“Even death sentences, mass shootings and repressions did not stop the Iranians.” Ruslan Suleymanov* - about the consequences and possibilities of the latest protests in Iran

Orientalist Ruslan Suleymanov

Photo: telegram channel of Ruslan Suleymanov

Two weeks after the start of another wave of protests, the Iranian regime managed to suppress it. The protests broke out at the end of December, their trigger was a sharp drop in the value of the national currency. The protests were accompanied by large-scale repression and thousands of victims. US President Donald Trump publicly promised support for Iranian demonstrators, but ultimately took no action. What is the state of Iranian society and the regime itself today? What really threatens the power of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei? Could protests resume? And should we expect Donald Trump to keep his promises? Republic talked about this with orientalist Ruslan Suleymanov.

— What is known about what is happening in Iran now? Have the protests been suppressed or are the protests continuing?

— Iran is still under an information blockade. Internet and telephone connections still do not work properly. Only fragments of information are still being received. But at the moment we can state that protest activity is not as high as at the end of December - beginning of January. The number of victims is huge, simply unprecedented.

— The opposition reported 20 thousand killed among the protesters.

“It is difficult to calculate and difficult to verify this data, but such a number of people killed has never really been seen in the entire modern history of the Islamic Republic. There were dozens, there were hundreds of victims, but never thousands. Nevertheless, it is wrong to say that the protest has been suppressed and Iranians will no longer take to the streets. Even capital punishments, mass shootings and repressions have never stopped the Iranians. This is not something that can make them go home completely. This time, violence from the authorities, of course, played a role in the sense that there was more despair and disbelief among people that taking to the streets could change anything, that there was unity and that there were external forces that could help the Iranians, support them.

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