A secular Iran

NomadicSky

Banned
What if today Iran was a true republic very open to western ideas and very much like Turkey?

In 1923 when the Qajar family was overthrown Reza Pahlavi wanted to establish a republic based on the example set forth by Ataturk in Turkey.

As we know in our history that isn't what happend.

What if he had stayed with his plan to turn his country into a modern democratic state?
 
What if today Iran was a true republic very open to western ideas and very much like Turkey?

In 1923 when the Qajar family was overthrown Reza Pahlavi wanted to establish a republic based on the example set forth by Ataturk in Turkey.

As we know in our history that isn't what happend.

What if he had stayed with his plan to turn his country into a modern democratic state?

There was IIRC something called the White Revolution which was supposed to be a giant step along to this, but went all skew-whiff and had more negative than positive effects and ended up giving power to opposition forces

By the time Reza Pahlavi was overthrown he faced a Devil's alliance of pro-democracy movements and pro-Islamist movements, both united in getting rid of him

Now, part of the question might be how much of what happened was down to his character (new modern title, huge coronation harking back to ancient times, opulent living etc) and how much down to international affairs (US backing him despite negatives etc). Maybe finding out, affects which way a successful POD could go ?

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
Staying with the original premise, a stable, secular Iran along the lines of Turkey could (how ironic!) be something of a flywheel offering stabilization (such as it is) in the Middle East. Conceivably a strongly pro-West Iran might even have helped hasten the end of the Cold War (albeit not by a lot) given the presence of a sturdy largely-democratic government near the outer reaches of the Soviet Union.

One has to wonder about a balance of trade, also: how much Iranian oil would be coming to the US, Canada, and other western nations in return for...?

The one wild card is Israel: not sure what the relationship is between Turkey and Israel in OTL (guessing they pretty much ignore one another), but a gut feel suggests that a secular Iran and Israel would be polite to each other. I doubt they'd be really close, but they wouldn't be at each other's throats, either.
 
Well if the Arab World retains its hostility to both Israel and Iran you might see a Persian-Jewish alliance!
 
The one wild card is Israel: not sure what the relationship is between Turkey and Israel in OTL (guessing they pretty much ignore one another).

Turkey was the first Muslim-majority country to recognize Israel and Turkish-Israeli relations are pretty close.
 
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