Are the Kurds a nation without history or the forgotten nation of the history?Are the Kurds Iranian or non- Iranian?Who are the Kurds? What do they want?Why did the beginning of history become the end of the Kurd and why the end of history is the beginning of Kurd?Why were the Kurds labeled as Jin (fiend), Satan and sometimes irrationals in religions and myths?Why do the researchers consider the Kurds as part of the history of Islam and Iran?Why do Iranians, Arabs and Turks, that have always been bloodthirsty hostile to each other, become intimate friends in contrast to the Kurds?What are the secret behind all these hatreds towards the Kurds which we saw its current example in flagrant violence of ISIS towards the Kurds?This book, not only, provides suitable answers for these questions, but also, utilizing reliable and valid resources and data, it proves that the Kurds are not Iranian and the Iranian Political Rationality, with all its components (myths, religions, and ideologies), has been developed and has continued in contrast to the Kurdish Identity. Furthermore, this book shows that the pivotal or axial period with the advent of philosophy and religion has been developed in contrast to the Kurdish Identity. The relationship between Iran and Kurd is the relationship of suppression and confiscation. Along with the historical severe suppression of the Kurds, the Kurdish-Mithraism symbols and concepts have been confiscated and their meanings have been transformed by the metaphysical religions (Jewish, Christianity and Islam) and by philosophers (Plato and sophists). If, based on Hegel and Nietzsche, history and metaphysics were developed with Iran and Zoroaster, we will find out in the current book that the Kurds were "the other" of the history and metaphysics since Zoroastrian and Iran were not developed except through the suppression and confiscation of the Mithra and Mede.

This book investigates the forgotten years of Kurdish nationalism in Iran, from the fall of the Kurdish republic to the advent of the Iranian revolution. An original and path-breaking investigation of the period, it sheds light not only on the historical specificity of the phenomenon of nationalism in exile, but also on the political processes and practices defining the development of Kurdish nationalism in the post-revolutionary era. Although nationalist landmarks such as the Kurdish republic in 1946 and the resurgence of the movement in the revolutionary conjuncture of 1978-79 have attracted the attention of historians and social scientists in recent years, little is known about the three decades of Kurdish nationalism in exile between these two events. This analysis draws on contemporary poststructuralist theory to question the concept of the minority in democratic and constitutional theory, arguing that it is an effect of the discursive linkage between sovereign power and the dominant ethnic-linguistic identity in the nation-state. This text will appeal to a wide academic audience ranging from the fields of Kurdish, Iranian and Middle East Studies to ethnicity, nationalism, government, and political science.

In early 1946, Kurds declared an independent republic in north-west Iran. The Mahabad Republic, as it became known, was the first time that the Kurds experienced self-rule in the modern era. Although short-lived, the Republic had a formative influence on the subsequent development of Kurdish nationalist movements in Iran and the wider region. Here, Abbas Vali disputes the conventional view that the Kurdish Republic was the result of a Soviet conspiracy to dismember Iran, a side-effect of the Cold War. Instead he emphasizes the diversity of the internal Iranian and Kurdish factors that led to the formation of the Republic, arguing that the Republic represents the culmination of a new and modern Kurdish national identity. This was an identity which emerged in response to the exclusionary effects of the political and discursive processes and practices of the construction of a modern Iranian nation-state and national identity since the Constitutional Revolution of 1906, which often excluded and attempted to override a Kurdish one. Vali contends that this process, largely due to the socio-economic and cultural impact of the rule of Pahlavis, in reality forced the Kurdish people of Iran to form and reinforce their own ethno-linguistic and ethno-national community. The expressions of this separate identity can be traced through the formation and dissolution of Kurdish national parties, such as the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI). 'Kurds and the State in Iran' offers an analysis of the formation and effects of the concepts of the state, the nation, nationalism and ethnic identity, which go beyond current ethnicist and constructivist theories, thus making it essential reading for anyone interested in the Kurds or the development of national and state identities in the Middle East.

'Kurds and Identity Politics', by one of the world's leading specialists in this field is based on exhaustive fieldwork and research. Van Bruinessen's immense expertise allows him to take a broad view, exploring the issues from historical, linguistic and anthropological angles. He sets out the historic struggle of the Kurds and the formation of Kurdish identity in Turkey, Iran and Iraq, and explains it within the context of their global diaspora. He shows that even without an independent Kurdish state - Kurdistan - measures of Kurdish self-government are possible based on a broad understanding of what Kurdish nationhood means. A study of Kurdish identity and ethnicity that sets out the historic struggle of the Kurds in Turkey, Iran and Iraq, and shows that even without an independent Kurdish state (Kurdistan) measures of Kurish self-government are possible, based on a broad understanding of what Kurdish nationhood means.

This monograph is intended to help analysts and policymakers assess the political, demographic, and economic vulnerabilities of Iran to potential U.S. policy measures. The study dissects the political complexities and vulnerabilities of the Iranian government, evaluates ethnic and demographic tensions in Iran, and assesses recent economic developments and potential trajectories of future economic growth. It concludes with a set of policy recommendations for the U.S. government based on the analysis.