Migration of Poshtekooh Residents to Iraq during the Qajar and Pahlavi Periods and Analysis of Measures Taken for Their Return

A large number of people from Poshtekooh Ilam immigrated to Iraq during the Qajar and Pahlavi periods. They are referred to as "Feili Kurds". At various times, they sought to return to their homeland by sending petitions to the Iranian authorities and appointing lawyers and numerous references to the Iranian consulates and embassies in Iraq. Some of the rulers of Poshtekooh and Iranian officials also sought to return this group of immigrants to Iran; therefore, the issue of the present article is: What measures did the elders of the immigrants and the Iranian officials take to bring them back, and to what extent have these measures been effective? The data of the study were collected and analyzed using archival documents and library resources.Despite the fact that the part of Poshtekooh immigrants who remained on their Iranian citizenship asked the Iranian authorities to remove the obstacles to their migration in Poshtekooh area so that they could return to their homeland without fear, what happened in practice was that the rulers and officials of the central government of Iran took limited measures to repatriate this group of immigrants; hence, they and their survivors remained in Iraq until the Ba'ath party expelled many of them to Iran in a very pathetic situation in several stages.