The Effect of Turkmen’s Socio-Cultural Factors on the National Security of the Islamic Republic of Iran

Iran is a country with numerous ethnic groups located in the four corners of the country and they play an important role in the security of the country and national solidarity. The prerequisite of the national unity in Iran is the unity among the ethnic groups and the central government. The Turkmen Iranians living in the north and northeastern parts of the country are racially, lingually and socially different with the other compatriots, but the difference has not prevented the interactions of this people with other Iranians, except in those cases where the internal or external factors contributed to increasing the contradictions and differences existing. Considering the importance of the effect of the Turkmen people on the national security of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the quiddity of this (positive or negative) effect has become an important and necessary question. This paper, written by the library-documentary approach and the descriptive-analytical approach based on the Copenhagen Security Theory, relies on the hypothesis that relying on the social and cultural distinctions of the Turkmen along with belonging to the elements of national culture have had a positive role in national security of the Islamic Republic of Iran. According to the research findings, the Turkmen have always considered themselves part of the Iranian people, as evidenced by the cultural and social activities of elites, religious clerics and people of this race in order to preserve the unity and convergence of the people of the region with Iran’s nation. By this description, it should be said that the cultural and social distinctions of the Turkmen and their interest in maintaining their ethnic and indigenous traditions have always been part of the elements of the national culture.