Trapped in past: How Persian nationalists bankrupt Iran's future |
In Azerbaijani, there is a saying — “quru bəy”, literally “the penniless nobleman.” It refers to a person whose ancestors were immensely wealthy, but who, through his own incompetence, is left without a penny. Instead of working hard and taking steps to improve his current condition, he sleeps until noon and endlessly talks about how rich his grandfathers once were. For a reader struggling to understand this expression, it is enough to look at Persian nationalists in Iran.
Indeed, it is painful to see the current condition of the Persians — once among the most ancient peoples of the East, whose language for centuries served as the lingua franca of the Orient, whose architecture and poetry influenced entire civilizations, and who in ancient times were, in today’s terms, a “superpower.” And yet today, instead of rising to action and becoming once again the locomotive of the region as their ancestors had been, Persian nationalists do nothing but talk themselves hoarse about their “over 2000 years of statehood history,” only to make themselves a laughingstock whenever they attempt real action. It is as if a postmodern writer had scripted a comedy for the stage, and the world watches only to laugh.
To be more precise:
Today, Iran is a country where every military drill ends in disaster, killing its own soldiers or destroying its own equipment.
Today, Iran is a country that, in the name of helping Palestinians, fired hundreds of rockets at Israel — yet achieved nothing. On the contrary, one of its rockets fell on a Palestinian, killing him. The most absurd part is that the poor man did not die from the explosion of the rocket. The rocket, overweight and malfunctioning, failed to explode at all and simply crushed him to death.
Today, Iran is a country where Israel sends Iranian generals to kingdom come before they can even rise from their beds.
It is a........