Bakhtiar on democracy

Interview with Shapour Bakhtiar

26-Dec-2007
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Dorood bar Bakhtiar.........

by Anonymous222222222 (not verified) on

Bakhtiar was the only true leader who could have saved Iran. God bless his soul. He is truly missed. And damn the ones who were behind his killing....

Bakhtiar we miss you......


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Yazdi was the lynch master.

by Justice (not verified) on

I hope someone brings to the likes of yazdi and the rest of IRI gangsters the same type of lynching that they brought upon shah's generals and the rest of innocent iranians very soon. I hope I live long enough to see that justice is served upon each and everyone of them.
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Re: Yazdi

by Me! (not verified) on

John,
It looks like you are trying to misinform the Iranian public. Yazdi was a CIA puppet and had a crucial role in helping the US and England topple the Shah, and bring Khomeini in! Unfortunately, unless it is still part of their long term plan, the so called "green belt" they tried to create in area to contain the Russians has backfired!
Your misinformation on this site may be part of the plan also!


Rosie T.

Wiki isn't exactly nonsense, Teach, it's more a hodge-podge...

by Rosie T. on

of many differing views so that one can glean whatever one wishes from it. If one comes for an introduction to a topic, one can usually extrapolate from among the various views given and find something like a middle ground. If one comes with one's own agenda, as Carpenter seems to have,  one will see there what one wants to see.

Wiki is a work in progress and the organizers in the past couple of years have been doing a very good job of starting to monitor it against unscrupulous additions and deletions, as well as achieving coherence, even just comprehensibility, within an article from among the many contributors....but....it's going to take quite a bit of time...but the wiki organizers are serious, they're dedicated...and let's not forget the Internet itself is little more than a decade old. Give wiki time.  Wiki is a great experiment and if it succeeds knowledge will belong to everyone, not just to whatever powers that happen to be.


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John Carp. Wiki is non-sense.

by Teach (not verified) on

You must be very desperate to depend on Wikipedia and Madeline A. to conclude that shahs made no progress. If they say that pahlavis made no progress, then they must have made very serious progress. You seem to be pretty unfamiliar with iranian history and its progression during pahlavies, or are one of those many who have unexplainable animosity for the shahs. They had flaws, but even their truthful enemies are coming out lately one-by-one to attest to significant and major progress of iran during their reign. Denying that would deny yourself of truth and validity. They were just too progressive for their time (specially reza shah), that is why mullas got rid of them. Authoritarians, yes; but not progressive, absolutely not. Everything modern that you see in iran today is owed to those two shahs, despite the denial of so many of their enemies.


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Johnny, you argument is still childish

by Another Anonymous (not verified) on

Rosie is right, most of your argument is from suspicious sources with childish accusations. There are lost of sources which are impartial and tells you about pahlavis, their bads and their goods. For example, books written by iranian studies scholars from UCLA or Columbia. Read your own post again, it is demonizing reza shah because he was from a village. That is a self-defeating argument.
Reza shah was authoritarian, but at that juncture in iranian history iran had no better choice -- read about the first representatives in the first majles to see what kind of people he was dealing with. The best elected representative of people in majles looked like those in afghanistan parliament today. the worst of them were "kaleh-paz" (stew cook from bazaar, I am serious). Those people could do very little for iran. The genius of reza shah was that despite being bald (your accusation, not mine), from mazanderan (your damnation, not mine), and uneducated, he was very progressive and anti mambo jumbo, he knew what the ESSENTIALS were for iran.
Your problem is that you are brain-washed by your royal family to believe that 2 + 2 = 22 and it is probably past your learning age to re-learn that that is not true. The people around M.R. shah were the principal problem of the shah, as they focused on themselves and back-stabbing him, saying that "what does he have that I don't have", "why should he be shah and I should not", etc., rather then serving people.
Again both pahlavis deserve criticism, but on balance reza shah was the savior of iran from ghajar addicts and mohammad reza shah was a very decent ruler, at least much much much better than the "voted-in" leaders of IRI in the past 28 years or any ruler of ghajar dynasty.


Rosie T.

Wkipedia????????? Carpenter...come now...

by Rosie T. on

Wikipedia is a collective effort at approaching knowledge on an infinite array of topics; it is subject to constant editing and revision by whosoever cares to do so, and has only recently BEGUN to attain to a system where it can monitor itself succcessfully.  It's a VERY useful source to orient oneself on a topic but it's HARDLY authoritative.  At the end of the day, NO source is authoritative, but LEAST of all wikipedia....

Wikipedia:  MOST useful for an orientation but LEAST authoritative of reputable sources.

