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Mohammad Reza Pahlavi citations

Mohammad Reza Chah Pahlavi ou Muhammad Rizā Shāh Pahlevi dit Aryamehr , né le 26 octobre 1919 à Téhéran et mort le 27 juillet 1980 au Caire, était le second et dernier monarque de la dynastie Pahlavi de la monarchie iranienne. Dernier chah d'Iran, il régna du 16 septembre 1941 au 11 février 1979 . Contraint à l'exil le 16 janvier 1979, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi fut remplacé par un conseil royal et renversé par la Révolution iranienne, mais n'a jamais abdiqué officiellement. Il succéda à son père, Reza Chah, lorsque ce dernier, jugé trop proche de l'Allemagne nazie, fut contraint d'abdiquer en septembre 1941 lors de l'invasion anglo-soviétique de l'Iran. Au lendemain de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, le jeune chah fut confronté aux tentatives sécessionnistes dans les provinces du nord-est lors de la crise irano-soviétique et aux rébellions tribales dans le sud du pays. Mohammad Reza Pahlavi se rapprocha par la suite des États-Unis et entretint des liens très étroits avec la Maison-Blanche, en particulier avec les présidents Dwight Eisenhower et Richard Nixon.

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi assista à la nationalisation de l'industrie pétrolière iranienne, alors sous contrôle britannique depuis 1913, par son Premier ministre nationaliste Mohammad Mossadegh, à cause du refus de l'Anglo-Persian Oil Company de renégocier les termes du contrat d'exploitation des gisements pétroliers. Cette décision entraîna une crise internationale entre l'Iran et le Royaume-Uni. En réaction à l'influence grandissante de Mossadegh, les services secrets anglo-américains le renversèrent en 1953 pendant l'opération Ajax, non sans avoir envenimé la situation politique, obligeant le chah, qui les avait soutenus, à s'exiler en Italie. Cependant, grâce à l'armée dirigée par le général Zahedi, il fut rapidement restauré sur le trône. Évoluant ensuite vers une conception plus nationale, réformiste et autoritaire de la politique intérieure, le chah d'Iran entreprit, par référendum, un vaste programme de progrès social et de développement économique, la « Révolution blanche », associé à une répression des mouvements d'opposition incarnée par la SAVAK. À l'extérieur, tout en demeurant un allié de premier plan pour les Américains et les chancelleries occidentales, le chah se rapprocha aussi progressivement de l'Union soviétique puis de la Chine, traduisant ainsi un désir d'émancipation à travers plus de neutralisme.

Lorsqu'il entama une politique de partenariat économique privilégié avec l'Europe, en particulier la France , et surtout avec le Japon , au détriment des États-Unis, ces derniers lui retirèrent leur appui et décidèrent de précipiter son éviction. Les États-Unis vont ainsi soutenir fortement l'expression de mouvements contestataires étudiants, pourtant marxisants, et financer la communication pour la révolution islamiste de l'ayatollah Khomeini. Par ailleurs, il est clair que le poids de l'alliance américaine avec l'Arabie Saoudite et les autres monarchies du golfe , partenaires de l'Iran dans l'OPEP, mais rivaux pour la maîtrise du Golfe Persique, est un facteur qui amena les États-Unis à chercher à entraver le développement économique de l'Iran et son rôle de puissance politique régionale, à partir du moment où ils pensèrent ne plus être en mesure d'influencer l'Iran, du fait de la stratégie trop indépendante et ambitieuse du chah.

Si la politique volontariste du chah améliora considérablement le niveau de vie des Iraniens et permit au pays une modernisation rapide dans les années 1960 et 1970, elle contribua à élargir le fossé économique, social et culturel entre une partie de la population, fortement occidentalisée, et une autre, sensible au conservatisme religieux prêché par Khomeini. En 1978, de plus en plus critiqué, le chah dut faire face à un soulèvement populaire, la Révolution iranienne, qui s'accentua au fil des mois et d'où émergèrent les fondamentalistes chiites inspirés par l'ayatollah Khomeini. En janvier 1979, après avoir perdu progressivement ses soutiens traditionnels et l'appui occidental, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi nomma en dernier recours l'opposant social-démocrate Shapour Bakhtiar au poste de Premier ministre et quitta ensuite l'Iran. Le renversement du gouvernement Bakhtiar et la déclaration de neutralité de l'armée, quelques semaines plus tard, précipitèrent sa chute et contribuèrent à l'avènement de Khomeini. Contraint à l'exil et atteint d'un cancer, Mohammad Reza Chah Pahlavi mourut en Égypte l'année suivante. Wikipedia  

