As the clerical regime in Tehran faces a deepening crisis of legitimacy, a familiar figure has reemerged in Western policy debates: Reza Pahlavi, the son of the late shah.

To some in Washington, he appears to offer a ready-made alternative to the current system. But for many Iranians, particularly Kurds, Balochs, and Azeris, the prospect of a Pahlavi restoration is not a solution — it is a potential trigger for renewed internal conflict.

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The case for restoring the monarchy often rests on a sanitized nostalgia for pre-1979 Iran. Yet for Iran’s ethnic nationalities, the Pahlavi legacy is closely associated with forced centralization and political repression. In 1946, under the Pahlavi crown, the short-lived Kurdish Republic of Mahabad was crushed and its leaders executed.........

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