Kazakh Iranians

[sarmat]

Jun 9, 2012 21:29:16 GMT 3 @persianora said:

Dorood!

So, I've been reading about the small, but healthy, Kazakh community of Iran. Apparently, there are at least 10,000 Kazakh Turks living in Iran, specifically the city of Gorgan, in the province of Golestan.

Kazakh immigration to Iran occurred in three (or four) waves. The first major wave occurred during the establishment of the Soviet Union. Many anti-communists living in Kazakhstan fled their homes in order to avoid political persecution; most of them found shelter in Iran. The second major wave of immigration occurred immediately after the dissolution of the Soviet Union; this was mostly due to economic issues and famine. The second wave of Kazakh immigration to Iran was very unique because it included a sizable ethnic Russian community moving to Iran, as well. Finally, a third wave of immigration has occurred as recent as 2007, due to economic agreements between Iran and Kazakhstan.

The Kazakh community of Iran is by far the largest "Kypchak Turkic" community in any Iranian-speaking country.

Iranian-speaking countries and autonomous regions, such as Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Iraqi Kurdistan, have hosted minority Oghuz Turkic and Uyghur Turkic communities for many centuries. But there has rarely ever been an interaction between Iranian-speaking communities and Kypchak Turkic communities. So this makes the Kazakh community of Iran very unique and special.

There was no any Kazakh migration to Iran after the dissolution of the USSR, to say the least due to the famine. As there simly was no any faminte in Kazakhstan at that time. Of course, there wasn't any Russian migration either at that time. There was Kazakh migration to Iran in 1920th and 1930th, most of those people were moving to Turkey, but for some reasons decided to stay in Iran along the way. There was also Russian migration in early 1920th after the end of the Civil War in Russia. In fact, there were many Russians in Iran in the begining of the 20th century, since northern Iran was dominated by Russia at that time.

[H. İhsan Erkoç]

There were many Turkic immigrants to Turkey in the 20th century, most being Tatars, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and Uyghurs who fled their homelands due to political opression. There was a large wave of Eastern Turkestani Kazakh migration during the 1950s because those were rebels against Chinese rule in the region (there is a National Geographic article on this). Large numbers of Afghanistani Kyrgyz also migrated to Turkey during the 1980s because they were trying to get away from the war.

[ancalimon]

It is said that there are more than 40million Turkic people living in Iran. While I find it hard to believe (why don't they declare independence and join Azerbaijan if that is the case) still it makes me wonder if there is some truth in it.

[H. İhsan Erkoç]

Population polls in Iran are not made on ethnic origin so no one truely knows which ethnic group has which percentage.

[mamluk]

Jun 10, 2012 21:27:29 GMT 3 H. İhsan Erkoç said:

There were many Turkic immigrants to Turkey in the 20th century, most being Tatars, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and Uyghurs who fled their homelands due to political opression. There was a large wave of Eastern Turkestani Kazakh migration during the 1950s because those were rebels against Chinese rule in the region (there is a National Geographic article on this). Large numbers of Afghanistani Kyrgyz also migrated to Turkey during the 1980s because they were trying to get away from the war.

yes, my some relative fled these kazakhs from china to india, then turkey. i am very clearly know this history.