✵ 26. octobre 1919 – 27. juillet 1980
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Mohammad Reza Pahlavi: 92   citations 0   J'aime

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi: Citations en anglais

“Many Westerners forget that when the Prophet spoke of four wives as the maximum allowable number, he had in mind a reduction to four as compared to the number then often prevailing; moreover, Mohammed specified that a man should acquire more than one wife only if he could treat them all with equal justice - obviously a difficult feat for even the most diligent man to achieve. In effect, then, the Prophet curtailed the number of wives.”

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Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Page 233
Publications, Mission for my Country (1961)

“Soviet propaganda is remarkably effective and the Americans are even more remarkably stupid.”

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Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

As quoted in Asadollah Alam (1991), The Shah and I: The Confidential Diary of Iran's Royal Court, 1968-77, page 508
Attributed

“One of my chief "crimes" then, was to have wanted Iran to move from the oil age into the atomic age before it was too late. Must I blush for that? The peaceful use of nuclear energy did not create problems for radiation and contamination for us since we have vast stretches of desert…
I was accused of having adopted the plans for nuclear power stations among others for reasons of "personal ambition". Was it not obvious that I would be dead before most of these plans had been carried out? Why speak of personal ambition then? It was rather a question of forseeing Iran's needs. My "personal" ambitions are known to all men of good faith - to preserve national unity, to make the Iranian people as happy as possible and to prepare a more peaceful future.”

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Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Page 68
Publications, The Shah's Story (1980), On oil and nuclear energy

“He [the King of Morocco] spends half his time asleep and the rest of it buried between the legs of the fairer sex.”

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Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

As quoted in Asadollah Alam (1991), The Shah and I: The Confidential Diary of Iran's Royal Court, 1968-77, page 237
Attributed

“No people can live in the past - not even in its own past. But if it no longer has a link with its history, it must of necessity perish. Persia, crowded with hardship and glory, ordeals and hopes. With the help of the Almighty, the lessons of the past constitute the best guide for the citizens of the future.”

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Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Page 15
Publications, The Shah's Story (1980), On Iranian history

“I perfectly understand the particular attention which you pay to the question of nuclear energy, and fully realize the possible dangers and catastrophes which might result for mankind from an irresponsible attitude. In this field my wish is for Iran to put all her efforts towards the peaceful use of atomic energy. We shall continue to co-operate with all the nations of the world to attain this end in the interests of human society.”

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Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Message to the White House, April 1977, as quoted in The Shah's Story, page 67-68
Speeches, 1977

“… contrary to what many believed, my father was kind and tenderhearted, especially towards his family. His forbidding sternness seemed to melt into love, kindness, and easy familiarity when he was with us. Especially with me, his acknowledged successor to the throne, he would play lightheartedly. When we were alone together, he would sing me little songs; I don't remember his ever doing this in front of others, but when only the two of us were there, he would often sing to me.”

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Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Page 45
Publications, Mission for my Country (1961)

“What's happened recently in Pakistan, India and Kuwait only goes to show that it's futile to imitate Western democracy. They've ended up exactly where they started.”

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Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

As quoted in Asadollah Alam (1991), The Shah and I: The Confidential Diary of Iran's Royal Court, 1968-77, page 506
Attributed

“You Westerners simply don't understand the philosophy behind my power. The Iranians think of their sovereign as a father. What you call 'my celebration' was to them the celebration of Iran's father. The monarchy is the cement of our unity. In celebrating our twenty-five hundreth anniversary, all I was doing was celebrating the anniversary of my country, of which I am the father. Now, if to you, a father is inevitably a dictator, that is your problem, not mine.”

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Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

As quoted in Gérard de Villiers (1975), The Imperial Shah: An Informal Biography, page 284
Attributed

“… I have always endeavoured, as my double duty of believer and sovereign dictated, to follow the precepts of the sacred Book of Islam: precepts of balance, justice and moderation. Although my religious education was very literal, in that I learnt to understand the precepts of the Koran precisely according to the text, we have seen that on several occasions throughout my life, I have felt myself to be very particularly in the hands of the Almighty.”

