Word: velvets
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...People believe that real change is happening, but Iranians do not want another revolution," says the Harvard undergraduate who was recently in Iran. The student noted that many people in the country have been referencing Czechoslovakia's non-violent "Velvet Revolution," a series of mass protests in 1989 that resulted in the nation's then-Communist government relinquishing power. "They want change brought by revolution but without violence...
Some observers see Iran's courageous protests against a stolen election as a replay of the 1979 revolution that ended the tyranny of the Shah - or of the "velvet revolutions" that ended communism in Eastern Europe. Others fear a repeat of China's 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. But none of these comparisons easily fits the unique combination of discord on the streets and infighting in the corridors of power currently under way in Tehran...
...Tehran Tiananmen? The harsh language used by Ahmadinejad and the Revolutionary Guards to describe opposition protests - and their invoking of the specter of an Eastern European-style "velvet revolution" backed by the West - appeared to be generating a narrative that would justify a bloody crackdown, a massive use of military force that would terrify the opposition into submission. Clearly the limited violence unleashed by the Ahmadinejad camp thus far has failed to intimidate Mousavi and his supporters. But while it would almost certainly empty the streets, the "nuclear option" of a Tiananmen Square-style crackdown would be a potentially fatal...
...They say, 'We have extended a hand toward Iran.' What kind of hand is this? If the extended hand is covered with a velvet glove but underneath it, the hand is made of cast iron, this does not have a good meaning at all." - Responding to President Obama's video message in a speech before a crowd of tens of thousands in the northeastern city of Mashhad. (Time.com, March...
...compiled by Freedom House, a Washington D.C.-based human rights NGO, place all five of the post-Soviet 'Stans near the bottom. Independent media is almost non-existent. Human rights activists are frequently detained and tortured, and many others live in exile. Even in Kyrgyzstan, where a so-called "velvet" revolution toppled the ruling president in 2005, the subsequent government has done little to distinguish itself from the past. "Central Asians tolerate an awful lot," says Roberts. "They've inherited a mentality from the Soviet days where they don't necessarily believe in politics, or have faith that turning over...