Wednesday, October 17, 2007

150 Years Under Putin

Putin in Persian means the boot, and '150 Years under Putin' is the title of an article by Iranian satirist, Ebrahim Nabavi, meaning 150 years under the boot and with obvious reference to Putin's visit to Tehran.

Nabavi himself was an active revolutionary who helped bring the clerics to power in 1979. In return for his revolutionary efforts, Nabavi enjoyed a series of official positions, amongst them, in the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, the Ministry of Interior and he was also the chief executive of channel 2 in the Islamic Republic of Iran State TV Broadcasting. However revolutions devour their own children, and Nabavi in the late 90s became one of those devoured children.

In '150 Years Under Putin', Nabavi re-examines how his generation were always encouraged to shout 'Death to America, Death to England and Death to Israel' but never anything against Russia and he lists a series of historic facts on how Iran has suffered so much from her Russian northern neighbour.

The gist (not a word by word translation) of Nabavi's article is this:

- Iran lost a great part of its territory to the Russians after years of war between the incompetent Qajar kings and the powerful Tsarist Russian armies.
Conclusion: Death to America, Death to England, Death to Israel

- During Iran's constitutional revolution that demanded to put a limit on the king's powers and establish an elected parliament, the constitutionalists seeked refuge in the British embassy. The Russians on the other hand, allied with the new despot Qajar king, bombed the newly built parliament building while the deputies were inside. Further support for the despot king meant Russian troops pouring into Iran and killing thousands of Iranian freedom fighters.
Conclusion: Death to America, Death to England, Death to Israel

- The Communists came to power in Russia and decided to establish a republic in Gilan, a northern province of Iran. In effect they tried to secede another part of our integral territory.
Conclusion: Death to America, Death to England, Death to Israel

- Reza Shah, the 'bloodthirsty dictator' - as Iranian Communists refer to him - founder of the new Pahlavi dynasty, arrested 53 Communists in total during his 16 year reign. One of them, Dr. Taghi Arani, was killed in prison but the other 52 went to Russia and there they were either killed or exiled or lived in misery and poverty for the rest of their lives and yearned to return to Iran.
Conclusion: Death to America, Death to England, Death to Israel

- During the Second World War, Iran was occupied by allies and was used as a bridge to send aid to Stalin. When the war ended, Americans and the British left as was agreed, but the Russians stayed and wanted to secede Azerbijan from the rest of Iran this time.
Conclusion: Death to America, Death to England, Death to Israel

- Mossadiq was appointed by the 2nd Pahlavi king, as the Prime Minister, and he led the drive for nationalisation of Iranian oil. Because Mossadiq was anti-Soviet, the Russians labeled him as an English lackey, and when it was too obvious that Mossadiq was not an English lackey they labelled him as an American lackey. The Soviet backed puppet Tudeh Party, demanded all Iran's oil should be nationalised except that in the North which was run by the Russians! After Mossadiq was toppled, the Soviet Union was the first to recognise the new government. Many Tudeh Party members fled to Russia. Again they encountered desperate conditions, some were imprisoned and some had to toe the Soviet Party line to the letter in order to have a basic living standard.
Conclusion: Death to America, Death to England, Death to Israel

- The White Revolution or the Shah's program of reforms took place. Women were given the right to vote and feudal landlords had to pass the ownership of their land to the peasants and divide it amongst those who worked on the land. Workers were given a share of the profits on top of their wages. Army recruits were given the choice to serve as literacy corps, Health and Hygiene corps or Agricultural corps. The reforms were backed and encouraged by the Americans.
Conclusion: Death to America, Death to England, Death to Israel

- Shiite clerics came to power in 1979, US embassy was occupied, Israeli embassy ceased to exist but the Russian embassy got bigger and bigger. The Soviet backed puppet Tudeh Party were told to back Khomeini and the clerics. The new theocracy started a mass arrest of Iranian Marxists including the Tudeh party leaders and members and most of them were executed. Russia maintained good relations with the Ayatollahs and never complained about the massacre of Iranian Communists. Some Marxists fled to Russia where they suffered great hardship. Those who were lucky, managed to escape again and flee to Western Europe and America, where they now enjoy comfortable lives.
Conclusion: Death to America, Death to England, Death to Israel

