather than causing further isolation due to his megalomaniac fantasies. In not trusting his own citizens he may ironically bring about the very thing he fears.

"In not trusting his own citizens he may ironically bring about the very thing he fears."

Yes, right on target, Mahdi cult worshiping Ahmadinejad is creating his own domestic demise.

We should be encouraging and 'assisting' all Iranian minority groups whose goal is real freedom in Iran, plus the overthrow of the terrorist régime.

It is also paramount as many Iranian Jews and Christians be rescued since the hand writing is ominously as clear as it was in the early days of Hitler's Germany.

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