User:Atabəy/Pan-Iranism

Pan-Iranism is an irredentist ideology that advocates solidarity and reunification of Iranian peoples, including Ossetians, Kurds, Persians (including the Tajiks and Qizilbash), Hazaras, Pashtuns, Baluchis, and Zazas.

History
In the early 1920s, Dr. Mahmud Afshar Yazdi (1893-1983), who was a European-educated Iranian political scientist (Dr Afshar was from Yazd and for at least 3 generations before him the family was in Yazd. He did not speak Azeri and no one of the Afshar family from Yazd speaks Azeri). The family may have been of Turkic Afshar. (Dr Afshar was father of Iraj Afshar). In his youth Dr Afshar introduced the Pan-Iranist ideology as a concept of national unity. Later in life Dr Afshar continued to support educators and linguists in promotion of the Farsi language. He donated much of his fortune to Dr. Mahmoud Afshar foundation which is the major sponcer of the Dehkhoda Dictionary). in reaction against the rising tide of Pan-Turkism and Pan-Arabism, which were seen as potential threats to the territorial integrity of Iran. In 1926, Afshar wrote the following in his "Ayandeh" (The Future) magazine: National unity is today one of the most important international questions and realities. Whether we want it or not, in the future our nation will enter this political current, and this reality will one day became the mainstay of our state politics, as it has become the axiom of most states, especially the Ottoman state. Every politician must be well aware of this because national unity is the common border between domestic and foreign policy.



In the 1940s, the Pan-Iranist movement gained momentum after the Allied invasion and under the influence of Nazi Germany. During this period, nationalist intellectuals also sought to prove that Turkic-speaking Azeris are racially Iranian and called for eradication of Azerbaijani language. Yet the attempts to establish a monoethnic Iranian identity were undermined by the fact that in a population approaching 19 million by early 1950s, no more than some 40% were Persians.

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, several political parties were formed based on the ideology of Pan-Iranism, among them Mellat Iran, the Sumka Party, the Arya Party, and the Pan-Iranist Party of Iran

Pan-Iranist ideology, namely and the Pan-Iranist Party of Iran (Hezb-e Pan-Iranist). Though sharing this same political foundation and similar viewpoints on many issues, the two groups greatly differed in their organizational structure and practice. Both these parties are currently active inside the country and abroad. Since the Iranian Revolution, there have also been other lesser known groups, both within Iran and without, which have adhered to Pan-Iranism.