Iran
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Iran, formerly known to the West as Persia, is a Southwest Asian country located in the geographical territories of the Middle East, Southern Asia, Central Asia and the Caucasus. The name Iran in the Persian language literally means "Land of the Aryans". Due to the legacy of the Achaemenid Persian Empire and the culture associated with it, the country has historically been regarded as one of the earliest cradles of civilization in all of Eurasia. Although Iran and Persia are used interchangeably in cultural context, politically speaking the country is known as Iran.
The 18th largest country in the world in terms of area at 1,648,000 square kilometers, Iran is about the size of United Kingdom, France, Spain and Germany combined. It has a population of over seventy million people.During WWII, the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran installed Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as Shah (king). A democratically elected government was overthrown in a British/US supported coup in 1953 with the Shah becoming the autocratic leader. In 1979 the Shah was overthrown in a revolution which resulted in an Islamic state based on sharia. This was an early example of the ongoing Islamization in Muslim countries and elsewhere.
Iran borders Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan to the north; Afghanistan and Pakistan to the east; and Turkey and Iraq to the west. In addition, it borders the Persian Gulf, an important oil-producing area, Gulf of Oman, and the Caspian Sea. Because of its geographically central location it also has a proximity to Europe, Africa, South and Central Asia and is therefore considered to be of geographical importance.
History
The original name for Iran was "Iran", the Persian word for "Aryan". The ancient Greeks believed that Perseus, the son of Zeus, married Cassiopeia, the daughter of Andromeda, and their children are the Persians. "Iran" is a cognate term, i.e. it has the same root as "Aryan", which refers to the "land of the Aryans". Interestingly, the root is the same as tha
Iran is one of the world's oldest continuous major civilizations, with historical and urban settlements dating back to 4000 BCE, making it a possible candidate for the earliest human civilization. Throughout history Iran has been of geostrategic importance because of its central location in Eurasia. Cyrus the Great (580-529 BC) is the founder of the country and the national icon among Iranians. Under his successor, Darius I (522-486 BCE), the Persian Empire became the largest empire the world had seen, extending from northern India to Egypt, and from Greece to the Caucasus.
Iran has been formed into an Islamic republic since the winter of 1979 until which the country was ruled as a monarchy by the Shahs of the Pahlavi dynasty for 54 years. Reza Shah, the first Shah of the throne of Pahlavi, attempted to technologically modernise Iran in the 16 years of his reign. However, his cultural liberalism and percieved decadence offended the traditionalist sensibilities of many religious people (for instance he banned the hijab which protects the dignity of women). Since that time Iran has been under a third positionist government, which tries to reconcile traditionalist values with modernity, rejecting the atheistic materialism of the communists and the Jewish-masonic decadence of American-style capitalism.
In August 1941, after the Shah refused to repel German nationals who mainly worked as engineers in Iran, the USSR and Britain invaded Iran from north and south, respectively. This resulted in Reza Shah being arrested and sent into exile in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he died. His son, Mohammad Reza Shah (His Majesty Shahanshah Aryamehr) succeeded the throne and ruled Iran for another 38 years until the 1979 revolution which brought an end to more than 2500 years of monarchy and a beginning to Islamic rule.
Iran is one of the last few countries whose banks are not controlled by the Rothschilds. The Rothschilds plan to invade Iran via their cat's paw, the United States.[1] Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also has been persecuted for discussing WWII without parroting war propaganda about the loser of the war.
In the 20th century, Iran has had sanctions imposed upon it by NATO and the USA to please Israel. Jewish US Representative Brad Sherman has said that the purpose of sanctions on Iran – sanctions which he supports – is to “hurt the Iranian people”.[2] The Rothschilds funded Saddam Hussein to fight Iran, and turned on him when he stopped the war with Iran. Osama Bin Laden was helped by the United States when he was fighting the Russians; he had nothing to do with Iran. The CIA funded a coup d'état in Iran in 1953. Yet the United States has the arrogant cheek to portray Iran as an aggressive nation, part of an "axis of evil", when in fact it is America and Britain that are the true terrorists, not only terrorizing other countries people but their own as well.
Culture
Iran is known world-wide for its poetry, carpets, miniatures, wines, cats, and being home to the ancient belief systems of Mithraism and Zoroastrianism. Despite efforts by mullahs to islamize Iranians and taking away their national identity since 1979, young Iranians continue to take pride in their ancient pre-Islamic Persian history. The current Persian calendar still uses days and months whose names are rooted in ancient Mithraic divinities. The Persian new year, Nowruz (literally meaning New Day) is an ancient Zoroastrian feast which is, to this day, celebrated in Iran and the Greater Iranian cultural continent as well as in Balkan nations such as Albania, Kosovo, and Bosnia.
