Current Edition About Subscribe The Jerusalem Center

Daily Alert Archive

Every Daily Alert Since 2002

Search

Search more than 90,000 news items by topic, author, or source.
Use " " to search for multiple words and phrases.

Trending Topics

May 18, 2012       Share:    

Source: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4230852,00.html

Iran's Ethnic Troubles

(Ynet News) Guy Bechor - Iran is a country of minorities, where no one sect boasts a majority. The Persians themselves are below the 50% mark, and the other minorities are interested in joining neighboring countries and have no intention of supporting a regime that oppresses them. The second-largest minority is the Azeri people, some 20 million citizens who make up about one-quarter of Iran's population, including supreme leader Ali Khamenei and opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi. Many Azeris would like to be annexed by neighboring Azerbaijan, their cultural homeland. Another large minority are the Kurds, whose dream is to desert Iran and join the great Kurdish homeland, once it's established. Other minorities include the Tajik people, who wish to join Pakistan, and the Sunni Arabs, who dream of establishing a Sunni state within Iran to be called Ahwaz. Some 33% of Iranians are Sunnis, including the Arabs and Kurds.

View the full edition of Daily Alert

Back to Archive

Subscribe to Daily Alert: