A Window to the Fatherland

A Window to the Fatherland – Thursday 5 September 2019

We begin tonight’s edition of A Window to the Fatherland with Dr. Alireza Nourizadeh reading one of his poems from the book of his collected works.

Dr. Alireza Nourizadeh:

We continue the program with talking to our special guest of every Thursday, Dr. Mohsen Sazegara, for his views about news of Iran and the Middle East.

I was listening to Trump’s speech when he said he has saved several trillion dollars for the US in trade deals and that at the same time the Iranian regime has lost an equivalent amount under the sanctions and squandering the Iranian people’s wealth.

He then spoke directly to the Iranians and saidtheir miseries can come to an end tomorrow and they deserve much better than the dire situation they are in.

Mohsen Sazegara:

We need to look at the issue of peaceful protest and transition of power in Iran once again. Time and again the new generation of Iran criticizes my generation and asks us why did we follow a revolutionary path and armed struggle against the Shah, which led to a revolution whose consequences have been disastrous for our country.

With hindsight, looking back at the 1960s if you wanted to be regarded as an intellectual or educated person or a writer andwere not a revolutionary no body would take you seriously.

This was the time of the Algerian civil war, the Vietnam war and the Latin American revolutions. Even Mohammad Reza Shah hadcalled his land and social reforms as White Revolution. Even our religious opposition groups had taken up Marxist ideology.

All in all around 700 people were killed in street clashes during the anti-Shah demonstrations, which were the result of soldiers’ lack of experience on how to handle street riots. But the current regime deceitfully claims that more than 60,000 people were martyred for the victory of the revolution.

And this is the same regime that has executed 5000 Iranians in a matter of few days alone.

So the experience of the last half a century tells us that civil protest has twice the chance of ousting dictators and establishing democracy than revolutionary approach, which involves bloodshed and armed conflicts.

Dr. Alireza Nourizadeh:

You mentioned the new and young generation of Iran and one of them recently asked me if we were to have a referendum in Iran today how many people would vote for the continuation of the present regime?

I gave him a modest figure but he said I was wrong, as the figure would be far less.

He also reminded me that our generation was only asking for the Shah to leave without thinking what happens after he is gone, but this generation would not repeat your mistake.