The following is the full text of a speech delivered on October 13, 2003 by Ayatollah Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, in a meeting with the people of Zanjan province.
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
Peace and greetings be upon our Master and Prophet, Ab-al-Qassem al-Mustafa Muhammad, and upon his immaculate, pure and chosen household, especially the one remaining with Allah on earth.
I am thankful to Allah the Exalted who gave me another opportunity after the passage of several years to be present among you honorable, pious and brave people of Zanjan and to express my heartfelt gratitude for the kindness, religious faith and valuable efforts of your outstanding personalities.
First of all, I would like to congratulate you dear people on this auspicious Eid, which is the birth of light and hope in the long history of Islam that has been full of ups and downs. I consider it good luck that my visit to your city and province has coincided with this Eid.
I have always known the city of Zanjan as a city for piety and culture. In different eras and particularly after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, there have been events that could be a source of pride for any human community. First, this city played a role in the events that led to the victory of the Islamic Revolution and after the Revolution, the brave divers from Zanjan played a significant role in the Armed Forces during the Sacred Defense Era. In the area of political presence after the victory of the Revolution, Zanjan province has been outstanding. That is to say, the average turnout rate in the case of sensitive events relating to the Revolution - such as elections - has been higher in Zanjan compared with the average national rate.
On my trips to different parts of the country, I try to enlighten the minds of our young generations about outstanding characteristics of the regions that I visit. In this meeting too, I want to make the youth of Zanjan - who are definitely more or less familiar with the history of their city - feel proud of the outstanding achievements of their city and province.
The purpose is the exact opposite of the plot that has been designed by the enemies of the Iranian nation to manipulate public opinion among our people and youth. For the youth of Zanjan, it is extremely important to understand that their city and their region has been a region for culture, science and moral transcendence since ancient times. There were outstanding personalities in science, philosophy, cultural areas, fiqh and mathematics in the history of our country who were from this region.
One of the most famous personalities among them is Shaykh Shahab al-Din Sohrevardi - who is also known as Shaykh-ul Ishraq. His name has been mentioned in all encyclopedias in the world as an outstanding Muslim philosopher and thinker. Of course, besides Shaykh-ul Ishraq, there were many other outstanding personalities in areas relating to science and arts who were from this province and this region of the country and whose names are repeatedly mentioned in scholarly works on Islamic teachings.
Usually, those who visit the historical places of Zanjan province - such as Gonbad-e Soltaniyeh, the beautiful Grand Bazaar of Zanjan and the well-known mosques and schools of the province - view these monuments as historical places, which is of course correct. However, there is another aspect to these historical places: these places and monuments are indicative of the advanced knowledge of architecture that existed among the people of this region throughout history. These are the kind of things that make the history of a people exciting and interesting and they enable local people to find their historical roots.
In the area of religious studies, there were outstanding personalities in the country who were from this province, particularly after the Safavid era. For an extended period of time, the city of Zanjan had the most important Islamic seminary in the western part of Iran. During the Constitutional Movement, the great religious scholar Akhund Mollah-Qorbanali was among the top scholars in the area of fiqh. With his knowledge, he made even the most outstanding religious scholars of his time respect him deeply. Of course, there were many other outstanding scholars who emerged in this region afterwards. I have met some of those outstanding scholars in person and I have read about certain others. For example, Hakim Hidaji - the Zanjani poet, philosopher and mystic - is among the outstanding personalities of the contemporary era.
When I was young, in Islamic seminaries, the outstanding scholarly personalities from Zanjan were a source of pride for their city. In Najaf, the late Ayatollah Mirza Baqir Zanjani, the late Ayatollah Haj Sayyid Ahmad Zanjani in Qom and the late Ayatollah Haj Mirza Mahmoud who was the Friday prayer leader in Tehran - all of these personalities were among Zanjani luminaries in other cities at that time. Thankfully, today there are outstanding scholars from Zanjan in Islamic seminaries in Qom and Mashhad and in universities. The late Reza Ruzbeh was an outstanding cultural personality from Zanjan, who rendered great services in the country in the area of culture. Personally, I know a few friends from Zanjan who made great scholarly achievements in Zanjan and Qom. I am not saying these things to praise the people of Zanjan, rather the purpose is to help the youth of Zanjan become familiar with their cultural and scholarly history.
