You cannot bring democracy to a country by attacking it.
AKBAR GANJIWhen I say that I am opposed to this budget, everyone says, “Well, what do you think the United States should do?” My response is, “Why should the United States do anything?”
More Akbar Ganji Quotes
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Let me begin by saying not only you can’t have democracy with $75 million. You can’t even have it with $750 billion.
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I did join the Revolutionary Guard, but I was simply a simple Revolutionary Guard, never a commander.
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The difference between us and the other side is that they use populist and…kind of slogans that are…they fool the people.
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Three of our provinces have seen mass uprisings. The three provinces are Khuzestan, Azerbaijan, and Kurdistan.
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The entirety of this discourse was such that it encouraged the kind of ascendancy for a man like Ayatollah Khomeini.
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Well-to-do classes are using all kinds of obvious and not-so-obvious benefits that this regime has created for it.
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There’s all kind of evidence that there is enormous corruption in the distribution of that money. For example, they gave about $100 to $150 dollars to each of the teachers. They gave about $500 dollars to those who were getting married. Through this process.
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Iran is going to get between $50 to $55 billion in oil revenue, which is unheard of in the history of the revolution.
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Religion is the private affair of an individual…be present in the public domain, but state has to be clearly separated from religion.
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We recognized that the justice we expected and hoped for was not about to be achieved.
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[In] every revolution, there is a great divergence between what the revolutionaries expect and what the revolution actually accomplishes.
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Negotiation talks are the best way to solve anything. We must replace wars and weapons with negotiations and talks.
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The U.S. should start talking about disarmament, nuclear disarmament, of the region.
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I could witness that as a result of Ahmadinejad, they lived in a dream. They believed that paradise is around the corner and that all their demands shall be met.
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Today, as a result of a miraculous set of circumstances,
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In Iran, where everything is covert, we have no firsthand information.
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I, too, am against the dismantlement of Iran.
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It was universal pressure on the regime to secure my release. International pressure was certainly helpful in my release.
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The number of the opposition has certainly increased [in Iran].
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In the West, when all of these reactors, nuclear reactors, are matters…part of the public domain, there are all kinds of supervision over them.
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I am against revolution and am proud of it. Democracy cannot be created through revolutions.
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We should put away the militaristic outlook.
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Khomeini obviously had many problems, but he had one clever side to him.
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The Shah’s regime was an incorrigible regime and after a while, when the revolution happened.
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Revolutions invariably don’t solve the issue of justice, and in its place, suppression and limiting freedom replaces that idea.
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Recently, we witnessed massive demonstration by Iranian woman in the 7th of Tir square, and it was brutally suppressed.
AKBAR GANJI