The Shocking Hypocrisy of Germany’s Stance on Iran

[00:00:00]Recently, Reza Pahlavi put out a very powerful video calling out European politicians and journalists and their lack of care for the Iranian people's fight against the Islamic Republic and their continued appeasement of the Islamic Republic. But there was a part of this video that I want to talk about right now. There was one thing that Reza Pahlavi mentioned in the video regarding this member of parliament when he was in Germany. There was a member of parliament that told Reza Pahlavi that the Iranian people are not ready for democracy. One member of parliament even told me they didn't think Iranians were ready for democracy.

[00:00:48]But with that member of parliament, to those journalists, I remind you, Iranians aren't just ready for democracy.

[00:00:58]40,000 people just gave their lives for it.

[00:01:03]And I won't let that be in vain.

[00:01:06]So, know this.

[00:01:08]Whether or not Europe stands with us, whether or not your journalists do their jobs, whether or not your politicians demonstrate the courage to act, I will fight for my people and my country.

[00:01:25]Even if we have to do this alone, we will fight until Iran is free.

[00:01:34]In response to this, I've heard this claim by some other people before and now that this has been highlighted by Reza Pahlavi, a lot of people have pointed out that the Iranian people already had democracy during the Pahlavi dynasty. And not only that, the Iranian woman inside Iran had the right to vote before some European countries. I want to focus on the hypocrisy and lack of self-awareness of this statement apparently coming from a German politician. And honestly, it shows the level of arrogance and ignorance of any politician who would say such a thing regardless of where they come from. But focusing on Germany, it's ironic that somebody would say that given that it is only about 80 years ago that Germany was being ruled by a fascistic regime of one of the most extreme examples of tyranny.

[00:02:24]And after the defeat of Nazi Germany, it took a very short amount of time for Germany to become a democracy. And that was achieved without this being the demand, the force for change being the German people themselves. The fall of Nazi Germany didn't happen because a massive uprising from within Germany.

[00:02:47]There wasn't a revolution for democracy.

[00:02:51]Please understand, this is not me speaking against the German people today. Unlike their politicians and journalists, I know many German people who sympathize with the Iranian people and many other who support them. But back then, I know there were some people within Germany who wanted to fight against Nazi Germany, but there wasn't a giant movement. There wasn't a major attempt to bring down fascism. There was Nazi Germany fell because the Americans and the British defeated them. The change came from outside. And yet Germany became a democracy. Not only that, a huge portion of the German people supported Nazi Germany and a huge portion of them continued to support Hitler after the fall of Nazi Germany.

[00:03:41]So, this was the mentality, this was the philosophy, this was the values of a major part of Germany. And yet out of that, we got democracy. I think the reason why this member of parliament thinks that Iranians are not ready for democracy is because they're Middle Eastern. And it's interesting because you have Europeans who have supported fascism, who didn't do an uprising for democracy. Democracy was brought to them by Americans, by the Marshall Plan, and democracy was forced upon them. And apparently, because they're European, they are ready for democracy. But the Iranian people, who have already had democracy, who have bled for democracy, who are fighting for democracy, who are shouting to the whole world that we want democracy, who every scientific poll of them shows that they want democracy. Not only they want democracy, they want secularism, they want equal individual rights. Their culture and their values show that they want democracy. But because they're Middle Eastern, you assume that they don't want democracy.

[00:04:49]Maybe because democracy didn't work out for other countries in the region because it was not compatible with the values within a society. So, they judge Iran based on the values in some other countries in the region. And putting it side by side and comparing them shows how ridiculous this is. You had millions of Iranian people coming out into the streets, sacrificing, risking their lives, and tens of thousands of them sacrificing their lives for democracy.

[00:05:18]Looking at that and saying that they're not ready for democracy while being in a country where a major part of them supported fascism and only became a democracy because this was forced on them, because they were defeated. They were ready for democracy. We don't even have to theorize. We saw that they become a democracy. It just shows how very little these people think of Iranians. And the reason for why it's so easy for them to dismiss them and belittle their fight for liberty. The way that I imagine it is that people like this thinking like, oh, it's so cute that you think you could have democracy. Look at you trying to make your country democratic. You don't understand that you're Middle Eastern.

