The History of Iran

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Are there Persians in Iran?

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Azeri Turks Views:
The name Persia is a misunderstanding by the Western historians. Iran was always called "Iranzamin" or the "Land of Iran" and people in Iran are called "Iranians" and not Persians. Iranian and Persian are the same thing. There are no Persians in Iran. Persian is only a language. There are no such people in Iran. Persians are a mythical people. All the people in Iran are "Iranians". We are an "Iranian" nation.

And more recently Azeris have started to promoted this line:

• Persian and Iranian are the same thing. So Kurds are also Persians.
• Iran is not a tribal nation anymore. We are a beautiful "(Azeri Turk?) Iranian Nation".
• We are an "Iranian Race". This is promoted officially by Sumka on their website. "Sumka" is an "Azeri Turk Nazi organization" which is setup by the regime in Tehran. Sumka is openly Nazist in their ideology.

The Persian View:
Iranian and Persian are not the same thing. Yes. Iran has been called Iran Zamin or the Land of Iran . But people of Iran-Zamin were not called "Iranians". They were called Sogdians,Parthians, Baktrians,Khorasanis, Persians, Medes etc. Also different parts of Iran were called Pars,Parthia,Sogdia,Bactria,Khorasan, Media etc.

Persian history states that Persians built the Persian Empire. Parthians defeated the Greek Army of Alexander after Alexander's death in Babylon and saved Persia from Greek invaders. Alexander the Great could not defeat the Bactrians. Alexander the Great married a Persian Princess from Sogdia, Roxana. There was a Persian Empire and a Parthian Empire. But there was never any "Iranian Empire" in Persian history as Azeri Turks claim in their imaginary history.

Persian history never states that "Iranians" did this or that as Azeri Turks claim.

There were no "Iranians" acting in history. By Iranians Azeris Turks mean somebody who is a mix of Turk, Persian, Mongol and Arab. That is somebody without any ethnic identity. These imaginary "Iranians" created the history of Iran. For the last 1000 years "Imaginary Iranians" were ruling Iran.

Azeri Turks use a few phrases in Shahnameh to re-write the whole history of the region and invent some imaginary Iranians who were actors in this history. This is a way to include themselves in the history of ancient Persia. The reality is Iranzamin was not used as the name of the country, but it was called Khorasan for 100's of years and the focus of Khorasan was not even Iran proper but a region between eastern Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia. This region was the focus of the common history of Iran and Afghanistan.

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Real history of Iran

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The History of Iran

Proto-Elamite civilization (3200–2700 BCE)

Jiroft civilization (3000–5th c. BCE)

Elamite dynasties (2700–539 BCE)

Kingdom of Mannai (10th–7th c. BCE)

Median Empire (728–550 BCE)

Achaemenid Empire (648–330 BCE)

Seleucid Empire (330–150 BCE)

Parthian Empire (250 BCE– 226 CE)

Sassanid Dynasty (226–650)

Islamic conquest (637–651)

Tahirid dynasty (821–873)

Alavid dynasty (864–928)

Saffarid dynasty (861–1003)

Samanid dynasty (875–999)

Ziyarid dynasty (928–1043)

Buwayhid dynasty (934–1055)

Ghaznavid Empire (963–1187)

Ghori dynasty (1149–1212)

Seljukid Empire (1037–1194)

Khwarezmid dynasty (1077–1231)

Ilkhanate (1256–1353)

Muzaffarid dynasty (1314–1393)

Chupanid dyansty (1337–1357)

Jalayerid dynasty (1339–1432)

Timurid Empire (1370–1506)

Qara Qoyunlu Turcomans (1407–1468)

Aq Qoyunlu Turcomans (1378–1508)

Safavid Empire (1501–1722/1736)

Hotaki Ghilzai dynasty (1722–1729)

Afsharid dynasty (1736–1802)

Zand dynasty (1750–1794)

Qajar dynasty (1781–1925)

Pahlavi dynasty (1925–1979)

Islamic Revolution (1979)

Provisional Government (1979–1980)

Islamic Republic of Iran (1980–Present)

There are no "imaginary Iranians" in Iran's history.

