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The states making up the axis that stands against democratic nations support each other – and Iran is one of them, Juku-Kalle Raid (Estonia 200), member of the Riigikogu and editor-in-chief of KesKus monthly newspaper, writes.
Why is the visit of the delegation of the Riigikogu to Iran's government-in-exile – which is based in Paris – very important? In the simplest terms: because of the nervous and increasingly polarized confrontation in a world where dictatorial states are on one side and countries which can be considered at least more or less democratic on the other.
The visit of the Riigikogu delegation takes place from June 28 to July 1, with five MPs taking part: Juku-Kalle Raid, the chairman of the support group for a free and democratic Iran, MPs Tarmo Tamm, Züleyxa Izmailova, Ester Karuse and Katrin Kuusemäe, as well as orientalist Peeter Espak and Aarne Seppel from Postimees as observers.
Iran's government-in-exile has been based in Paris since 1980, when the then Iranian resistance movement (mainly students and intellectuals in Tehran) had managed to overthrow the Shah a year earlier, but as an irony of fate, it was radical Muslims that seized power. So the opposition withdrew to the West. Elections of Iran's government-in-exile are held every five years (more than four million Iranians live outside the ayatollah-ruled Iran). Currently, Maryam Rajavi leads the government-in-exile in Paris.
The leader of the Islamic state of Iran, the ayatollah, has repeatedly expressed support, both directly and indirectly, for Putin's regime and attacks on Ukraine. Not only that, Iran is also supporting Russia with arms. So the world is in a situation where North Korea, Russia, China and Iran form an axis, so to speak, which is specifically directed against democratic nations.
The fact that the aforementioned regimes operate hand in hand and support each other in every way has not been very openly acknowledged until now. However, there are some signals: in politics, it seems to be slowly dawning that if Russia succeeds in Ukraine, this will definitely be a signal for China to occupy Taiwan. In actuality, constant monitoring and testing is going on: how long will Western democracies allow dictatorships to rampage before they start to seriously push back? Russia's example, with all its breaches of peace agreements, is perfect: every time someone gives in to them, they immediately push for the next positions.
Thus, today's Iran is a threat to the democracies of the whole world, and it would be good to make this known. In the Riigikogu, we managed to do this – 62 out of 101 MPs gave their signatures against the Iranian regime and in protest, which is probably a European percentage record.
The signatures will be handed over by the Estonian delegation on June 29 at the Free Iran World Summit in Paris, an event attended by politicians and statesmen from all over the world.
The timing is quite fitting, as Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is now urging Iranians to participate in the presidential elections, arguing that high voter turnout would strengthen the regime's stability, being good cover for the new misdeeds they are planning.
Recently, Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash, after which elections were announced, but voter turnout was only 41 percent – the absolute lowest since the establishment of the Islamic state in 1979. It goes without saying that no opposition candidates are allowed to participate in the presidential elections. And the ayatollah is fidgeting anxiously.
In fact, one could also take a look at the history of Iran; what happened in the past helps to better understand what is happening today. Iran's historical splendor has ended in a rapid march into a deep cloaca. And here it would be suitable to cite the geographer Toomas Kümmel, who commented on the situation like this: «At the moment, this crazy regime is nothing but a deep headache for everyone else, and there's little hope for healing. Religious lunatics with a nuclear bomb, no matter if in the completion stages or already completed, are like a monkey in a zoo who has got its hands on a grenade. And the whole world is no longer thinking about how to safely take the grenade away from the unpredictable animal, but only that this monkey with a grenade will not get out of the cage.»
Iran has a high birth rate. In 1956, 19 million people lived in Iran; in 2024, already 89.7 million people – an increase of more than 70 million people in 67 years, or more than a million people added every year. Demographers have predicted that Iran's population will stabilize at about 105 million residents by 2050.
And, as usual, we can observe radicalization almost everywhere where so many people are born. Young people who cannot find a place for themselves, for example, are quite easy prey for radical Muslims.
