As for Iran, it was denied the use of its oil and other wealth to help its people. Instead, the Shah built a cruel fantasy world, suppressing genuine Islamic thought, enthusiastically supporting the US and Israel, isolating Iran from its natural allies in the Muslim world.
[Khamemei.ir]: Can we compare the recent coup d'etat in Turkey to the 1953 coup in Iran?
[Walberg]:
The logic of both coups follows the logic of empire. Iran was forging a popular
independent path in 1953. However, Turkey turned to the US following WWI2, as
an anti-communism bulwark, joining NATO and working closely with imperialism.
Turkey under Prime Minister Erdogan is, in important respects, forging a truly
independent path, criticizing the US on many issues, refusing to allow the
invasion of Iraq from Turkey in 2003, confronting Israel over the siege of
Gaza, working with Russia and Iran in defiance of US wishes, supporting the
genuine Islamists in Egypt after the 2011 Arab Spring, initially vetoing the
invasion of Libya and Syria.
But something changed in 2012. Erdogan dropped his anti-NATO position,
undermined the Syria government, supporting the unsuccessful Syria rebels,
increasingly dominated by Wahhabi followers who morphed into the "Islamic
State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL).
The Wahhabis had learned from their US strategists' use of soft power. They
hijacked Islam to attract Muslims fed up with imperialist intrigues. Radical,
misguided youth from the West and Saudi Arabia flocked to rebel-held areas in
Syria and Iraq. ISIL has somehow managed to find funding and arms, and
continues its reign of terror today.
Erdogan is reaping the whirlwind now. He jumped on the imperial tiger and came
close to losing everything, as happened in Iran in 1953. His mistakes had
undermined him, and his fellow Islamists, Fethullah Gulen followers, were eager
to work with disaffected elements in the military and secular forces to
overthrow the headstrong Prime Minister Erdogan.
So the situation is much less clear (more hopeful) than in Iran in 1953.
Erdogan has the chance that Mossadegh wasn't given. If he acts resolutely and
reinforces his alliance with Iran and Russia before it is too late, he can save
his Islamic democracy.
But if he chooses to be an obedient servant of the US and Europe, this would
lead to the same results as if the coup had been successful, as happened with
the more dramatic return of the Shah to Iran in 1953. Soft power is always
preferable to "hard power".
So we must await further developments in Turkey before assessing the results of
the coup. Will Erdogan stand firm on his principles, like Castro, Chavez,
Morales, or, for that matter, Putin? Or will he drift back into the NATO fold,
letting the coup forces triumph?
[Khamemei.ir]: Ayatollah Khamenei
believes that in the Islamic Republic of Iran, launching a coup d'etat is
fruitless, considering the fabric of the Islamic Republic. Why is it so?
Iran continues to struggle under the intense efforts by the imperialists to
subvert it, but the Islamic revolution of 1979 has survived through resolute
leadership. First under Ayatollah Khomeini and, since 1989, Ayatollah Khamenei.
It continues to progress economically and culturally, despite the hostility of
the empire. It is, thanks to the truth of Islam, Iran's solid faith. That alone
can keep Iran out of the empire's clutches.
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