ethnic nationalism

Pan-Turkism, as an expansionist ideology with an irredentist feature, appears to be a threat to the region`s ethnic geopolitics and territorial integrity of the countries with Turkish-spoken ethnicities. How can one analyze the logic of Pan-Turkism in terms of the way of conceptualization of nationalism and, mutually, come up with solutions to overcome it? To respond to this principal question, the paper hypothesizes that the Pan-Turkist expansionism emanates from its ideological nationalism built on an ethnic-cultural conception of the nation. This conception results in irredentism and agitation of separatism in Turkish-spoken ethnics of the region and, specifically, Iran. On the contrary, neutralization policies can be reached by adopting a civil approach to nationalism and the political perception of the nation. The paper constructs a combinative theoretical framework to justify the hypothesis. The framework is constituted of the relation between ‘ideology and practice’ and the binary of ‘ethnic–civil’ approaches to nationalism. The present study was conducted based on library resources and data analysis was conducted using a descriptive-analytical method.

Protracted or intractable ethnic conflicts are a type of clashes that, despite fluctuating levels of violence, seem to have no foreseeable resolution. An example of such a conflict is the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) crisis in Turkey. Despite its four-decade history and significant political and social impacts on the country, there appears to be no clear end in sight. The persistence of these conflicts not only jeopardizes the security of the conflict-ridden nation but also has a ripple effect on neighboring countries, draining their resources and hindering their development and prosperity. This paper aims to comprehend these enduring ethnic conflicts and analyze the factors and causes influencing them, using the PKK as a case study.

When it comes to the causes of ethnic conflicts, there are numerous theories and models, but their universality and comprehensiveness are often questioned. For instance, Ted Robert Gurr proposed four categories: salience for ethnocultural identity, incentives for action, dynamics for protracted conflicts, and capacity for action, each with its own facets and dimensions. Another scholar, Stuart J. Kaufman, believes that the outbidding of ethnic elites and their manipulation of ethnic symbols play a significant role in inciting hostility against the government or other ethnic groups. Shiping Tang, on the other hand, considers the four master drivers: emotion, interest, capability, and opportunity. As for the prolongation of conflicts, James Samuel Coleman identifies four dimensions: the context of the conflict, the issues at stake, the relations among ethnic groups, and the processes, outcomes, and consequences of the conflict.This paper proposes a model based on the philosophical principle that “the persistence of an effect is contingent on the persistence of its cause”. According to this model, the perpetuation of dissatisfaction or the emergence of new dissatisfaction (either through the ongoing framing of contentious issues or their reframing) results in the perpetuation of the cycle of violence and revenge. This situation is further exacerbated by the enduring presence of international supporters or the emergence of new backers. Concurrently, these conditions solidify the geopolitical factors that have played a role in initiating and perpetuating ethnic conflicts.

The PKK emerged during the radical period of the 1970s in Turkey. This group highlighted the need to secure the national and ethnic rights of the Kurds, in addition to addressing the underdevelopment of Kurdish regions. The initiation of armed conflict by this group provoked a strong governmental response, leading to forced displacement, the declaration of a state of emergency, and an escalation in violence. Consequently, a broader segment of Kurdish society was drawn into the conflict.Despite the fulfillment of some Kurdish demands during Erdogan’s tenure, particularly in the early years, the PKK and affiliated groups introduced new demands and a fresh framework of issues and conflicts. This group maintains its financial resources by engaging in smuggling and a variety of illicit activities. It has gained international supporters, in part due to the rise of ISIS and the need for extra-regional powers to leverage the PKK forces in combating it. By establishing a monopoly over Kurdish representation and eliminating potential competitors, the group has managed to maintain its position in the political landscape of Kurdish society and Turkey. Meanwhile, the geopolitics of the Kurdish regions remain relatively unchanged. On the other hand, the limited control exerted by Turkey’s neighbors over the country’s southern borders has not impeded border crossings, thereby reducing the effectiveness of the Turkish forces’ military pursuit of the PKK group.

The Middle Eastern developments of the twenty first century, in their socio-political and economic dimensions, have changed the political equation of the region and have brought about many new issues in its research landscape. The question of the new brands of political Islamic trends is one important dimension of such new research. The Iraqi Kurdish region, beside its strategic significance, has witnessed the rise and the spread of such Islamist active political trends and their rivalry with the old secular ethnic nationalist political parties in electoral arena. However, despite the coming to power of different Islamist movements, particularly in the aftermath of the Arab spring, in the Arab world, such as Egypt and Tunisia, the Iraqi Kurdish region has not seen the victory of the Kurdish Islamic movements and political parties in regional parliamentary elections. Facing such important question, this descriptive-analytical article, claims that three important factors can explain the causes for the failure of the Iraqi Kurdish Islamist parties in gaining power through electoral politics: the dominance of ethnic nationalist ideas, the secular rival political trends and the presence of the foreign forces among which the US is the most important one

