Whether one considers how Iranian history is taught in Iranian schools, or the way it has been addressed by scholars, the same yawning gulf appears: a void bookended by the Constitutional Revolution (1905-1911) and the 1930s, in which the new Pahlavi regime entrenched itself. For Amir Moghadam this neglect of Iranian parliamentarism in the intervening period, one marked by the Great War and the post-war settlements, is something of more than academic interest. “We forget about Iranian parliamentarism as a brief moment in Iranian history which presented a potentially different future.”

We forget about Iranian parliamentarism as a brief moment in Iranian history which presented a potentially different future.

In this conversation, recorded on 11 July 2024, Amir begins by introducing the newspapers upon which his research draws. Contributors to these newspapers, as well as leading statesmen such as Mohammad Ali Foroughi (1877-1942), dwelt on the failure of Iran to secure any kind of hearing at the Lausanne conference, as well as the perceived success of Kemalist Turkey. Having been fobbed off at Versailles with promises that Iranian diplomats would have their opportunity to participate at a future conference to be devoted to Near and Middle Eastern matters, those same diplomats were deeply disillusioned to discover that, when that conference finally materialized at Lausanne in late 1922, Iranian voices continued to be ignored. Amir and Jon discuss the “lessons” Lausanne was felt to teach, as well as the tensions between Iranians’ admiration for Turkey’s achievement and their revulsion at the genocidal violence that Iranian officials had observed at first hand. That respect for the rights of minorities, which Foroughi grounded in ancient Iranian values, stood in stark contrast to such violence. The discussion then considers how Iranian observers responded to Kemal’s abolition of the caliphate in 1924.

Episode 56 – A Different Future

Podcasts are published by TLP for the purpose of encouraging informed debate on the legacies of the events surrounding the Lausanne Conference. The views expressed by participants do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of TLP, its partners, convenors or members.