Measuring the sense of belonging to the land among different ethnic groups of Golestan province and its impact on national security

The importance of the issue of ethnicity is such that it can guarantee or threaten the national security of countries. Iran is an ethnically diverse country, and the distinguishing features of ethnic groups in this country are mostly focused on the components of racial, linguistic, religious and cultural diversity. The residence of Iranian ethnic groups mainly in the border areas and adjacent to their co-speaking country provides a suitable ground for ethnic crises and affecting the country's national security; Therefore, considering the ethnic diversity in Golestan province and the border of this province with Turkmenistan, the purpose of this research is to examine the components of the sense of belonging to the land among different ethnic groups that affect national security. The research method is descriptive-analytical in nature and practical in terms of purpose. The data was collected by survey method and based on questionnaire and field observations. The number of the statistical population (1093259) includes all ethnic groups of the province and the sample size is 384 according to Morgan's table. The findings of the research show that among the different ethnic groups of Golestan province, the Turkmen ethnicity has the strongest and highest inter-ethnic interaction based on the sense of belonging to the land, with Kendall's coefficient (0.870) and Kruskal Wallis' average rank (193.95), and Sistani ethnic groups, Kazakhs, Turks and Baloch are in the next ranks. The result is that despite the fact that different ethnic groups live in the same geographical area, from the point of view of these ethnic groups, cohesion and solidarity between ethnic groups, while increasing interactions between themselves and other ethnic groups at the provincial level, increases security in the country.