Saeed Shokoohi; Asqar Safari
Abstract
Abstract
The 2017 Iraqi Kurdistan’s independence referendum and its results demonstrated that independence and secessionist Kurdish movements in the region would be a persistent political issue in the coming decades. Since their desire to become an independent country in geared in the fundamental ...
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Abstract
The 2017 Iraqi Kurdistan’s independence referendum and its results demonstrated that independence and secessionist Kurdish movements in the region would be a persistent political issue in the coming decades. Since their desire to become an independent country in geared in the fundamental right of Self-Determination, it is quite foreseeable that the countries which have considerable Kurdish minorities within their borders would encounter critical challenges on how to deal with their nationalist and secessionist desires. Iran is one of these countries. But the tendency among Iran’s Kurds to be an independent nation is quite lower than in other countries. The present paper seeks to answer this question: what’s the role of Paradiplomacy in dealing with the Kurds for Iran’s government. The findings of the article demonstrate that by boosting the role of sub-national identities, such as Kurds, and their participation in low-politics, Paradiplomacy can strengthen the social cohesion and social cohesion, in its turn, is one of the main impediments on the way of secessionism. At the same time, Kurds can help the Iranian government to reset its relations with the Kurdish population in the region.