Of course, with thirty thousand students and many universities, with its Islamic seminary, with its vigilant youth who are prepared to grow and achieve spiritual transcendence, with its capacities that can blossom fast, the city of Zanjan is still a city that is rich in terms of talent and culture. I want the youth of Zanjan to feel proud of this glorious cultural background. I want them to appreciate the value of the capacities and capabilities that Allah the Exalted has bestowed on the youth of this region. I want them to utilize their capacities to make the best of their God-given resources so that they can create valuable assets for the future of this country and this region.
This province is not privileged in the area of culture only, rather it is superior to many other regions of the country in terms of moral growth and religious faith. This is what we can infer from the available statistics. After the Islamic Revolution, the Grand Bazaar of Zanjan rendered valuable service to the Revolution in this region. The merchants of the Grand Bazaar of Zanjan and the faithful youth of Zanjan have always been present on the scene both during the Sacred Defense Era and afterwards when they were present to defend the values of the Islamic Republic. The people of Zanjan have achieved an outstanding position and by Allah's favor, they will preserve this position in the future.
I would like to arrange my comments around three main topics. The first topic is related to the efforts for the growth and development of Zanjan province. The second topic is related to the most essential issues that our people and government officials should pay attention to. The third topic is related to the international developments which our people and youth should be aware of and the positions that are adopted on our country in the world.
The point that I would like to mention about Zanjan province is that it has numerous capacities. This province is outstanding in terms of fertile land for agriculture, in terms of rich and valuable mines - both metal mines and non-metal mines, especially such metals as zinc, lead and copper - and in terms of its rail and road communications. Zanjan province is surrounded by several provinces and in terms of communications and transit routes, it is considered one of the top provinces in this part of the country. It has talented people and fertile land and it can develop many capacities. Of course, after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, many things have been done in this regard and all development indices are high in this province. By Allah's favor, I will discuss the statistics with my audience in one of the meetings in Zanjan. There is no need to mention all the statistics in this meeting. In any case, development indices are very high in this province, which is indicative of the numerous efforts that have been made in this regard.
Compared with the years before the Revolution, the work that has been done in different areas has increased by 500, 600, 1,000 and even 1,200 percent. However, the province is still poor and despite all the efforts that have been made, some parts of the province are still completely undeveloped. What does this show? It shows that this region and its people were severely oppressed under the taghuti regime. This region was impoverished by the local feudal landlords. In the past, all the material and human sources of wealth in this region were in the hands of arrogant and selfish landlords who had in different ways appropriated these sources of wealth under the Qajar and Pahlavi regimes. They had kept this province backward and undeveloped.
This shows that government officials in this province and in the entire country as well as the people should join hands and make efforts to eliminate the problems of this province. And these problems can be eliminated because the ground has been prepared in the province and it is possible to resolve the existing problems using the young, vibrant and intelligent manpower and the infrastructure that has thankfully been created in this province. Zanjan province has very good roads that connect different parts of the province to the city of Zanjan. It has an airport. It has rail communications. Using these facilities and capacities, it is possible to accomplish great achievements in this province.
One of the major goals behind the trips that I arrange to different parts of the country is to attract the attention of our government officials to the regions that I visit, particularly the important and strategic parts, so that they can identify both the problems that exist and the solutions. Of course, there are problems in all parts of the country, but the key to solving those problems can be found in the same regions. With determined efforts of government officials and the people and with their cooperation, many of these problems can be resolved. The same is true of this region as well. Those who have an official position of responsibility should pay attention to their responsibility towards these faithful people. They should use their position to render services to the people and to work for them. This issue is not particular to this region only. All parts of the country should be like this. Over the next two, three days, I will meet with the esteemed ministers who are responsible for resolving the problems of this province and I will discuss with them the essential things that have been carefully studied. Each of them will be given specific responsibilities so that by Allah's favor, a concerted effort is made to utilize the valuable capacities of this province and to eliminate the problems.
Today the fundamental issue of our country and our people is that government officials should make coordinated efforts as one united team in order to eliminate the economic problems of the people and improve their living conditions. Of course, this does not mean that the work has not started yet. No, our government officials and the three branches of government are making strenuous efforts together, but it is necessary to identify and remove the obstacles that lie in the way of progress.
