To Prevent Another Turkmenchay, We Must Choose

To prevent more Treaties of Turkmenchay, we must make a choice

Zarif, the former Iranian foreign minister, wrote on his Instagram

A few years ago, I answered a difficult question by saying we chose it ourselves, which upset many people. I apologize if a clearer explanation might cause more distress. The late Professor Rouhollah Ramazani, a prominent expert on Iran’s foreign policy in America, analyzes Iran’s foreign policy over the past 500 years as follows: Iran was seeking to regain territories it once controlled, and often could not comprehend the gap between its goals and the available resources to achieve them.

Throughout history, we have set our goals based on our desires and have not paid attention to our capabilities.

Our historical inclination to pursue dreams without considering available resources is evident not only in foreign policy but also in the formation of dense lines of cars behind every narrow tunnel. In 75 years of development planning, our national resources have been destroyed and no development has been achieved because most plans, instead of mapping a path to make up for backwardness in line with resources and opportunities, have been the tales of the leaders’ aspirations.

Consciously or unconsciously, we, the people, have chosen to praise those who pursued our dreams, even if they brought great harm to themselves and the country, and to label those who tried within the limits of available resources to reduce the scope of damage caused by ambitious moves as compromisers or even traitors.

In truth, not only we, the people, but also our elites, which do they criticize more? Those who, with the dream of reclaiming lost lands in the Treaty of Gulistan, lost more territories and even Iran’s independence, or those who, with the Treaty of Turkmenchay, at least regained part of the newly lost land?

To prevent more Treaties of Turkmenchay, we must choose to pursue our dreams within the framework of our resources.

Yet, even in our words, we consider attention to resources as undesirable.

Why is ‘compromiser’ negative and ‘uncompromising’ positive? Isn’t compromise about reaching a point of commonality and balance to move towards ideals? Can we reach ideals by any other method? Having dreams gives direction to life, but attention to capabilities makes moving towards ideals possible.

What we need today is a proper understanding and wise choice: border action with eyes on ideals and grounded in capabilities.