Identities and Ethnic Hierarchy: The Kurdish Question in Iran since 1979 - 2017.
Published in Stansfield, Gareth and Shareef, Mohammed (ed.), The Kurdish Question Revisited, Hurst, London, 2017, pp. 319-330.
Olivier Grojean.
A conference in London on 20 February 2005 brought together seven organisations representing different ‘Iranian nationalities,’ including Baluchis, Kurds, Azeris, and Arabs.
The conference delegates were assembled to promote the idea of a federalist Iran, founded on increased respect for minorities and true democracy, and it culminated in the founding of the Congress of Nationalities for a Federal Iran. Six months later, on 26 October, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) held a meeting in Washington on the topic The Unknown Iran: Another Case for Federalism? to which Azeri, Turkmen, Kurdish, Baluchi, and Arab representatives were invited. The organiser, Michael Ledeen, pointedly observed during his opening remarks that the AEI’s goal was not to
dismember Iran, but merely to inform the American public about the status of minorities in the country. [1]