Kurds in Iran

Kurds in Iran (Kurdish: کورد لە ئێران, romanized: Kurdên Îranê,[5] Persian: کردها در ایران)[6] constitute a large minority in the country with a population of around 9 and 10 million people.

[21] Kurds have a strong cross-border ethnic linkage and few historical Kurdish rebellions were limited to the borders of a single country.

[23] Following the fall of the Republic of Mahabad in 1946, some of its leaders also fled to Iraqi Kurdistan where they were sheltered by the son of Sheikh Mahmud Barzanji.

However, Kurds were able to reinforce the cross-border political activity, when the First Iraqi–Kurdish War commenced in 1961, as the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KDPI) gave financial support and loyalty to their counterpart in Iraq, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), while KDPI themselves accessed spatial resources.

CIA documents from 1963 show that the KDP rebuffed support from KDPI due to the desire to maintain close relations with Iran.

[31] During the Iranian revolution, Kurdish nationalist political parties were unsuccessful in attracting support, who at that time had no interest in autonomy.