8 - Decades of Decline and Uncertainty

Summary

This chapter discusses the regional conditions that have shaped the framework, direction and content of different forms of mobilisation and conduct of the Iranian Kurdish movement from the 1990s to 2015. This analytical focus includes the activities of the political parties of Iranian Kurds based in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). This chapter explains why, during this period, the exiled (KRI-based) Iranian Kurdish movement experienced massive decline in its military and political activities. Taking the early 1990s as the starting point for the latest stage of the Iranian Kurdish movement, it is claimed that this phase was a product of comprehensive regional shifts with impacts on Iran’s domestic and regional policy. In addition it is highlighted that movement decline, misconducted crossborder interaction, thickening and diversification within the movement are among some features and hallmarks of this era’s Iranian Kurdish movement.