Kurdistan’s Position in the Five Civil Reconstruction Programs: Interventions and Results

Within the format of five civil reconstruction-economic programs, second Pahlavi sought renovation of the Iranian society during 37 years of his sultanate. He intended to transform Iran into a modern country by the support of petroleum incomes and the US within a short period of time through taking advantage of the western countries’ experiences but these programs could not place Iran amidst the developed countries in practice. Military-political goals, direct interventions by the Shah himself and the governing body, absolute preference of the industrial-technological development over the agricultural development and hastiness in development can be realized as part of the factors that drove the civil reconstruction programs away from optimal effectiveness. Efforts have been made in this historical-analytical research to make use of the library resources for finding an answer to this question as to what position has Kurdistan been enjoying in the second Pahlavi’s civil reconstruction programs considering the fact that, as one of the deprived and peripheral provinces, it has had a lot of natural capacities for development? It will be also investigated that what results have been followed by the implementation of these programs in Kurdistan? The study findings indicated that the centralist, individual-oriented and rentier nature of the second Pahlavi deprived the tribal and peripheral provinces such as Kurdistan from their opportunity of development and reconstruction. Resultantly, Pahlavi’s modernization was followed in Kurdistan by negative and anti-developmental outcomes like the expansion of suburbanization in the cities, deepening of the class gaps, intensification of the ethnicity-based nationalism and security-driven governance.