Post-Soviet Russia still does not have sufficiently strong government and therefore، ethnical and security threats have put Russian society in danger of disintegration and collapse. The main question of this paper is how Russian and Chechnyan identity and nationalism have distinguished and defined their distinction? This Paper claims that in the conflict with ethnic nationalism، Russian nationalism uses Slav myths and Orthodox religion in order to represent non-Slavic ethnicities and Muslims as fundamentalists and separatists and in fact، both sides define their identity by referring to threatening and security implications (Russia) and ethnical implications (Chechnya). This article tries to show that this representation of the other as separatist and Slavic-Orthodox myths are identity based، and according to a modeling metaphor that corresponds to both Russian and Chechnyan metaphor schema. The method used in this paper، is the discourse analysis method.

The approval of the Constitution of Iraq in 2005 and formation of a federal government and consequently the establishment of the autonomous region ofKurdistanhave led a considerable impact on the adjacent countries. Due to the neighborhood of theKurdistanwith the Kurdish area of our country as well as their cultural and ethnic ties some preparations have been made for soft threat against the Islamic Republic of Iran. The signification of Kurdish culture and identity in line with pan Kurdism, and promotion of the level of political, cultural and economic demands despite the existing economic limitations in our country are among soft threats posed against the security ofIran. The main objectives of the present paper, based on descriptive-analytical method, are to study the commonalities between the Kurds of the two countries, find out the soft power of Kurds, and review the history of the struggles and longstanding claims of some Kurdish parties for realization of Great Kurdistan. The main focus of the present paper is to study the developments in Iraqi Kurdistan within the framework of soft threat against the Islamic Republic of Iran which is a new endeavor. Hence, the main question of the present paper is: what soft threats the recent developments in Iraqi Kurdistan pose against the security ofIran? The hypothesis of the present paper is: due to cultural, identity, and ethnic as well as the soft power of Kurdistan, the autonomy of the Iraqi Kurdistan, on the side of their activities to promote the Kurdish identity, poses soft threat toIran.

In the era of globalization، there have been changes in the international system which، in turn، have laid the ground for ethnic groups’ utilization. Over such epoch، states which promoted a kind of dependency on specific national society، through educational and bureaucratic system، were challenged by subnational and transnational groups. The processes of globalization have weakened the ties between governments and citizens، and if a fundamental solution to the ethnic clashes in multi-ethnic countries is not worked out، the risk of divergence and disintegration of such countries is likely. This paper has attempted to assess the impact of global trends on ethnic issues. In this respect we studied new requirements that concern Iranian ethnic issues and their relation government. In respect of theoretical framework، this paper is not limited to only one analytical framework but it uses an analytic-compound framework.

Constitution in every country is as consequence of national identity, will & request of its people which illustrates position & relation of people to each other & to political system and ideals of the country. NONETHELESS within the Constitution of some countries, there are a segregative & herarchical lookout to people and also a kind of ethnical dependency. so that constitution will be analyzed to answer following two discovery questions: 1- What nareprinciple igredients of Iran national identity within constitution?the essence of these are natural or prossess 2- Does constitution observes to all pillars unisously or exclusively For answering to research questions, at the first three main & domain framework in definition and igredients of national identity & determining the indicators of such a these identity in eachhas been considered. Finally with analyzing the constitution on the base of the indicators we resulted to that principals of Islamic republic of Iran constitution refuses nationalism ethnical-racial indicators such as elitism & emphasise to distinguished unit natural identity, racial excellence, ethnical parties, politics of equal maker identities,past hntrested, limitted duty to ethnical state. The constitution has indicators like dynamic indexes, citizens basic rights, cultural management(segregation trend to minority), future-oriented identity & preversive duty in frame of constructive relation of nation- Islamic community(Ummah).

This article aims to explore the place of ethnicity and ethnocentrism as a security variable in the national security studies in multi-ethnic societies. In this respect, the study of the approach adopted by the modernization theorists and the Marxist theoreticians during the Cold War demonstrated that they lacked a realist conception of the political and security importance of ethnic nationalism and the considerations related to ethnic diversity. With the intensification of ethnic conflicts in the last decade of the Cold War particularly following the collapse of the East Bloc and the extensive security impact of such domestic and regional conflicts, the status of ethnic nationalism has gained further prominence in national security studies and, as a factor explaining the national security issues of the Third World Countries was included among the major crises like political legitimacy and the capacity of policy-making. Finally, the study of the views expressed by the national security theorists in the Third World countries demonstrated that ethnic nationalism could be one of the most important sources of political and social threats posed to weak states.