One of the most important obstacles that lie in the way of progress is that government officials, outstanding personalities and those who can influence public opinion make mistakes in identifying the problems and in understanding the demands of the people or they attribute the demands of the people to things that have little value or are not related to living conditions of the people. This is very bad. It is necessary for outstanding personalities, government officials and those who can influence public opinion to pay attention to this point.
Before coming to Zanjan, I studied the results of two opinion polls that had been conducted among the people of Zanjan. One opinion poll had been conducted by government officials of this province, in which the people had been asked what their demands are of government officials and what they would tell the Leader if he visits Zanjan. The other opinion poll had been conducted from the capital city. Despite the fact these two opinion polls had been conducted separately by two different organizations, the interesting point is that the results were very similar and in the case of the most important issues, the results were actually identical.
When the people are asked about their main problem, they say that the main problem is unemployment, inflation and difficulty of earning a living. This shows that the problem had been accurately identified in the past and government officials had been told that they should work on the issue of creating employment opportunities and eliminating the problems relating to living conditions of the people. This is the expectation that the people have from you. Of course, this problem is not particular to Zanjan, rather in all other parts of the country, whenever the people have been asked about their main demands, they have mentioned the same problems. As far as domestic issues are concerned, these are the needs of the people and these are the things that the people demand from government officials. Of course, there are always a few people who replace these demands with controversial and nonsensical political slogans.
I demanded that it is necessary to combat corruption in the country. I said that corruption in economic and governmental organizations destroys the sources of wealth that belong to the people. Instead of defending the idea of fighting corruption, some people who had been given an opportunity to address the people decided to defend corrupt individuals and announced that it was not their responsibility to fight corruption. Creating employment opportunities, fighting inflation and strengthening the value of our national currency are among the important issues of the country.
Regarding our domestic issues, what I am trying to say is that our people and our country have numerous capacities. The slogan of the Islamic Republic is justice, morality, transcendence and growth of human beings and resolving the problems that exist in the lives of the people. We need to move in this direction. Since the beginning of the Revolution, there have always been people who could not tolerate the Revolution and the Islamic Republic and they created problems whenever they found a chance. But the Islamic Republic tolerated them and refrained from confronting them. Of course, they are not a large number of people, rather they are a small group of hard-to-please and loud-mouthed individuals who speak with a righteous tone and whose goal is to constantly create problems for the Islamic Republic, a government that is making efforts to achieve noble goals and help the Iranian nation achieve pride and progress. This is in their nature and the problem is not one that is particular to the present time, rather whenever they have failed to come to an agreement with Islam and the Islamic Republic, they have resorted to this technique.
There were similar people during the early years after the emergence of Islam. Advice does not work in the case of such people. Of course, their existence does not harm the Islamic Republic because as long as the people are aware of the realities and can think critically, the existence of such people would not pose any problems. There were always people during the time of the Holy Prophet (s.w.a.) and the Commander of the Faithful (a.s.) who were opposed to the Islamic government of those times. In any case, I do not want to stress this point too much. As the late Hakim Hidaji said, "A thorn will not become a flower and a flower will not become a thorn. You can accept this or you can shed tears about it" [speaking in Azeri].
The existence of opponents and opposition is not at all important to a nation that is aware and vigilant. What is important is that the people and their government officials should preserve their unity.
I have emphatically advised our government officials that they should not let the enemies and their agents cause a rift in the management of the Islamic Republic. This is what the enemies want and they insist that the managers of the country belong to different camps. The enemies wish that the three branches of government turn against each other. They wish that the Majlis turns against the judiciary, the judiciary turns against the executive branch and the executive branch turns against the judiciary. Our government officials should be vigilant and they should prevent this from happening. They should know what the country needs today.
Our country belongs to Islam and the people. The Islamic Republic is a religious democracy. There is no need to advise our people to go after the principles of democracy. After the passage of many centuries during which the country was under the rule of despotic governments, thanks to Islam and the Islamic Republic, we have built a democracy that is accompanied by Islam.
We will have an election soon and it is not the first election in the country, but some people speak in a way that it looks like it is the first time the people want to go to the ballot boxes and vote. Over the past twenty-five years, our people have on average participated in one election per year. They have welcomed elections and they have voted freely. By Allah's favor, they will welcome the upcoming election as well, especially if they feel that their representatives in the Majlis are carrying out their responsibilities appropriately and that they are pursuing the needs and demands of the people. If the people feel that this is the case, they will be encouraged.
