TEHRAN: Iran Press: Daily Says Cultural Activities Leading To Velvet

IRAN PRESS: DAILY SAYS CULTURAL ACTIVITIES LEADING TO VELVET REVOLUTION IN IRAN

Jomhuri-ye Eslami website, Tehran
12 Aug 06

One of the evening newspapers allocated one of its complete main
pages to praising Seyyed Hoseyn Nasr and said that a library has been
established at the Philosophy Society in his name.

A week later, a review was written on the same page on one of the
works of Seyyed Hasan Nasr. And a daily, which is financed by public
funds, issued a 16-page supplement praising this person… [ellipses
as published].

Consequently, Seyyed Hasan Nasr’s name started to be mentioned in the
country’s media circles and even provincial publications started to
carry his articles and …

[ellipses as published].

During his youth, Seyyed Hasan Nasr was a member of the intellectual
development organization, which was an organization similar to the
Freemasons Lions or Rotary. During his adulthood, he had links with
Farah Pahlavi and her office and after joining the Intellectuals Group,
he began to outline the ideology behind the [late Mohammad Reza]
Shah’s white revolution.

Following the victory of the [1979] Islamic revolution, Nasr
left the country and went to live in the US. He began writing the
[Encyclopaedia] Iranica alongside Yar Shater. He then joined the
editors group of the Iranian Studies Foundation, run by Mahnaz Afkhami
and Ashraf Pahlavi and … [ellipses as published].

Last week a book called looking for the celestial matter, which
contained a discussion between Ramin Jahanbeglu and Seyyed Hasan Nasr
was published by the Nashr-e Ney Publications and distributed in the
book market. It has been said that it has a lot of typos because it
was printed with haste.

Ramin Jahanbeglu is currently under arrest and accused of laying
the groundwork for a velvet revolution in the country. Velvet
revolutions are the modern version of coups which are costly and
have been successfully staged in eastern block countries recently
by deceived young people in order to change the governments which do
not move inline with the West’s interests. Considering that recently
many western cultural figures involved in the music, arts and even
caricature industries, have entered the country, it seems that the
Iranian velvet revolution branch is trying to arrange the ranks of
its so-called cultural force by using Seyyed Hasan Nasr’s name.

The names of people such as the Armenian, Loris Cheknavarian,
a prominent member of Pahlavi’s office involved in the music
industry, Parviz Tanavoli, a lousy sculptor whose most famous work
was a water-jug in a box, and even the Fardowsi magazine, which has
the duty of spreading modernity, couldn’t tolerate and called it
an exhibition of Charlatanism, Kambiz D. [initial as published],
a famous caricaturist on Shapur’s team whose books were recently
published and who held an exhibition with the support of foreign
embassies, and Aydin Aqdashlu, an element of Farah’s office whose
sabbatical to France was recently cancelled, have been mentioned in
state newspapers. Finally, Nader Mashayekhi has suspiciously become
the conductor of Tehran symphonic orchestra. And Radio America
and Radio Farda are supporting and following up this orchestra’s
performance in Germany under his baton. This is not the first time
that behind-the-curtain elements have appointed people from outside
the country to lead our most important national orchestra.

Despite all of these colourful games and the humiliating defeat of
the yellow revolution in Ukraine and the failed velvet revolutions in
Azarbaijan and Belarus, it seems that dreams are the only thing left
for the elements behind this coup. However, this is no reason for
[Iranian] officials to remain silent and ignore the issue.