Shiite Iran is also picking a row with Sunni Turkey. One of Iran's grievances with Turkey, for example, is the stirring up of nationalist feelings among Azerbaijanis – Iran is home to some eight million Azeris.
During the rule of Shah Reza Pahlavi, from 1941 to 1979, fairly modern policies were pursued in Iran (the so-called White Revolution). Apparently everyone has come across photographs on the web of 1960s and 70s Tehran girls, who look exactly like their European or US peers. There is a lot of freedom in these images.
In 1979, a revolution against the Shah's regime broke out, a «real» democracy was hoped for, but sarcastically, life took a different turn and the rather libertarian regime of the Shah was replaced by a dictatorship of the mullahs. After the establishment of the Islamic state, the ayatollahs set the main ideological goal: the destruction of the «Great Satan», the United States, and its right hand, the «Lesser Satan» Israel. The revolution devoured its children. The ones who had overthrown the Shah had either prison or exile to choose from.
Over four million Iranians emigrated to Western Europe, North America and Australia.
One more interesting thing. There has also been a very bizarre strife between Iran and Russia, the current allies. Namely, the Russians briefly established an Iranian Soviet Republic in Iran, on the shores of the Caspian Sea, in 1920. In public, Azeris were blamed for this project, as Russians are in the habit of doing. In particular, Moscow declared that it had nothing to do with the endeavor, that it was done by communists of the Caucasus region, but that they should be treated nice, otherwise Russia might «come to their aid».
This constant pattern of «coming to the aid» and «liberations» is in use by Russia to this day.
Before World War II, Reza Pahlavi's regime flirted a bit with Nazi Germany, driven by absurd rumors that Hitler had secretly converted to Islam and taken the name Heydar (a title of Imam Ali). The rumors had it that Hitler planned to reveal his true religious affiliation after defeating the detested Brits, godless Russians, and Jews. In 1936, several significant trade agreements were signed between the two countries. In the same year, Iranians were declared pure Aryans. Hitler personally promised that once he has defeated Russia, all territories seized by the Russians in the 19th and 20th centuries would be returned to Iran.
At the 1943 Tehran Conference, allied heads of state Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill signed an agreement (the Tehran Declaration) to define Iran's post-war borders and guarantee its independence. As usual, the Soviet Union violated the agreement at the first opportunity and created two «states» in its zone of occupation – the Republic of Mahabad in Iranian Kurdistan and the Azerbaijan People's Republic in the Azeri areas of Iran. This led to the Iran Crisis of 1946, one of the first confrontations of the Cold War.
When the Red Army left under international pressure in 1947, both puppet states collapsed. After that, the oil concessions to the Soviet Union in Iran were also withdrawn.
In the Islamic Republic proclaimed in 1979, the first to be «addressed» was the ideological enemy: former officials and ministers of the Shah's regime, including the prime minister, were executed. When the United States refused to extradite the Shah to Iran, a group of Iranian students seized the US embassy in Tehran and took 53 embassy employees hostage.
The Islamist «Cultural Revolution» began in Iran in 1980, when universities were closed. They were reopened three years later, but strictly in line with the requirements of Islamization. In September 1980, a war broke out between Iraq and Iran, which lasted until 1988, claiming nearly 250,000 lives and ending inconclusively.
Iran is annoying almost every other country with its constant threats
Geographer Toomas Kümmel wrote in the monthly newspaper KesKus: «There are hardly any countries left in the region with which Iran has not had conflicts. Units of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are stationed in Syria, there are terrorist groups supported by Iran in Iraq, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine have encircled Israel.»
«The fuss around Iran's nuclear program has been going on for decades, with Western countries trying to find ways and agreements to control Iran's nuclear ambitions or convince Iran to abandon nuclear weapons. Nothing substantial has come out of it,» he said
And now, Iran supports Putin – with advice and force.