And PS who is disputing that the Pahlavis were authoritarian? NO ONE disputes this, least of all the Pahlavis themselves...What ARE you arguing, Hamvatanam, what ARE you arguing.....?


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What does Wikipedia say about Pahlavi?

by John Carpenter (not verified) on

"In 2000, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright stated, "In 1953 the United States played a significant role in orchestrating the overthrow of Iran's popular Prime Minister, Mohammed Massadegh. The Eisenhower Administration believed its actions were justified for strategic reasons; but the coup was clearly a setback for Iran's political development."
What does that mean?
That mean that there was no progress with the return of the Pahlavi!

Did I say that? No! Wikipedia said that.

Here is the site:
//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Reza_Pahlavi

What does wikipedia say about Reza Khan?
In the early stages of his life, Reza Shah was known as Reza Savad-Koohi, because of his birth place (see below). Later on, when he joined the military, he became known as Reza Khan, and later as Reza Khan Mirpanj (Persian: رضا خان میرپنج), his full military title at the time. Upon becoming minister of war, he was known as Reza Khan Sardar Sepah, which in Persian roughly means Reza Khan, head of the armed forces. Upon securing his position as the Shah of Persia, he chose the surname Pahlavi (surnames did not exist in Persia before this date, and were introduced as one of the modernization measures during his reign [6]). From then on, he was referred to as Reza Shah Pahlavi.
Identity Crisis? Yes. Reza Khan didn't know who he was.

Where is this cited?
//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reza_Shah

Reza Shah would discredit and eliminate his ministers whom he considered as his rivals.

We can conclude Reza Shah was a dictator.

And Mohammad Reza Pahlavi made no progress.

I did not say it. Wikipedia said it.

And wikipedia is a objective souce of facts.

there is absolutely no bigotry here.

face the facts.


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Johnny, using vulgarity still does not make you right.

by Another Anonymous (not verified) on

Johnny, you moved from from sex gossips, to threats, to eating pistachio, to nokare-bi-ekhtiar to demonize someone. Read your own piece here to see all the contradictions: you demonize bakhtiar based on a few days that he was in power and then silently demonize pahlavis using possible intentions of bakhtiar to demolish them. None of that makes any sense. Only your praise of Yazdi is telling as to where you come from.
You proved the cases for both of us:
You proved your case twice when you praised Yazdi many times. That tells a lot about your attitude and your thinking.
You proved my case by calling me a traitor. Coming from you (a Yazdi lover, sex gossiper, vulgar person) is an honor.
You are a child with childish arguments and childish logic and bigot towards pahlavis with very little to say. Now go eat your pop-corn in front of TMZ with your girlfriend, and drink your beer to your role model, doctor yazdi.


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Regarding Bakhtiar, Now-kareh bi-ekhtiar

by John Carpenter (not verified) on

Bakhtiar became the Shah's "Yes-Man in 1979".
Bakhtiar abandoned the "Nationalist Front".
And the "Nationalist Front" then expelled him.
Mehdi Bazargan was a close friend of Bakhtiar.
These two men, Bazargan and Bakhtiar used to eat pistachio nuts with Mossadegh all the time.
Bakhtiar accepted the Shah's offer as a temporary government by a Prime Minister. Had Bakhtiar been successful, Bakhtiar would have also abolished the Monarchy once and for all. I have many, many family members who are and were connected with the political scene in Iran before and after the Iranian Revolution.
Dr. Ebrahim Yazdi is an American Citizen who is Iranian. God bless American Citizens like Yazdi who tried to bring about democracy in Iran.


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Khashmgin

by Another Anonymous (not verified) on

Yeah, yeah. You think I missed something? The link is very telling by itself.

From J.C.'s comments, he must be a westernized decedent of ghajars. They consider themselves of true royal blood (of agha mohammad khan-e akhteh!) and thus the sole owners of iran. They despise pahlavis only because they believe reza shah stole their belonging that they wanted to sell piece by piece (to russian tzars) to satisfy their addictions and excesses in europe. He insults reza shah on another thread, not because what reza shah did or did not do, but because he is bald and from mazanderan and an uneducated commoner. He thinks he is from the center of "Avenue des Champs-Élysées" and thus upset that that bald mazanderani commoner deprived them of their property, aka iran. In fact they were doing quite well under pahlavis, but apparently that was not enough for them, and wants to satisfy his anger by stabbing anything that relates to pahlavis one way or the other.

He is just an uninformed joker.


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To: Another Anonymous

by Khashmgin (not verified) on

AnotherAnonymous, did you read my entire post? To the last sentence?


