From an official Iranian News site:
Younesi warns of historical rift between youth and revolution
Tehran, Dec 15, IRNA -- Minister of Information Ali Younesi here
Sunday warned of a 'historical rift between the youth and the past
history of revolution and the nation'.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the seminar on 'Documents and
Current History', he added, "We should not let the youth go into
historical amnesia as this could seriously threaten our national
identity."
Any nation which breaks its links with the past will lose its
identity and can be easily swayed in different path, Younesi said
adding, "It is easy for others to impose a future on such a country."
He said the hegemonistic nations as the enemies of the Muslim
world's identity 'impose their own desired events on them to distance
them from their past glorious history'.
The previous regime's imperial court banished dignitaries who were
instrumental in imposing tragedies here in the past century and 'are
striving to distort history, through, their ill-gotten wealth and with
the help of their masters.
The minister said that despite the power of modern and innovative
technology and far-reaching media 'the enemies have been less
successfully implement some of their schemes with the aim of
tarnishing the values of the nation'.
Younesi referred to the 'Student Day'-December 7- as 'ever-living
crime of the shah's regime', which, as a glorious chapter in the
history of Islamic Revolution is now is being hijacked by the enemies.
He further called on researchers, academics and scholars to embark
on 'a renaissance of historiography to revitalize national identity
and heritage'.
He warned that if such efforts are delayed, "We can be bogged down
in a historical ignorance and inertia which could become impossible to
overcome in the future."
Last week Tehran University students staged a demonstration at the
Technical Faculty campus on Saturday to mark Students' Day.
Chanting slogans, they called for release of prisoners detained on
political charges.
The protestors carried photos of students who were martyred by the
deposed shah's regime in 1953.
Students Mostafa Bozorg-nia, Shariat Razavi and Nasser Qandchi
were martyred by the deposed regime's police when they had joined a
demonstration to protest a plan to accord a honorary doctorate to
Richard Nixon (vice-president in the Eisenhower administration) from
Tehran University while his visit to Tehran in 1953.
Nixon was due to celebrate the US-engineered coup to topple the
popular government of then prime minister Mohammad Mossadeq four
months earlier in 1953 over which the United States spent dlrs 21
million.
Some scuffles broke out between the police and the students who
insisted to head for outside the campus.
The students had been allowed to observe the national day inside
the campus, but not to take to the streets.
Police cordoned off the streets nearby the university to control
the demonstration.
NB/AH
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