Agonism

Multiethnic identities in any country can have a dual function; on the one hand, they can strengthen national unity and on the other hand, they can become a trump card in the hands of foreigners to undermine the national security and territorial integrity of that country. In the meantime, the central government plays a decisive role in determining how the ethnic groups living in the country function. In the present study, two completely different approaches to the way of interacting with ethnic identities, namely the Pahlavi government and the Islamic Republic, are examined. Also, a case study will address the way the two aforementioned governments interacted with the Kurdish people, and in this way, the question of what position national identity and ethnic identity had in the two aforementioned periods will be answered. The research data were collected using a library method and analyzed using a comparative method. The research findings indicate that the adoption of an antagonistic approach by the Pahlavi government, which was aimed at achieving Iranian national unity and strengthening their national cohesion, led to the central government's efforts to eliminate ethnic identities, and the cultural policymaking of the Islamic Republic, by adopting an agonistic approach, accepted the concept of ethnic identities as one of the indelible realities of Iranian society.