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After the collapse of the Soviet Empire and the official dissolution of the USSR in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Alain Minc published a prophetic book in Paris with a very revealing title, “The Vengeance of Nations.” The author explained that nearly 70 years of communist dictatorship had not managed to stifle, let alone erase, the national and ethnic affiliations that emerged rapidly, sometimes through bloodshed, in the shadow of the new international order. Not even Stalin had been able to annihilate the ethnic affiliations that have resurged over time.
The world instantly witnessed the breakup of Yugoslavia, the partition of Czechoslovakia and popular uprisings in some former Soviet republics, among other events. A new international dynamic emerged in the realm of the “game of nations,” which contradicted Fukuyama’s idea of “the end of history.”
In this rapidly changing global geopolitical context, the Middle East obviously could not remain unaffected. Many years later, numerous countries in the region were shaken by large-scale uprisings, inaccurately referred to as the “Arab Spring.” Similar to what happened in East Europe, several decades of military dictatorships and repressive regimes in the Arab world had also failed to eradicate religious, ethnic, regional, clan-based, or familial affiliations.
At a regional level, these societal and communal realities simmered beneath the surface in an endemic state and were largely unknown or, at best, disregarded and tucked away, especially in the West. Before the then-ruling regimes were toppled, few people had heard of the Yezidis in Iraq, the Mandaeans who revere Saint John the Baptist, also based in Iraq, the Houthis in Yemen and the Turkmen and Baloch population in Iran, just to name a few… Add to this the Kurdish people and their undeniable cultural heritage, knowing that they have been condemned by international decision-makers to remain divided among four Middle Eastern countries.
Likewise, only a limited number of individuals are aware that the majority of residents in the Syrian province of Suwayda are Druze and that their relationship with the Assad regime is far from heartfelt, as illustrated by the uprising they have recently relaunched, openly demanding the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad.
Each one of these communities has its own history, uniqueness, heritage, customs, sensitivity, traditions and collective unconsciousness. This ethno-socio-communal pluralism creates social dynamics that can undoubtedly constitute a wealth of diversity, provided that these various cultures strive to get deeply acquainted, to reach out to one another and to build a common future.
A wealth of diversity, underpinned by unity, thrives based on the right to be different and on mutual respect. If Arab societies are currently torn by bloody conflicts and have broken up under the pressure of reductive centrifugal currents, it is mainly due to the failure or unwillingness of Arab leaders to grasp this reality. At times, one wonders if the powerful Western leaders acting behind the scene are truly aware of the complexity and inherent dynamics of the societies of this region.
Nevertheless, the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards, known as the Pasdaran, are mainly the ones who seem to disregard this secular pluralism. Endowed with what could be compared to a Hitlerian mindset, they perceive the countries of the region from the perspective of a massive chessboard or a classic board game based on territorial conquest, similar to the famous Risk. Their primary objective is to advance their transnational expansionist policy as a cover up to export the Islamic Revolution.
To quench this thirst for power and for dominance, the Iranian para-state has no qualms about crushing everything and everyone along the way without drawing from the past experience of Eastern Europe. The Iranian regime may be able to brutally suppress the popular uprising in Iranian cities and establish loyal militias in various places – in Lebanon and elsewhere – but it cannot control the minds and collective unconsciousness of populations and individuals. These are factors that would one day just blow up in its face, as no one can navigate against the currents of history with impunity, let alone for an extended period of time.