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Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Page 166
Publications, The Shah's Story (1980), On Islam and the Islamic Revolution

“Growing terrorism, permissive societies, democracy collapsing through lack of law and order. If things continue on their present track, the disintegration of Western societies will occur much sooner than you think under the hammer blows of fascism and communism. Freedom is not something that does not have a breaking point, and your enemies would like you to reach that point.”

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Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

As quoted in Jimmy Carter (1995), Keeping faith: memoirs of a president, page 444
Attributed

“Nixon would like to consign us to to the level of the most backward countries in the whole Middle East. Why lower us to the standard of the Saudis rather than raising the Saudis to meet us?”

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Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

As quoted in Asadollah Alam (1991), The Shah and I: The Confidential Diary of Iran's Royal Court, 1968-77, page 281
Attributed

“Why should we put up with the present evils in our society? As opposed to the society we are visualizing, the present one can be described as a diseased one. The evils are there on all levels, international and national, and even within the smaller units such as towns and families. Of course, the disease did not appear like a bolt from the blue, either yesterday, or last year. It is the result of factors that have deep roots and long lives. These consist of privations, discriminations oppressions, bigotries, hatreds, and hostilities; poverty, ignorance, hunger, and illiteracy. Each and all of these have been left to us as ar evil heritage from the past. The fundamental difference between our situation today and that of our forefathers is that now knowledge has enabled us to realize that these evils are neither natural nor inevitable in the same way as we have found that cholera or the bubonic plague are not necessary calamities.”

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Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

The Shah's Address to Harvard University - Creation of the Universal Welfare Legion - June 13, 1968 http://members.cybertrails.com/~pahlavi/harvard.html
Speeches, 1968

“The real difficulty was caused by too precipitate liberalization… The Americans and the British kept pushing me; they wanted a democratic republic. They wanted me to be more liberal with my opponents. The changes were genuine on my part. But Iran is not ready for Western-style democracy.”

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Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

As quoted in Marvin Zonis (1991), Majestic Failure: The Fall of the Shah, page 109
Attributed

“You think that Mr Khomeini, [an] uneducated person … could have planned all this? Masterminded all this, set up all the organization? I know that one man alone could not have done it … I know that a tremendous amount of money was spent … I know that top experts in propaganda were used to show us like tyrants and monsters, and the other side as democratic liberal revolutionaries who want to save the country.”

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Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

David Frost (January 1980), The Shah Speaks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKUQUDf5IBo&feature=related (video)
Interviews

“I am convinced that the majority of the religious hierarchy today deplores the hardship inflicted on our people. I am referring not only to the martyrs but of the families who have been dispersed and terrified, who have no resources, and to the four million unemployed who are suffering from the economic chaos of a country which only a year earlier was giving employment to a million foreigners. Those who have chosen to serve God must feel profoundly sad at seeing ridicule poured on the most sacred principles of our religion.”

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Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Page 167
Publications, The Shah's Story (1980), On Islam and the Islamic Revolution

“My visions were miracles that saved the country. My reign has saved the country and it’s saved it because God was besides me. I mean, it’s not fair for me to take all the credit for myself for the great things that I’ve done for Iran. Mind you, I could. But I don’t want to, because I know that there was someone else behind me. It was God.”

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Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Oriana Fallaci (December 30, 1973), The Mystically Divine Shah of Iran (interview), Chicago Tribune
Interviews

“All ideological differences set apart, I cannot help having a sincere admiration for Mr Brezhnev. He is to all appearances an outstanding diplomat. He abides by the policy of peaceful co-existence as laid down by the Helsinki agreement. And he has succeeded in making his country as powerful as it is today: the first nuclear power in the world, soon to be he first maritime power; as for the land and air forces, their superiority is so great that it bears no comparison.”

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Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Page 142
Publications, The Shah's Story (1980), On world leaders and statesmen

“My friend, Hassan II,… is a sovereign of rare intellectual qualities. He is a descendant of the Prophet and holds a doctorate of Law from the University of Bordeaux and thus, perfectly combines two cultures, the European and the Koranic. It is superflous to add that I pray for him and his loyal people.”