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Who is Iranian?

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Iranian is a modern concept since 18 century. The nationals of Iran are called Iranian regardless of their ethnic background. The term Iranian does not have any historical, ethnic or racial significance.

• Iranian is a meaningless term as it is used by Azeri Turks.Azeri Turks use "Iranian" in a racial, ethnic and cultural meaning.
• By "Iranian" Azeri Turks mean somebody who is half turk, half persian, half arab, half mongol. That is an "Iranian" has no ethnic identity. Everybody in Iran is supposed to be a member of "Iranian race". This is an smart way for Azeri Turks to mix up and confuse ethnic identities and claim to be the natives of Iran and the inheritors of Persian civilization.
• The term "Iranian" confuses the issues and assigns imaginary properties to Azeri Turks such as racial and ethnic meanings. Azeri Turks imagine because they are the nationals of Iran, Azeri Turks have Persian or Kurdish culture of Iran. Kurds have lived in Turkey for 1000 of years and they are still kurds. Same with Azeri turks. Azeri Turks have Azeri Turk culture and not Persian or Kurdish culture.
• Azeri Turks use "Iranian" as if it was equal to a German. Azeri Turks imply that "Iranian" means "Iranian Race". There is no "Iranian Race" in Iran. Iran is a multi-ethnic society.
• The Following quote shows that contrary to Azeri Turk claims that they have Iranian culture, their ethnic identity is not an Iranian identity but an azeri turk identity. Also Azeri Turks state clearly that they control Iran: A new book by Brenda Shaffer, Harvard University’s Director of Caspian Studies, has reportedly captivated the attention of "regime change" advocates in Washington. In her book, "Borders and Brethren: Iran and the Challenge of Azerbaijani Identity," Shaffer challenges the widely held view in contemporary Iranian scholarship that a broad Iranian identity supersedes ethnic identities.
  

Replacing the term Persian with "Iranian" Azeri Turks are trying to include themselves in some imaginary history of Iran when Azeri Turks did not even live in Iran. Azeri Turks presence in Iran is mainly from 15 century A.D. The purpose of all this is to prove that there was no Persian Empire and it was an "Iranian Empire". And Azeri Turks are "Iranians" and are inheritors of history and traditions of "Iranian Empire" as Azeri Turk Shirin Ebadi claims.

The Azeri Turk Shirin Ebadi the Nobel Peace Prize winner when receiving the Nobel Prize in Oslo, Norway claimed :

"I am an Iranian and a descedant of Cyrus the Great Iranian Empire.!!!!!"

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Azeri Turk Cultural Utopia:

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WE ARE ALL IRANI... I dance kordi and turki and understand a bit of it... but i was born in tehran (not that there is anything special about that... i wish i was born in different province)... none of my family is from shahrestan... why do you wanna divide... no offense but its ppl like you who wanna break up iran apart...

kords, baluch, bakhtiari etc. have different CUSTOMS... but our culture is the same... cutoms and culture are too different things... i love to learn about your custom... so teach me instead of keep saying that your are different... let me understand you... dont tell me i dont tell me you are diffent so i dont understand you...

and the ethnic tension... there should be none... everybody is equally abused under the current regim...

iran is no different than usa... so why do we keeping saying oh...im tork.... im kord... im different... we are all IRANI..

Natives of Iran Views on "Iranians":

you know nothing about me, do you even know what you're talking about? When did I want to seperate Iran? Different customs make different cultures. Iran is multi ethnic and multi cultural, you can never put them all into a blender and achieve cultural utopia, that is a fact.

The best thing that can be done is to educate people about others; teaching them mutual respect, of course official language should be Persian.

The US is a mess, can you imagine if the economy turned third world? The country would seperate in an instant along racial lines.