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Monday
April 30, 2001

A saint compared to Ataturk

In Response to Peerooz's ["Self-government"] and Ms Sabety's ["Reza Shah was no Mossadegh"] letters about my view on Reza Shah ["Reza Shah's achievements"]; the main point of my letter was that in politics nobody is perfect and that in my opinion Reza shah did a lot more good than bad.

I never compared Reza shah to Dr. Mossadegh. In my opinion Reza Shah was a much greater man than Mossadegh. I only said; just because I like Reza shah, it doesn't mean that I hate Mossadegh.

Both these men are dead now and we can look at this a bit more objectively. Please print this sentence from Ms Sabety before I make my point; "Some may think the North-South railroad was worth having this kind of bully in power, but many of us don't. Of course when you have a rubber stamping parliament and an obedient army you can make a lot of changes."

Dr. Mossadegh was a member of the "rubber stamping" parliament which was discussing the North-South railroad and he was one of the very few who was against it. He was arguing that a "poor nation" does not need a railway and that an East-West railway was much better. (refer to life and political struggles of Dr. Mossadegh, Published by National Front).

Well, he and Ms Sabety are both wrong on both accounts. First that any nation who wanted to progress needed a railway and the North-South railway was the better route. And anyway Reza Shah would have built the East-West railway as well, had he not been deposed by the foreign powers.

I personally prefer the man who has the will to build railways. I don't know how these people claim that Reza Shah was illiterate and admired Hitler and Mussolini. And I don't want to judge the morality of taking land from Qajari princes and big landlords.

Both the above two compatriots criticized me for comparing Reza Shah to Ataturk and as Peerooz wrote; "Comparing Reza Shah with Ataturk, whom he tried to imitate is absurd. Ataturk never stole people's money, killed innocent opponents or establish a corrupt dynasty." Ms Sabety also said something on the same lines and implied that I don't know anything about history.

But it seems that they are the ones who don't know anything about history. For your information, Ataturk killed a lot of people. In only one incident the entire Greek population of Izmir was either massacred or had to swim to the safety of British and French ships. In all, two million Greeks were deported. The Kurds were also suppressed. Some of his early associates were also executed later on. Colonel Aref was one of them.

Ataturk was not and could not be a great democrat at those times of turmoil. He did not leave a dynasty because he was only married for a short time and had no children. He drank too much and was a womaniser. Compared to him, Reza Shah was like a Saint!

Incidently, Ataturk also forcefully unveiled the Turkish women and suppressed the mollas, and even went further and changed the Arabic script to Latin. But still, somehow, the Turks appreciate his modernization efforts. No wonder they are about to enter the European Union, while we are still struggling in the dark ages. And thousands of Iranian intellectuals are writing anti-Western things while enjoying life in Western countries.

Babak

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