When Iran wavers, Algiers trembles: the panic of totalitarian regimes in the face of the first signs of revolutions by oppressed peoples
The Islamic Republic of Iran is today on the brink of implosion. Confronted with a wave of popular protest of unprecedented scale in decades, the mullahs’ regime now survives only through repression, lies and digital darkness. This situation is deeply worrying for its authoritarian allies, first and foremost the Algerian military regime, which knows it could well be next on the list of totalitarian systems destined to collapse.
In an unambiguous public statement, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen firmly condemned the “violent repression” carried out by the Iranian authorities against mostly peaceful demonstrators. “Europe stands fully by their side,” she said, as Iran has been plunged into a total digital blackout for more than 36 hours, preventing the free flow of information.
This imposed silence is not accidental. According to numerous NGOs and dissident figures, it is a smokescreen designed to conceal a brutal crackdown. Iranian filmmakers Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof have warned the international community of a deliberate strategy aimed at hiding the violence committed by regime forces. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, for her part, fears a “behind closed doors massacre,” made easier by the total Internet shutdown.
Since the protest movement began in late December, initially triggered by the sharp rise in the cost of living before turning into a broader rejection of the theocratic system, at least 51 demonstrators, including nine children, have been killed according to the NGO Iran Human Rights. Hundreds of others have been injured or arbitrarily arrested. A heavy toll that reflects a власти that has lost all popular legitimacy.
Despite fear and repression, slogans are echoing from Tehran to Mashhad, from Tabriz to Qom. “Death to Khamenei,” determined crowds chant, defying a regime that now rules only by force. Images even show the symbolic return of the Iranian flag from before 1979, that of the Shah, being raised amid cheering crowds and bonfires. A powerful symbol of a people turning its back on the Islamist ideology imposed for more than four decades.
The former crown prince Reza Pahlavi, a central figure of the opposition in exile, is now calling on Iranians to prepare to take back city centers and occupy public space. