Open
Letter to Jebhe Melli
Leaders about Federalismبعدالتحریر 26 ماه دسامبر 2017
پوزشخواهی از دکتر علی راسخ افشار درباره بحث
فدرالیسم و تجزیه طلبان پاسیو
http://www.ghandchi.com/1824-ali-rasekh-afshar.htm
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P.S.
Oct 1, 2017:Announcing Change of Position to Opposing any form of Federalism for
Iran
http://www.ghandchi.com/1641-etelaieh-federalism-english.htm
بعدالتحریر اول ماه اکتبر 2017: اعلام تغییر موضع به مخالفت با هرگونه فدرالیسم
برای ایران
http://www.ghandchi.com/1641-etelaieh-federalism.htm
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Open
Letter to Jebhe Melli
Leaders about Federalism
Sam Ghandchi
http://www.ghandchi.com/435-JebheMelliEng.htm
نامه سرگشاده به رهبران جبهه ملي درباره فدراليسم
http://www.ghandchi.com/435-JebheMelli.htm
Dear Friends,
Nothing is farther from the truth than the claims of those who say discussion of federalism has become fashion among Iranian political circles since the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Perhaps these people themselves have suddenly woken up from their long sleep at the time of U.S. invasion of Iraq, and think they are the leaders of this movement and insult the Kurdish groups that they are not representatives of the Kurdish people, as as if they themselves are the representatives of all the people of Iran.
At least in the last 20 years, federalism has been in discussion in the political circles of Iran. I am not going to repeat all the historical and political discussions about the topic in here because for those who sincerely are interested to study this topic, there has already been enough explanations written [http://www.ghandchi.com/700-KurdsIranEng.htm] and others who without reading, have the position of animosity and misinterpretations of these discussions, repeating the discussions will not get them to read with attention and without bias.
Why? The reason is because their goal is to misuse the real discussions of the future political structure of Iran for their own personal gains and as in the Persian expression, they want to make a wardrobe for themselves out of this available cloth, to get to the magistrate positions of power and leadership in the movement, that they did not have anything to do with all these years, and suddenly that the movement has become active, they have showed up, and are after the glory and position for themselves, and do not care for the hardships of Kurdish people or people of other parts of Iran, and if the movement quiets down again, these gentlemen will go back to their own business again.
Iranian people are not the same as the people of 30 years ago and will not be deceived by the likes of these people and these gentlemen are free just like anybody else to become active in Iranian movement and say whatever they wish and they can attack political groups that did not sit down all these years, and during the toughest suppression of the Kurdish people, and the people of other parts of Iran did not spare of any sacrifices, to make a credit for themselves who were sleep all these years and today are trying to become important and be discussed. My word is not with these people and will not waste my time to do polemics with them.
My discussion here is with the majority of the leaders of Jebhe Melli (Iran National Front INF) who are making the same mistake they made with respect to the program of *republic* in Iran when for decades did not support republicanism and even did not back those in the INF's own ranks, those like Dr. Hossein Fatemi who supported the plan of a republic and was attacked with charges of being a Communist, etc. Nonethess, at the end, majority of Jenhe Melli leaders went behind Khomeini, when Khomeini raised the flag of republicanism, and only during the era of Islamic Republic, when the republic itself has been metamorphosed, Iran National Front has been standing firmly with this program, instead of clearly supporting a secular republic years before the Islamic Republic, to become the leader of a liberal and secular plan of a republic for Iran, and not as it is now, being easily misused by the Islamic Republic for the regime's purposes.
In the last 20 years, there has been a similar situation with respect to the program of federalism and a major part of Iranian political currents, where there are individual and groups from all shades of Iranian political spectrum, from the liberal democrats to the left and futurists, to the forces of monarchy, Islamic reformers, and even parts of the IRI regime itself, who have been seeing that a solution of an undivided Iran is a federalism like the United States, and not a centralized government like France, the model that we have followed since the Constitutional Movement [To clarify a misunderstanding that some try to create by noting that Iran's 1906 constitution is modeled after Belgium, let me note that Belgium and other monarchies in Europe to avoid a revolution like France modified their constitution accordingly and basically French Constitution is a model of centralized state in Modern Times.] Again let's not wait till this program to be first understood by the supporters of current Islamist regime or supporters of monarchy, to be implemented, and then become its supporter. Let's not wait again that this liberal program like the liberal program of *republic* to be first offered and metamorphosed by other forces of Iran, instead of the main force of Iran claiming to be the supporter of liberalism and secularism, be the first to offer it to Iran.
Next week is the 27th anniversary of the 1979 Iranian Revolution. When years ago I was writing about this retrogressive revolution and Islamic reformists who were not after Iran's progress, it was not listened to by many [http://www.ghandchi.com/355-Iran1357Eng.htm] and in many ways they tried to censor me telling me not to address the Islamist reformists about retrogression, but today the reality is clear to all and the overwhelming majority of Iranian progressive movement openly supports secularism. Let's not again follow the slogans of Iran's liberal aristocracy that "Shah should be a sovereign not a ruler" and let's go for thorough liberalism and secularism of a futurist republic, and again this time not to call any demand for decentralization as "separatism", which is at best a liberal aristocratic position when even the aristocrats themselves have become republicans and will soon accept federalism. In other words I will not be surprised that if the Islamic Republic itself understands the effectiveness of a federal program for Iran, the same way they found out about the effectiveness of *republican* program for Iran, sooner than the liberal forces, and used it clearly at the decisive moment of history, and established their own Islamic state by taking advantage of the progressive program of republicanism, when till the last minutes of the revolution, Jebhe Melli avoided to make a clear call for a republic in Iran.
Support of federalism is the support for the unity of Iran and those who call the federalist plan as separatism are actually helping the disintegration of Iran and are jeopardizing the independence of Iran by pushing away the parts of Iran that are the most dissatisfied with the discriminations of the central government, the same way Afghanistan was once separated from Iran, and such separations are easer today than the time Afghanistan separated from Iran [http://www.ghandchi.com/310-GlobalFed.htm], and such separations will end up in more poor countries like Afghanistan in the region, but the blame is both on those who oppose federalism and also those who just want separation because of being tired of dealing with Pan-Iranist nationalist extremism, even at the cost of creating another poor state like Afghanistan in the region.
Hoping for a Democratic, and Secular Futurist Republic in Iran,
Sam Ghandchi, Editor/Publisher
IRANSCOPE
February 3, 2006
Related Articles:
http://www.ghandchi.com/723-kurdistan-autonomy-eng.htm
http://www.ghandchi.com/700-KurdsIranEng.htm
http://www.ghandchi.com/500-FuturistIranEng.htm
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