The Iranian Azeri Elites: Regional and National Identity

This article discusses the views of the Azeri elites towards the national and regional identity during the three eras of the first and second Pahlavis, as well as the IRI. They are divided into three categories of Marxists, modernists (non - Marxists) and sectionalists. In order to assess their viewpoints, an effort is made to study the representatives and outstanding figures of each category.
It is concluded that the Marxist elites have shown the utmost ethnic tendencies. Ethnically driven elites, meanwhile, were most deeply effected by the foreign sources. Ethnic tendencies of sectionalists were mostly affected by other factors including also the political rivalries at the national level.