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Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Publications, The Shah's Story (1980), On world leaders and statesmen

“I envisaged future generations of Iranians proudly taking their rightful place among the vast family of nations, and fulfilling their responsibilities with dignity. I hoped to see dispelled for ever the medieval shadows from which Iran had emerged only half a century ago, and that the light which is the very essence of Iranian civilization and culture would prevail. Throughout my reign, I lived only for the realization of this dream which was beginning to become reality.
It will be seen that I worked tirelessly and keenly to this end. I had ceaselessly to struggle against all sorts of obstacles and difficulties. I had to confront innumerable plots and intrigues both inside the country and abroad. I combated the all-powerful, multi-national trusts and cartels when all my advisers warned me against such challenges. I may have made mistakes, of course, but this long battle was not one of them.”

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Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Page 11
Publications, The Shah's Story (1980), On himself

“I wanted to build up Iran while we still had oil and thus to guarantee the life of the country after our oil reserves were exhausted. Therein lay the solution. We had to move fast, we had no time to spare. Finally, it is unquestionable that the oil lobby contributed actively to my downfall.”

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Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Page 201
Publications, The Shah's Story (1980), On himself

“It is a fact that throughout my reign, representatives of the Red Cross were allowed to visit the kingdom's prisons at liberty. Our penitentiaries were open to all official investigators. Every prisoner's lawyer knew the details of the charges against his client, and had time in which to prepare his defence and find the necessary witnesses. Finally, a condemned man had the right of appeal, after which I often excercised my right of pardon. It is no longer like this. The so-called "Islamic tribunals" are an insult to the elevated principles of the Koran.”

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Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Page 199
Publications, The Shah's Story (1980), On Islam and the Islamic Revolution

“No doubt history will say that Eisenhower was a soldier. For my part, I will remember, above all, his goodness. He was a fundamentally good man who knew how to be loved by the Americans. I was fond of Ike.”

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Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Page 143
Publications, The Shah's Story (1980), On world leaders and statesmen

“How can you hope to build up a nation by fragmenting its politics into opposing camps? Whatever one group builds, the other will endeavour to destroy.”

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Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

As quoted in Asadollah Alam (1991), The Shah and I: The Confidential Diary of Iran's Royal Court, 1968-77, page 552
Attributed

“At no time during my reign were there more than 3,164 so-called political prisoners, most of whom were terrorists. Since February, it is certain that tens of thousands of men and women have been arrested and imprisoned under frequently inhumane conditions.”

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Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Page 198-199
Publications, The Shah's Story (1980), On Islam and the Islamic Revolution

“As far as we are concerned, we are not the toys of any country, including the United States.”

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Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

From an appearance on Meet the Press in 1973, ‘Meet the Press’ transcript for Nov. 18, 2007 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21869109/page/6/,
Interviews

“What do these feminists want? What do you want? You say equality. Oh! I don't want to seem rude, but …you're equal in the eyes of the law but not, excuse my saying so, in ability.”

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Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Oriana Fallaci (December 30, 1973), The Mystically Divine Shah of Iran (interview), Chicago Tribune
Interviews

“I don’t deny I’m lonely. Deeply so. A king, when he doesn’t have to account to anyone for what he says and does, is inevitably very much alone. But I’m not entirely alone because I’m accompanied by a force that others can’t see. My mystical force. And the I get messages. Religious messages. I’m very, very religious. I believe in God, and I’ve always said that if God didn’t exist, it would be necessary to invent him. Oh, I feel so sorry for those poor souls who don’t have God. You can’t live without God. I’ve lived with God ever since the age of five. That is, since God gave me those visions.”

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Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Oriana Fallaci (December 30, 1973), The Mystically Divine Shah of Iran (interview), Chicago Tribune
Interviews

“It was always with great pleasure that I met the Emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie who had shown great patriotic energy in his resistance to Italy. Our conversations were frank and animated and I occasionally hazarded to suggest various reforms to him. I was a young student when I heard him unsuccessfully defend his country from the rostrum of the League of Nations at Geneva. The League of Nations was powerless and today the United Nations is no more effective. What has happened to Ethiopia?”

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Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Page 145
Publications, The Shah's Story (1980), On world leaders and statesmen

“All I can say is that women, when they govern, are much harsher than men. Much crueler. Much more bloodthirsty. I'm citing facts, not opinions. You're heartless when you have power. Think of Catherine de Medicis, Catherine of Russia, Elizabeth I of England. Not to mention Lucrezia Borgia, with her poisons and intrigues. You're schemers, you're evil. All of you.”

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Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Oriana Fallaci (December 30, 1973), The Mystically Divine Shah of Iran (interview), Chicago Tribune
Interviews