Comparative Assessment of the Roots and Causes of Ethnic Crises in Iran after the Islamic Revolution

Ethnic Crises in various geographical regions of a country do not stem from identical factors as a range of different elements may play a part in the outbreak of crisis in proportion to or depending upon geographical, psychological, social, and demographic characteristics of a given region. Employing field research, this article seeks to find out the causes of ethnic crisis in two ethnically characteristic regions of Kordestan and Baluchestan after the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and measure the influence degree of each element following their assessment. The findings of the study demonstrate that in these regions, factors and elements causing the crisis have not acted in the same manner. In other words, in Baluchestan socio-cultural elements exert a more powerful influence whereas in Kordestan political-security factors play a more outstanding role that other causes. The research concludes that policy-makers focusing on ethnic issues need to precisely identify the potential causes of ethnic crisis in a specific region in order to fathom out and formulate optimum ethnic policies are in tune with its various characteristics.