Citizens must be governed only with their own consent;

 

 

Centers of civilization have always been multicultural regions where people from diverse backgrounds meet and stimulate each other through dialogue. When two or more communities in a population see themselves as permanently divided and as having different interests, then relations between them cannot easily be resolved through regular democratic means, since even in democratic government one of the group may be permanently out voted. Baloch are one group, which is permanently out voted in centralised democratic or undemocratic Iran.

Policy makers who seek to hold Iran together should propose devolutionary reforms transferring decisions from Tehran to autonomous states, and so minimizing Tehran’s power before its too late. Persian chauvinism is not able or unwilling to understand minorities in Iran. By ignoring long-standing issues, such issues will not disappear but actually accumulate.

The cause of ethnic conflict always was authoritarian rule; collapse of such rule makes ethnic conflicts possible. The lid on ancient rivalries would take off long suppressed grievances, which will be settled, (Soviet Union and Yugoslavia are example of collapsed authoritarians rule). Iran is the next authoritarian rue on its way out. The Iran crisis is not confined to one regime. Crises in Iran are historic, and are always been fixed temporary such as the coup in 1927, 1955, and again the Islamic coup in1979. In 2005 Iran confronted the worst crisis she ever faced before 1927, long standing minorities issue and their self-determination. Are Iranian policy makers capable of handling minority’s issues in a democratic way? Else their quest for democracy will result in a democratic coup similar to next-door Pakistan?

Persian oppositions from left to central party, those that believe in democracy can minimize ethnic violence in Iran. The best course of action is to address ethnic problems early (although it is not early; the world has witnessed eruption of violence in Balochistan, Saravan, which resulted in 4 deaths and in Al Ahwaz more death, and violence in Kurdistan continued) before more bloodshed and violence erupt. The Persian majority has a number of alternatives to reduce state violence against minorities.

 

 Self-determination;

Self-determination concept is associated with democracy, the principle that citizens must be governed only with their own consent. Baloch are not governed with their consent.

The Baloch are victims finally rebelling after prolonged suffering and violations of their human rights and denial of their language, culture, and religion.

Persian chauvinism refusal to share power and privilege, and economically deprive and exploit the Baloch. Baloch look to Iran to provide security and promote economic prosperity. There is security in Balochistan, and there is economic prosperity as well. But Baloch have no security, government agencies are busy promoting inner tribal fight instead of promoting the economy, the result is people are dieing and the Persian exploit their resources for their personal benefit. 

 

Autonomy;  

Baloch must win autonomy in order to preserve their religion, language and other tradition and commitment to modernization.

“Woodrow Wilson, self determination meant both a) freedom from external coercion or alien domination; b) the right to meaning full participation in the political process or internal self-determination”. 

 

A more democratic world cannot be created by transferring power to the international level, but only by giving people more influence over the decisions that affect their own lives. The Baloch nationalism should suppose that such an objective could be attained by splitting states and giving local people more control, on basis of historic and cultural boundary. 

The principle of self-determination is supported as a means of guaranteeing people some control over the law by which their lives are regulated.

The UN General assembly had passed resolution favoring the right of people to self-determination. Self-determination could refer to autonomy, the independent, right to decide freely. There is no support for separatism where there is representative government and the rights of minorities are protected in the national state constitution.

Self-determination is justifiable in Iran where representative government is present but minorities face several human right violations. In Iran people are not free to choose their representative, a guardian council puts lists of candidates forward, people are free to vote but they are not free to choose.

  The Baloch live in a ‘mullahcracy’ Iran does not worry about voting, because nothing will change in the voting booth. When Iran becomes democratic, voting will also be important and different voting arrangement will make a difference in the results.

 

History;

Persian rightly or wrongly claims to have a long history, that history is based on Shah Nameh. Shah Nameh intention had never been to write Persian history, that book was a fictional book with no truth.

 Minorities have their history and myth.

Authoritarian regimes (Iran especially) suppress ethnic history, and in an effort to create their own political myths manipulate historical facts to suit their own purposes. Iranian regimes failed and are still failing to promote objective historical inquiry or scholarly standard of evidence in political discourse. 

 

The system of nation state;

 

For hundred of years the world has been divided into a patch work of states with clear boundaries. Every piece of land and every human being supposedly belongs to one of these entities, which are self contained within a hard shell.

European states were created as a system as early as 1648 yet the sense of nation hood did not arise at the same time everywhere.

Small European principalities were forged together to create centralized states with borders instead of the previous frontier. The new sovereign nation-states maintained armies and government and so forth.

Nation builders created national culture by creating a single unified language for each nation from one of the local languages, standardized its spelling and grammar and taught it in school throughout the new state.

 But in Iran’s case nation building started very late. The British created the modern Iranian state (the great game), and it wasn’t self-motivated by the Iranians. The Persians could not distinguish between an empire and a nation state; still today Iranians have no clear definition of a nation and nation state. Persians themselves were not educated any more than other minorities; culturally the Turk Azari and Arabs were much more advanced than the Persians. Baloch have kinship on the other side of the newly created border. Eastern Balochistan then recognized as a sovereign country under the protection of the British Empire, same as the Arabs, and Kurd. The Persians had created a standing army but they lacked money before 1955, after that it was too late to assimilate minorities. Persians did what they could do, bullying minorities, level their culture and language as backward, but minorities resisted and survived. 

 

Ideology;

 

Nationalism is not a complete ideology in the same sense as communism, Islam, Christianity; it does not suggest an action plan of universal scope. Nationalism only seeks to justify their own groups. Nationalism employs certain ideas, such as self-determination, separatism. Nationalism may be popular within the right, the left, and the center and liberal religious groups. Those who oppose self-determination are really undemocratic and allies of chauvinism.

 

Conclusion;

A consequence of humiliation inflected on minorities was 40 wars fought in 34 countries during 1996. It is wrong to blame nationalists for the violence that they bring since they have to react as victims of injustice. World opinion favors self-determination as a solution. Today the Baloch communities have refused to assimilate into Persia, and are fighting back, demanding full autonomy within the marked boundary with the Persians and the right to follow their own traditions and speak their own language. The Baloch aspire to hold exclusive jurisdiction over their territory, the Baloch want democracy and freedom of choice.

 

M.S   baloch_m_s@yahoo.se