[00:06:00]You don't understand that tyranny is all you get. Democracy is for Europe. Again, a lot of people at this point will point out that if you want to actually look at the philosophies that came out of these regions, it was from Iran that we had the Cyrus Cylinder, which many people refer to as the first declaration of human rights. And it was from Greek philosophy that we had philosopher kings and the idea that certain people are inherently supposed to not be involved in politics and only the elite get to decide. Even if you want to go far back in ancient times, it is from Iran that you got Cyrus' Cylinder, where so many people refer to it as the first declaration of human rights, showing tolerance, showing acceptance of the way people want to live. But from you have from Greek philosophy, you have the idea of philosopher kings, the idea that many people are inherently not supposed to be political, the idea that it's the elite that need to make the decision for the rest of society. While from Persian philosophy, you have the idea of freeing people, freeing slaves, liberating people, allowing to make their own decision, determine their own destiny.

[00:07:10]Not to the point where Cyrus actually freed many people, including the Jews.

[00:07:15]Not only he freed them, he actually supported them and he helped them rebuild their temples instead of trying to force their values of the Persian Empire on them, he allowed them to have their own religion, their own way of life, rebuild their temples.

[00:07:31]But when it comes to Greek philosophy and Roman philosophy, you have this idea that certain people are inherently slaves, that they're barbarians, that they're meant to be ruled over and be slaves. In fact, Athens' main economy was slave trade. So, here we have Cyrus the Great being famous for freeing people. And then we have Athens as the foundation of Western philosophy having all of these philosophers because many of them didn't have to work. And yet we had Athens as the foundation of Western philosophy and completely being reliant on slave trade. You might tell me this is a long time ago, Armin. What does it got to do with today? I already gave you examples of today. I told you the Iranian people's fight for democracy and the fact that we just had democracy just 57 years ago. But the reason why I also bring up our ancient history is to try challenge the idea that there's something within people's DNA or if there's something within their essence that inherently makes them want democracy or not want democracy. And by showing the long history of this, I just wanted to challenge that idea. Whether or not a society is democratic or non-democratic at any point in time is not just dependent on the values of the people within that society. There geographical reasons, there are economic reasons, there are other powers beyond your borders that causes the political structure of your country to go in one direction or another. The values within the society are obviously important and it has an influence and we don't want to completely dismiss the responsibility of the Iranian people for us being where we are right now. But we have to fight against this dangerous idea that there are certain people who are that a society that is calling, that has signaled in every way possible that they want democracy and that they're fighting for democracy and they're willing to pay price for democracy to come out and say they're not ready for democracy. There's something fundamentally wrong with these people that makes them incapable of becoming a democratic society. I don't know what's going to happen in the near future, but it's very important to remember that big changes could happen very fast. Between 1935 and 1945, most of that time, if you look at the map of the world, you would have thought that classical liberal democratic values are about to go extinct. Like most of the world was under either Nazism or communism was being ruled either by Nazism or communism or Japanese imperialism and you would be justified to think that the era of enlightenment values are coming to an end and this idea that we could have the people themselves decide their own destiny was a naive philosophical dream came coming out of the in age of enlightenment and now it's time to go back to what actually works which is tyranny and imperialism. But within a very short amount of time all of that collapsed because it wasn't sustainable and looking back it looks like a miracle on how fast everything switched over to democratic forces winning and becoming the dominant and having up the upper hand in most places around the world especially in Europe. That should give you hope especially for Iranian people.

[00:10:49]Democracy, freedom, secularism, equal rights, all of this could be just around the corner if you just don't give up. Do you think the Iranian people are ready for democracy? Come talk to me about this and other topics in our discussion group. I'm there almost every day. The link is in the description. Let me know what you think in the comment sections.

[00:11:10]Also let me know if you think this was helpful or interesting. These types of comments really motivate me to make more videos. I do read them. My name is Arman Navabi. I'm Israel Khai. Long live America. Javid Shah.

[00:11:22]Payandeh Iran.