- Saddam started a war against Iran. Saddam was pro-Soviet. His weapons were all Russian made. Iranians resisted the Iraqi aggression with the remnants of the US weapons they had from before the 1979 takeover of the country by the clerics.
While we shouted long live Palestine and death to American Saddam, Russia, the PLO, Cuba and the Socialist camp backed Saddam.
Islamic Republic resorted to buy arms from Israel.
Finally the US toppled Saddam.
Conclusion: Death to America, Death to England, Death to Israel

- The Soviet Union collapsed and the countries surrounding the Caspian Sea became many. Our share of the Caspian Sea was reduced further and further from 50% with the full backing of the Russians.
Conclusion: Death to America, Death to England, Death to Israel

Now Putin (the boot) comes to Tehran, so that we can be further trampled on by the Russian boots as we have been in the last 150 years.
Conclusion: Death to America, Death to England, Death to Israel
----

Precisely my thoughts when we organised this protest outside the Russian embassy last year on the anniversary of the liberation of Azerbijan from the Soviet yoke.
VOA Persian however declined to give coverage to our protest and the points we were raising. Perhaps many of their staff still believe Death to America, Death to England, Death to Israel :))

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

A government that claims to champion the cause of Islam, is welcoming the butcher of Chechnya! Obviously the Chechen Muslims were indispensable.

Anonymous said...

Please watch yesterday's VOA roundtable program with Baharloo. A caller from Iran rang and asked why Fakhravar has been boycotted by VOA. They cut her off and Baharloo didn't know what to say, so he turned to his guest Ali Afshari and asked him to respond. Afshari duly said, the question was addressed to you. Baharloo then lied through his teeth that there is no such boycott of Fakhravar on VOA! Liar!

VOA Persian has no policy of educating the Iranian public. It sees itself as a mere news broadcasting agency and a list of closed circle friends who are invited for a chat and a cup of tea and may be a snort. So don't be surprised if they do not cover protests by Iranian ex-pats.

Bahramerad said...

Potkin, Thank you — what a good translation of this piece written by Nabavi. Well, done.
I suppose Ahmadi malijack, and his Daddy Khamenei, who was educated in Patrice Lomomba University in Moscow, had a good chin-wag with their boss the Jackboot stager form Leningrad.
I hear he delivered a special massage to them that said — 'Keep it up, we will support you till the end.'
Well, when it is all said and done and the mullahs are sent to the dustbins of history, we will remember how Stalin came to Iran in 1943 and left a mess in Azerbaijan and Kurdistan which the Americans had to come in and clear it up, and how this modern version of him came to Tehran in 2007 and caused a bigger mess of shit for the people of Iran and how the Americans now have to come back in to clear it all up once again.
Conclusion; .....................

Winston said...

Great Post... I am posting it on digg.com

Nicely said!

Anonymous said...

Great article.

Anonymous said...

Brilliant piece :-)))

Louise said...

Indeed a great post.

(Thanks, Winston, for sending me here.)

Marzouq the Redneck Muslim said...

Excellent post!

Thanks Louise for sending me here.

Salaam eleikum!

Marzouq the Redneck Muslim said...

VOA needs to be more effective.

blank said...

What an excellent work. Thank you for posting it.

Brian H said...

Hm, let's see how the logical chant would work:
"Death to Russia, Death to China, Death to Cuba and Venezuela!"

Has a certain ring to it, no?

Brian H said...

Oh, just FYI: in your profile, you say the "scurge" of mullahs. But there is no such word. Perhaps "scourge" is what you mean?

SERENDIP said...

Most excellent potkin jan. More articles and analysis of this sort is needed to educate the American useful idiots.

Anonymous said...

american useful idiots? thanks for being close minded