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Hey Khashmgin

by Another Anonymous (not verified) on

I trust your judgement and thus I stop arguing with him while laughing like crazy.

But he put all his cards on the table and proved who he was and where he was coming from when he praised yazdi and called bakhtiar treasonous. Not to mention his childish endless sexual gossiping and vulgarity to back his claims.

I was very happy to be called a traitor by him. That proved all my points and my claims beyond any doubt as well.


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Re: John Carpenter

by khashmgin (not verified) on

People... People... Please stop offending John Carpenter. I know this guy well enough to tell you that he really is concerned and trying to contribute.
.
Ordinarily, you might think he is a redneck farm boy, but I am sure if you knew him a bit closer, you would change your minds. That's why I decided to post a photo of him and his cousin (who is also a very nice guy). The photo was taken in my recent visit to his father's farm where John works and lives.
.
I picked a photo of him and his cousin just after they were done with their pig shit shoveling duty. I'll let you guess which one is him and which one is the cousin:
.
//tincantavern.com/db4/00334/tincantavern.com...
.
Cheers...
.
khashmgin


jamshid

Who committed treason?

by jamshid on

Bakhtiar for trying to save Iran, or Jebheye Melli for supporting khomeini?


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Bakhtiar ... committed treason against the masses?

by Teach (not verified) on

Yes, "Bakhtiar ... committed treason against the masses", but what masses? masses of mullas, murderers, and thieves, and those whose heroes are likes of Abraham Yazdi and Glorious Ghajar. I wish he had committed way way more treason against those "masses". I wish we had millions of the treasonous kind of bakhtiar.


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Thanks Every body...

by Freedom Fighter (not verified) on

Mr. Jamshid & Another Anonymous : I too, have enjoyed reading your comments. Thank you.

Robin, I will try to find the Sohraab Sepehri's poem for you later.

As far as we all knew subject & how Ironic!

Well It's a book by itself....

You either have to be an aware & logical Iranian who lived there during that period or an expert(very high ranking one) in the Middle Eastern history to understand the complexity of the Western's Foreign policies on interferences, deceptions & injustices that they inflicted upon majority of the populations inside their sovereign countries.

It all started with IRAN back in 1979 & Afghanistan... Later IRAQ became the biggest victim of such policies....

Pakistan is on her way too! unfortunately... Poor Binazir was another victim like Bakhtiar & thousands more...

Unfortunately, the biggest short coming in the Western mentality & culture is the lack of courage to apologize for their past mistakes...

There is only one Politician in the West that I was very impressed by about this very important subject!

His name is John Major (ex- Prime Minister in U.K)

After the most horrific & senseless violence of 9/11, he was interviewed on BBC's Hard Talk.

He said: " The only way for the western countries to see peace in their lives again would be to come out, once & for all, Confess to their EVIL plans in the past 50 years & towards Middle East especially, Apologize to the People of all those countries sincerely & help them economically to become allies with the west based on fairness & mutual interests..."

Until then, Middle East continues to cultivate the most fertile ground for violence,injustice & terrorism which subsequently effects the whole world & especially the security of the western countries & citizens...

Guess what? I never heard of John Major since September 21, 2001!!! Have you??? If so, please let me know..... Thank you


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If Johnny says bakhtiar was bad, he must have been really good.

by Another Anonymous (not verified) on

What are you doing here Johnny? Are you a child? You are so unattached to iran and unfamiliar with iranian society as well as uninformed that you cannot perform any objective discourse except for gossiping about sex habits of individuals and cheering for likes of yazdi. You must have had a ghajar-like family feud with pahlavis so badly that even indisputable logic cannot turn you around. Anyone who reads only one of your comments knows that you are throwing childish non-sense. I wonder why you care at all and why you are wasting your time around here. You must be sitting in front of TV with your girlfriend, tuned to TMZ, MTV, or ESPN with a six-pack, a bowl of pop-corn, and a copy of Inquirer or People's magazine.


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The only thing good about Bakhtiar

by John Carpenter (not verified) on

When Bakhtiar opposed the Shah he was good.
When Bakhtiar made a deal with the Pahlavi, he committed treason against the masses.


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Jamshid, Freedom Fighter..., and Private Eeye

by Another Anonymous (not verified) on

Jamshid and Freedom Fighter..., to both of you, well-written pieces, thank you both, even though I might disagree with a point or two that you raised. But on balance, I wish more see the deception that you are seeing. Yes, mullas stole our country, and the chief theif was khomeini. Unfortunately, "Keh az maast keh bar maast".
.
Private Eye: you need to introduce yourself to a fellow by the name of John Carpenter on these threads. He shares interest with you in all sexual and personal matters. You can exchange notes off-line and share sexual experiences. focusing on personal matters cannot have any impact on our future nor explain the past. it is only a diversion like the fake nuclear issue that is used by IRI.


