Wot? They don't seem to be fully Indo-European nor pure proto-Indo-Iranian
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Who cares lmao.
Philologist J.P. Mallory argues that "As an ethnic designation, the word [Aryan] is most properly limited to the Indo-Iranians, and most justly to the latter where it still gives its name to the country Iran.[4]
Scholars point out that, even in ancient times, the idea of being an "Aryan" was religious, cultural and linguistic, not racial.[9][10][11]
Any Gilak GEDmatch results?
Gilak Y-DNA distribution based on 64 samples from the Gilan province (simplified by me)
E1b 3.2%
G1 1.6%
G2 14.1%
H 1.6%
I1 1.6%
J1 12.5%
J2 23.5%
L 4.8%
Q 1.6%
R1* 3.1%
R1a 9.4%
R1b 20.4%
R2 3.1%
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3399854/
Central Iran has a desert that divides the country (east and west ). Zagros mountains are the wall that separates Iran from the Arab world.
https://www.freeworldmaps.net/asia/iran/iran-map.jpg
East Iran is sparsely populated. The only area that is heavily populated is NE Iran ( Mashhad, Nishapour, etc), and this population connects Iran to Central Asia and Afghanistan. There are couple of secondary population centers in the east inhabited by Bloachis and Sitanis ( Zabolis)
Persians and Persian language are from SW Iran and it expanded north towards Ray ( Tehran and North East towards Mashhad and Nishapur and later on towards Herat, Balkh, Samarkand, Bukhara, etc through the process of elite dominance mainly. I suspect Medes and Azeri are probably closely linked but also Persians from Ray, Ecbatana ( ie Tehran and Hamadan ).
Hamadan of today is populated by Persians (75%) and Azeris (25%).