Schlagwort: Iranian Opposition

The Iranian tragedy

Dear reader!

The last four years of the Trump-administration exposed one thing for sure: The failure of the Iranian opposition to finally overthrow the mullah-regime and make Iran a functioning democracy and a state of law.

Instead, one could be witness to grotesque delusions of grandeur, including the desire voiced by some completely unhinged Pan-Iranists to make the Crimean-peninsula (Obviously Ukrainian), Derbent (A city in Russia) and Egrisi/Lazestan (West-Georgia), part of greater Iran, de facto reviving the failed Persian empire. These delusions of grandeur were paired with an equally bizarre, attempt of self-victimization and the blaming of others for the very own failures and shortcomings of the people of Iran.

It was like an endless re-run of “My Uncle Napoleon”, just with more scapegoats, that Persian chauvinists could blame their own calamity for. Among these scapegoats, there were, unsurprisingly, Arabs, Turks, Russians and, of course, because of the infamous saying, the English. But also, as a Georgian, I got blamed too for the contemporary problems of Iran, either for the constant drought and the water-crisis that is re-occurring issue, since, according to Iranians “every Gorji is a Dosti” and Georgians stole the water from Iran to build hydro-electric plants in the Caucasus mountains and now there is drought in the Iranian heartland, but also for the Islamic Revolution and the Chain-Murders. Because if the treaties of Golestan and Turkmanchay wouldn’t have happened, neither would have the Islamic Revolution and the Chain Murders. So, the last 300 years or so of Iranian misery is actually the fault of Georgians. Got it!

But of course, all these comical accusations will not solve one single topic, that haunts Iran and the Iranian people currently. Rather, all of these makes it, painfully obvious, that certain Iranians are just as bad as the regime and all they are capable of is the millennia old strategy of alienating people, burning down bridges and insulting potential allies in lieu of taking accountability of what is going on in Iran and among the Iranian people.

The only few, who benefit from this rather peculiar failure of the opposition, is the regime of the Islamic Republic and its thugs, who, as of now, plan to install a Pasdar/Revolutionary Guard, as the next president and potentially even make Ebrahim Raisi, a man who rose to notoriety, because of his involvement in the mass-killings of 1988, and was therefore rightfully dubbed as a murderer and hardliner, the new Supreme Leader after Khamenei’s certain departure to hell.

Therefore, the Iranian tragedy can sadly continue with people like us bearing, at the very least, witness to this sad theater of incompetence, indifference and sadly also delusions, that fuel this drama in front of our very eyes. This until certain Iranian stop indulging in delusions of grandeur and rather pitiful attempts of self-victimization and actually overthrow the regime of the ayatollahs, so Iran can become a prosperous nation, a functioning democracy and a state of law, where everybody, can get a seat at the table.

Interview with Reza Mohajer

Dear readers,

I had the great pleasure to interview the scholar and activist, Dr. Reza Mohajer* on  the ongoing reign of terror of the Iranian regime and what needs to change for an actual regime-change.  Here are the three main-questions, that needed long overdue answers.

1) How could it happen, that the regime can celebrate their forty years reign of terror?
The revolution in 1979 was collaboration between all groups who sought freedom, social justice and independence. Khomeini hijacked the revolution and used that opportunity to establish his vision of a theocratic state. He killed thousands of activists from leftist, nationalist and other groups in the process. The end result was a Islamic regime based on extreme interpretations of sharia law. The Islamic regime benefited from the hostage crises and cultural revolution which they closed universities for a few years to islamicize universities. When Saddam Hussein attacked Iran in 1981 a war began which lasted for 8 years making it a great opportunity for the regime in Iran to oppress the opposition and establish its new theocratic framework. Because of the absence of political parties inside of Iran and strong opposition from the outside creating external pressure enabled the regime to establish the idea of reform as an alternative to change. They were able to control the society while reducing the demand for democracy for over two decades. Finally because of corruption, nepotism, authoritarian rules, suppression, economic problems and power of ICTs (information communication technologies) majority of people understand that reform is not answer because it will not allow for change to be possible. Iranian society believes that for there to be change the whole system of current regime must be toppled. For 40 years people fought for their rights as much they could. Massive social movements in Iran under this Theocratic regime, challenged it and showed people’s demand for change. There are three major social movements in recent history, the student movement in July 1999, Green Movement in 2009 and Anti poverty movement in December of 2017 to January 2018.

2) What needs to be different for a regime change?
Iran’s Contemporary history for change is based on social movements. Change has to happen with Iranian people. They need to be united for a an independent grassroots movement to demand regime change from across the country to unify all civil society so every social movement and NGO is included which share common goals based on non-violent principles and secular democracy. They must also demand international relations based on the nation’s interest and world peace.

3) Who would you like to see in charge in Iran?
What we need is the right system which has to be a secular democracy regime and respect human rights values. We want to have democratic regime run by people with free elections. Iranians want to have a democracy run by the people not by a person or group. It is an inter-generational dream starting from the 1905 constitutional revolution.

*Reza Mohajer is a scholar, who holds in PhD in political science from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He wrote the book: „Live Generation: Iran`s 1999 Student Uprising that opened the Door for Secular Democracy“ (New York; iUniverse, 2010) and is currently writting his new book.

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