The recommendation is to prepare the ground for the participation of the people in our elections. This is how you should prepare the ground. The people should feel that their representatives pay attention to their problems in a caring way and that they make serious efforts. And if they see that those who are appointed to positions of responsibility by members of the Majlis make serious efforts in their work, they will be encouraged to participate in elections in an enthusiastic way. Our people have already passed the test in this regard.
Regarding the stance of the Islamic Republic on international issues, what we are trying to say is that Islamic Iran wants to remain independent. We did not obtain this independence easily. We want to preserve it. We want the country to be controlled by the people, not by America and other arrogant international powers. This is the exact opposite of what the arrogant powers want today. The arrogant powers want to spread their domination over this region and over Iran. The arrogant powers - which were thrown out of the country by the people themselves - want to return to Iran. This is the goal of America.
Today the arrogant powers have shown that they will not tolerate a people who value their independence and freedom. They have shown that they will not tolerate a people who are not prepared to surrender to their hegemony. You know this. They have openly announced that they want to change the political geography of the Middle East. That is to say, they want to install puppet governments in the region. What is the purpose? The purpose is to help America secure its interests. The purpose is to provide America with oil. The purpose is to ensure the security of Israel. They want to achieve these goals at the cost of destroying the honor, independence and values of the regional nations.
Today the entire world can see that America - which is the leader of the arrogant powers - does not have the power to achieve these goals. Superpowers move things forward by threatening others. Today you know what problems America has faced in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Zionist regime is going through one of the hardest stages of its inauspicious life. Defenseless and innocent youth and citizens who do not have any weapons, boys and girls who are after martyrdom, families that have tolerated these bitter events and hardships over the past three years - they are the ones who have managed to make the Zionist regime helpless and desperate. We believe that Muslim peoples should understand how much power they have - namely, the power of religious faith and unity among Islamic countries - and they should rely on this power.
The Organization of Islamic Conference will hold a summit in Malaysia. Our honorable President will attend that summit and by Allah's favor, he will shine there. Our expectation of Islamic countries and the Organization of Islamic Conference is that they must not be intimidated when America frowns at them. It is not possible to make decisions when one is intimidated. If leaders of Islamic countries are intimidated by America, they cannot go after the interests of their countries and make the right decisions. America has focused all of its efforts on intimidating them and they should do their best not to be intimidated by America. They should not feel intimidated when America is angry at them and they should not feel proud when America smiles at them hypocritically.
They should know that the arrogant powers have no other goal than devouring the world and spreading their domination over fundamental resources of peoples of the world. As far as the arrogant powers are concerned, peoples of the world have absolutely no value. If Muslim peoples and governments respect the principle that the Iranian nation observed in order to achieve dignity and power, the arrogant powers cannot do anything in this region. The people of Iran - including men and women, young and old people - showed that they are determined and pious.
In your slogans, you say, "People of Zanjan would give their blood and lives for the Revolution" [speaking in Azeri]. It is an accurate description of how you are. I confirm this. I firmly believe and I know for a fact that: "People of Zanjan would give their blood, but they will not give away their dignity, independence and religious faith" [speaking in Azeri]. This shows the dignity, spiritual power and determination of the Iranian nation and today we can see a manifestation of these characteristics in Zanjan.
Dear God, by the blessedness of Muhammad (s.w.a.) and his household (a.s.), shower these people with Your mercy and blessings. Dear God, make these people glorious and proud and help them defeat their enemies. Dear God, do not let the Iranian nation drift away from Islam, the Holy Quran and the Holy Prophet's (s.w.a.) household. Dear God, bestow Your blessings on the people of Iran and make them attract the attention of the Holy Prophet's (s.w.a.) household. Dear God, by the blessedness of Muhammad (s.w.a.) and his household (a.s.), make these dear youth - who shout more slogans than others, who are more determined than everybody else, who have the noblest feelings and ideas - valuable assets for the future of the Iranian nation. Dear God, associate the souls of our dear martyrs and the honorable martyrs of Zanjan - who laid down their lives for the dignity and independence of our country - with their Imams and with the Master of Martyrs (a.s.).
Greetings be upon you and Allah's mercy and blessings