Department of Geography, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran
10.48311/jhs.2026.104774.0
Abstract
At the close of World War II, amid the Allied occupation of Iran and the concomitant weakening of the central government, the Kurdistan Democratic Party, led by Qazi Muhammad and backed by the Soviet Union, pursued a project of territorial divergence, framing it through the lens of ethnic agency. A discourse analysis, grounded in the theoretical framework of Laclau and Mouffe, is utilized in this research to analyze the articulation of this party's discursive components. The study investigates how these components construct the party’s demand for autonomy for Kurdistan within the territory of Iran, with a particular focus on how it engages in 'othering' vis-à-vis the nationalist discourse of the Pahlavi government. These two thinkers have extended the discourse analysis approach beyond the realm of linguistics and into the domain of politics, including studies on ethnic identity. This research reveals that the party sought to reclaim territory from the "standard language" by foregrounding the linguistic distinction of the Kurdish ethnicity from Persian, which serves as the official language of the central government, in its pursuit of regional autonomy. Furthermore, in differentiating itself from the Pahlavi government's monolithic rule, it sought to construct the metaphorical signifier of federalism's governmental efficacy to gain powers for administering the Kurdistan region's affairs within Iran's territorial boundaries. On the other hand, despite Soviet support for the party, its core discursive signifier gravitated toward the demand for autonomy and the rejection of separatism. This shift was due to several factors: the absence of a shared border between the Soviet Union and Kurdistan, the opposition of both Britain and the United States to the region's divergence, and the party's own reluctance to implement communist policies in Kurdistan.
lashgari,E. (2025). Discursive Components of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Constructing the Concept of Divergence from Iran at the End of World War II. (e28076). historical sociology, 16(2), e28076 doi: 10.48311/jhs.2026.104774.0
MLA
lashgari,E. . "Discursive Components of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Constructing the Concept of Divergence from Iran at the End of World War II" .e28076 , historical sociology, 16, 2, 2025, e28076. doi: 10.48311/jhs.2026.104774.0
HARVARD
lashgari E. (2025). 'Discursive Components of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Constructing the Concept of Divergence from Iran at the End of World War II', historical sociology, 16(2), e28076. doi: 10.48311/jhs.2026.104774.0
CHICAGO
E. lashgari, "Discursive Components of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Constructing the Concept of Divergence from Iran at the End of World War II," historical sociology, 16 2 (2025): e28076, doi: 10.48311/jhs.2026.104774.0
VANCOUVER
lashgari E. Discursive Components of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Constructing the Concept of Divergence from Iran at the End of World War II. historical sociology, 2025; 16(2): e28076. doi: 10.48311/jhs.2026.104774.0
historical sociology