Greater Iran?

Originally posted by Kerimoglu Dear Conservative,   I am sorry, but your post is very likely lack of arguments and facts. Let me explain my answer.   We would be "nation" and keep our identity, even if there were not any Russians. I do not know what you had in your mind when you wrote this, but I'd like to remind you that after 9-11 centuries, we owe our existence to Oghuz Tribes, rather than to Persia. After that time Iran, as an Identity did not belog to Persians untill early 20th century. Please to not pring up so called "Pan-Turkish" statements, but untill Abbas the 1st, 17th century, Azerbaijan has already a stable society, with lots of minorities.   I want to remind you that Saffavids official language was turkish during the reign of Ismail, Tehmasib and his grandsons.   Therefore, Iran, even though played an important role in the history of Caucasus before Turks and even After Turks, this role was not decisive among 10-17th centuries.   During the reign of Afshars, Gajars, Iran was not ruled by Persians, and its politics, society was massively influenced by Turks. Therefore I do not accept it that Iran was something else than a close-cultural neighbour. If you know the history of the Khanates Period, beginning from 1740's ending at first Persio-Russian war, you can understand it easily.   That is correct that Soviet Rejime hurt Azerbaijan and made up fake historians, politicians and so on. But Azerbaijani society, keeping its language, culture, religion, moral traditions, was able to keep its identity as well. I do not think, not being under Soviets, but under Iran, we would lose the things I counted above.   Look to South Azerbaijan-Northern Iran, where more than 20 million Azerbaijnis of Turkish etnicity live there.   Nijat

 

 
Iranian Azeris havent lost their language or traditions and are certainly not marjinalized in Iran if that is what you were implying in your last paragraph. Do you know that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is himself an Azeri from Tabriz? Azeris are some of the biggest supporters of the Islamic Republic in Iran - Maybe you are mistaking Iranian Azeri's identification with Islam and Islamic Republic over their ethnic identity as a sign of them 'losing' their culture but i can tell you that is all largely voluntary on their part and has nothing to do with them being apart of the larger Iranian nation.
 
As for Turkish being the official language under the Safavids i think you are again mistaken. The actual Safavid dynasty was Turkish-speaking but the administrative language of the Safavid realm was Persian. This is reflected by the fact that Safavid currency was all marked in Persian not to mention the patronage of Persian language and literature, communication with the Ottoman and Moghal courts in Persian, and so on. Also the civilian and administrative positions of the Safavid court were largely made up by Persians. It was the army during the early and middle periods that were made up mainly of Qezelbash confederation.
 
Another point to mention about the Safavids is that it was only by consent of the Persian people that they were able to rule Iran without risk of overthrow and rebellion from the Persian population. For this, the Safavids had to adopt Persian court customs and patronize the language, literature and culture of Persians - and utilize Persians in the court and administration. This is why the Safavids are considered an Iranian empire, not a Turkish one. Their court combined both Turk and 'Tajik' (Persian) into military and civilian roles.
 
Its similar with Nader Shah - He was an Afshar Turcoman from Khorassan. But before he could take the title of 'Shah' he had to play a long game of calling the shots from behind the scenes of power so as not to alienate the Persian population. He did that by recognizing the authority of puppet Kings claiming a continuation of the Safavid dynasty. When Nader Shah finally came out in the open and declared himself Shah he again took Persian titles and was influenced by Persian court customs. Likewise by the time Nader Shah consolidated his rule over Iran and began his assaults on the Ottomans, Afghans, Uzbeks and Moghals his army was multi-ethnic - The single largest contingent in numbers were Persians-Tajiks - Turcomans, Kurds/Lurs and later defeated and captured Afghans, Uzbeks and Turkmen made up the rest. I believe at one point there was also an Arab contingent in his army, buy they later switched sides and backstabbed him.

 

Altho one thing to mention about Nader Shah is that yes he was self-conscious about his Turkic ethnicity and spoke Turkish where he could. His life 'on the road' and on horseback was also reflective of his identification with the old ways of the steppe nomads.
 
But overall your comments - "After that time Iran, as an Identity did not belog to Persians untill early 20th century" & "During the reign of Afshars, Gajars, Iran was not ruled by Persians, and its politics, society was massively influenced by Turks" - are quite mistaken. Altho yes Turks did play a big role in Iranian politics, much like Iranian Azeris do now. But this was not in isolation or without the acceptance and support of Persians and other Iranians - who played equally important roles in the functioning of the Safavid and later era's.