Rosie T.

Freedom FIghter

by Rosie T. on

Please supply the Sepehri excerpt in the original Persian in transliteration (Persian script ok too but please supply the tranlsiteration). And name of the poem.

 Also please elaborate on your statement:

"OK, we all knew that Khomeini & his company broke a deal with CIA and the westerners to topple Shah' s regime... "

Is it ironic?  Or who knew and when?

Thanks
Robin


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Funny enough ....

by Private Eye (not verified) on

in the midst of all the troubles surrounding his country Bakhtiar had enough time to "marry" a young Bakhtiari woman, more than 45 years his junior, and produce a child only months before his murder at the age of 78!! He may have been politically impotent in his dying years but sexually? certainly not!


jamshid

Do not forget Bakhtiar's

by jamshid on

Do not forget Bakhtiar's great disappointment at his own fellow compatriots in Jebheye Melli. There were only a few of jebheye melli leaders who supported Bakhtiar, Sadighi being one of them. But the great majority of the national front leaders, including Sanjabi and Foroohar turned their back to Bakhtiar, and joined khomeini instead. They encouraged us, even demanded that we support khomeini.

To all those who call Bakhtiar a traitor: You are misguided. He was a true patriot and a true martyr. He died for Iran. 

Souri: The guy interviewing Bakhtiar is Ali Limoonaadi who managed an Iranian TV in the US. I don't know if he still is in TV business.

KADIVAR: "Khomeini's vision of Politics and Society summed up in his Green Book Tozihol Massael..." I think you meant the book of "velaayate faghih". Tozihol Massael deals with something else.

Parham: I think if Bakhtiar had become prime minister many years before the revolution, and began implementing a democratic government, BUT continued with the agressive economical development that were already underway under the Shah's plans, the US and Europe would plan to find a way to topple him too.

Freedom Fighter: I couldn't have said it better myself! You have made many good points. I hope everyone reads your post twice and think about the points you made.


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99% voted Yes, Why Mr. Azad?

by Freedom Fighter... (not verified) on

Dear Ms. Or Mr. Azad,

I have read some of your writings & you seem to be an itelligent & reasonable individual...
I would like you to allow yourself to look at the history of that period with a much more advanced & powerful microscope !

I was there and stood up for the Truth, Justice & Freedom. After the victory of people against Shah's government, the so called "Spiritual leader" of the people, Mr. Khomeini turned 360 degrees and became the Ulitimate words of truth & power in IRAN!!! Do you remember? He started becoming a different man who promised Iranians all those promises...He was no longer a man claiming the "he is just a Talabeh, not educated & not qualified to govern politically & interfere with People's government by free election in IRAN... He did completely the contrary & indirectly claimed the ultimate power in IRAN unlike his prvious promises to people!!!

A week later after "22 Bahman, 1357" (or Feb. 1979, as a 12 year old boy in Western Tehran, I noticed a new vehicle on the road for the very first time! Do you rember that vehicle? It was a 1979/1980 Khaki Toyota Land Cruiser occupied with four men with a strange Green Uniform & havy beard holding a Kloshnikov (AK-47) machine guns ! On the side of their driver's & passenger front doors was a "Sarallah" emblom painted & stamped in Green or black ink!

Note: 1- until Feb. of 1979 not even a rich Tehrani was interested in Toyota Land Cruiser. The rich Tehrani who prefered an SUV vehicle over a Mercedes, Cadillac & Buick were interested in Chevy Blazers & Range Rovers.

2- Iranian Imperial Armed force's uniform was completely different design & their selected machine guns were the German made J.C or J-3. Their magazines were a short and strait holding 20 bullets!

So, The real question is that WHEN a country & people like IRANIANS with so much political & social mismanagement & termoil located in Middle east back in 1979 (spoiled with Gol-o- Boolbool mentality) had the time & planning to import these completly new items inside IRAN so rapidly!

I mean, here in the good old U.S and A (as Borat would say), it was a massive challenge and to an exted a failure to deal with "Hurrican Katrina" Logistically by a Super Power almost 26 years later!

How did Iranians by themselves managed that orginized such an unbelievable & massive task ?

OK, we all knew that Khomeini & his company broke a deal with CIA and the westerners to topple Shah' s regime...

