Iranian Kazakhs live mainly in the Golestan Province in Northern Iran.[
][ پایگاه اطلاع رسانی استانداری گلستان ] The number of Iranian Kazakhs might have been slightly higher, because many of them returned to Kazakhstan after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, from where they had immigrated to Iran after the Bolsheviks October Revolution (1917).[ قزاق ]
Currently, the city of Gorgan contains 5,000 ethnic Kazakhs, who speak Kazakh language and Persian language on varying levels.
Origins
The first Kazakhs arrived from the territory of
Turkmenistan into the northeastern city of
Gorgan in 1929. Since then, Kazakh immigration has experienced three distinct waves. The first occurred with the creation of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. The second wave occurred with the fall of the Soviet Union, which saw the population of Kazakh Iranians swell significantly. Unlike the previous wave of immigration, these individuals were acculturated with the
Russians language, rather than
Kazakhs. The final wave has been ongoing since 2007 and consists of economic migrants arriving from the western provinces of
Atyrau Region and
Mangystau Region to the cities of
Gorgan,
Bandar Torkaman and
Gonbad-e Kavus.
Although mostly Sunni, many Kazakhs in Iran converted to Shia Islam after settling among Persian and Turkmen adherents of Shia Islam in Golestan.
[Peyrouse, Sébastien. Islam in Central Asia: Cultural Perspectives and Contemporary Challenges. Pp. 84. Lexington Books, 2007.][Olsson, Tord; Özdalga, Elisabeth; Raudvere, Catharina. Alevi Identity: Cultural, Religious and Social Perspectives. pp. 128. RoutledgeCurzon, 1998.][Akhavi, Shahrough. Religion and Politics in Contemporary Iran: Clergy-State Relations in the Pahlavi Period. Pp. 143. SUNY Press, 1980.] Shia Kazakhs were indistinguishable from Sunni Kazakhs except by religion.
[Tapper, Richard (ed.). Islam in Modern Turkey and Iran: Local and Global Perspectives. Pp. 98. I.B. Tauris, 2011.]
See also
-
Iran–Kazakhstan relations
-
Iranian Azerbaijanis
-
Iranian Turks
-
Kazakhs in Afghanistan
