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Faramarz Bakhtiar
Human rights conference, Belgium; Nov. 2008.
The fact is that, Iran is a multinational land, where, 6 different ethno- lingual ethnicities have established a common historical heritage in the last 3000 years. These nationalities are: Kurds, Arabs, Turks, Baluchis, Fars, and also Lor & Bakhtiary, which I belong to.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Vice-president, is a great honor to be here, thanks for giving me this opportunity to talk about the lost people and the untold realities of Iran
The fact is that, Iran is a multinational land, where, 6 different ethno- lingual ethnicities have established a common historical heritage in the last 3000 years. These nationalities are: Kurds, Arabs, Turks, Baluchis, Fars, and also Lor & Bakhtiary, which I belong to.
These nationalities could form the nation of Iran, when they all enjoy equality and non discrimination in a democratic society under the international human rights and regulations. The national identity does not form under suppression and dictatorship; the certain conditions must be provided, such as: rule of law, separation of church and state, industrial and economical developments, and participation of the people in the political and social activities, non of the above happened in Iran.
In 1911 we had the constitutional revolution, in order to establish a nation-state and a modern democratic Iran, by establishing the local parliaments in different provinces, which was a sort of traditional federalism, but by interference of the colonial powers of the time, this effort failed and ever since the central despotism has been the prevailing course in political scene , our ethnic- national identity and existence has been denied by central governments, which is the obvious violation of the human rights, in this vacuum of identity crisis, our identity has been replaced by a false religious identity of either Sunnite or Shiite.
The policy of the central government has always been anti- ethnicity; it doesn’t make any difference if it is in the form of monarchy or republic. The main strategy of the central state is to annihilate the other cultures and languages and to assimilate them in to one nation, one language, and one religion.
The sovereignty of one nationality over the others in a multinational land, leads to apartheid, racism, discrimination, and monopoly of the power and the resources. The best way to practice democracy in Iran is by establishing a federal structure, in which, all of the nationalities enjoy the political participation, self determination, and national identity.
Iran is the land of minorities, but every minority, in its own land, is a majority. In a democratic society, the right of minorities must be taken in consideration.
The eastern despotism is the main reason for our backwardness, in this political structure; everything is centralized in the hand of central government. Economy is also in the control of the central government. The people from tribal and rural rejoins migrate towards the big cities in search of better standards of living, and that caused over population, marginalization, and social disorders such as: poverty, addiction, joblessness and crime, in the big cities.
A land with the area of 1,648,000 Km2, and with a great cultural and geographical diversity, cannot be managed by a central system. Only diffusion of the wealth and political power insures the national integrity.
The Lor & Bakhtiary nationality, like the others, is the victim of this unjust system. Our land located in the west of Iran, in the skirts of the Zagross mountains, our population is 8% of the total population of Iran, or about 5.5 million. Our land is disintegrated in to different provinces, mainly in, Lorestan, Khuzestan, Charmahal & Bakhtiary, kuhgiluye & boyrahmad, and Isfahan. Our language is Lori, our costume is called chogha & sholar, and in general, we have our own history, traditions, music and literature. We have always defended our land and culture against the aggressors, in the past history; we resisted against the Alexander, and forced him to change his path. 800 years ago, we established our self ruling government, which was called Atabakane Lorestan, and lasted for 200 years; we had our own monetary and tax collection system, trade and social & economical developments.
Today, we are deprived of the very basic human needs, we don’t have any local radio & television stations in our land, our children are forced to speak Farsi in the first day in the school, in our rural areas, we don’t have any health care, public service, any roads, educational institutes, welfare, sanitation, water pop line, fuel system, and so many other necessities of life.
Despite the huge oil revenue, the allocation of the budget for our land is unjust and hundred times less than of the other states. The local administrators, who are sent to our region, are not familiar with our language and culture, and they mainly belong to the secret services. The rate of unemployment is high; the rate of suicide among the young generation is higher than any other provinces. The painful poverty is over all.
At the end, I would like to draw your attention to this fact, that, when the pressure becomes unbearable on the nationalities of Iran, they may look for a separation from Iran as their locations are located near the boarders. Those non-ethnic Iranians, who choose silence over the brutal oppression of the nationalities, will be responsible for any civil war that might follow as the consequence of these oppressive policies.
The international community must use all United Nations conventions and human rights charters which allow the equal rights and indiscrimination for all, freedom of speech in mother language of the ethno-lingual minorities and the most important of the all, the Europeans as well, who have trade with dictator regime of Iran, should not sacrifice democracy and human rights for the sake of more interest and profit.
Thank you
Faramarz Bakhtiar;
(Lorestan & Bakhtiari’s United Party, Nov.2008.)