Seid Mehdi ghoreishi, the representative to Iran’s Suprem Leader in Urmiya, Province of west Azerbaijan has admitted during an interview with UrumNews Agnecy that during the Gulf war more than 1 million Iraqi Kurds took refuge in West Azerbaijan province. Mr. Ghoreishi said that Iran had collaborated with Kurdish region of Iraq before and during the war and assisted them in many ways. Now he expects the Kurdish region controls its borders and prevents the terrorist groups from entering Iran.
Iranian government deliberately provided refuge to Iraqi Kurds within last 3 decades to alter the demography of Province of West Azerbaijan and trigger land claims and disputes between the Kurdish refugees and the native Turks in the region.
While the kurds were being persecuted and displaced by Saddam Hussein of Iraq people of South Azerbaijan accepted Kurdish refugees with open arms and assisted them to settle in the cities and villages of Azerbaijan. However, some Kurdish groups have made land claims against their kind hosts. Pejak, Comele and Democrat Party of Kurdistan have made frequent land claims against South Azerbaijan.