Those Vehicles, Guns, uniforms & Pasdar & Committee mentality (oh wait! That's not Islamic/Arabic?)were all part of a grand conspiricy against IRAN & Iranians. They were planned before by much morec organized entity behind the scene...

Their planning executers were the Islamic fondamentalists lead by Khomieni. They took the power by force, terrorizing an ordinary citizen such as us who have never seen a gun on the street in hands of any Thug before! Even after that show of muscles, they continued to decieve people further! They brought one of those ungrateful & Khaen- o- be Meehan such as Bazargan who wore Gray suits without the tie. They claimed the need of having an Interim Government (Doolate movaghat!) until social affairs are back to norm under a new & Free Government selected by the "Free Election" for people in the Spring of 1980!

In three months, they managed to stop the food distribution & supplies amongst masses, create a coupon system which gave Iranians a possibility of obtaining food, bread, milk & other neccessaties of life for their families!!!

To get the coupon, you had to had a STAMP on your "Shenasnameh" (Birth certificate) that you have voted in the referendum! Your choices in this "Free Election" were: ISLAMIC REPUBLIC. Vote Yes with Islamic Green envelope or NO with the Red one ! And yes throw that color coded voting envelope inside the voting box, while Sepahe Pasdaran, Committee chi & Baseeji forces standing on top of your head with their Kashnikov & Ak-47 s and sometimes their smiles !!! (Like now I own you assholes kind)

That's HOW they won 99% of the votes and fucked us all over honey...They use that figure to legitimize the creation of Islamic Republic lead by Khomeini and continue their crimes against IRAN, Iranians & Humanity my friend...

Can somebody for the love of GOD think, analyze & see things & especially that Unfortunate event (invasion) against a grand civilization & people of IRAN a little bit deeper ?

What happened was a fact in history of IRAN & mankind... It will be proved one day when all Iranians look at the true events & judge for themseleves with Fairness, Freedom & Democracy...

Please excuse my poor interptation of Sohrab Sepehri's poem: "We must clean our glasses & see the world from a different vision & perspective"

God bless IRAN & the entire world...

Sincerely,

A boy who tried to defend IRAN & first declaration of human rights from age 12 to 16.


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Abol Hassan Danesh

by Allen Greenspan (not verified) on

Khodavand Enshallah Yek "Aghl" Dorost Hesabi Behet Bedeh :) - Ya Abol Fazl !!


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The Truth

by Abol Hassan Danesh, Sociologist (not verified) on

//finance.yahoo.com/currency/convert?amt=1&fr...

The truth is looking at you with eyes wide open...


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Nakh Be Nakh

by Abel D. (not verified) on

Bachaa ageh ye rooze khaasteen pool khoab o debsho o ghavee o mohkam benaam man chaap bezaneen... yaadetoon narrah hatman eskenaaasesh be nakh baasheh .. ke ageh ye rooz az aasemoon atash be zameen bereezeeh heech ke natooneh een pool khob eroon ro bagaad... choon ke erronee haa andaazeh kafee daadand....

2008: ONe dollar = Rials?

Aaghaa hesaab do dota chartaast... nazaareed to gerdaab bendazanetoon ke bad beeyand bereeshetoon bekhandand... begand ajab adaam haayee kos khole-and to gharn-e mavaraa atom...

Faghat begaan....


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Baby... It's all about money

by Abol Hassan-Danesh (not verified) on

If Mr. Bakhtiar had the backing of people and could steer them away from public hysteria and blind ideological whirpool, still in the exchange market 70 rials would be able to dance tango tight & hot with one dollar at equal height and at equal footing after drinking couple of cool martini with three green olives at the bottom of martini cup for nibbling....

Whirpool...baby it simply sucks you in even if you know how to swim on your back....unless you stay away from the shit shot...


Rosie T.

Dear Doom,

by Rosie T. on

I understand your feelings very well.  It is difficult to watch people be stoned and hanged from cranes in public squares.  Nevertheless, you wrote: 

"You are accursed and condemned to eternal damnation!"

 Guess who you sound just like to me?

Guess!


Rosie T.

Parnian...

by Rosie T. on

please write more.  Blog something.  Write an article.  Start threading more.  Or just expand on your thoughts here:

 I wish you'd write an article, a memoir about what happened during those troubled days when Khomeini first came to power, as you saw it, as one of the FEW, the not 98% who voted for him...

How did you feel about the Shah in those days as a supporter of Bakhtiar?

I can only imagine how you felt about Khomeini.  What I DON'T understand is how so many people felt otherwise...After all he was the architect of velayate-faqih forty years before. Intellectuals who claim ignorance of his agenda were ignorant because they chose to be so....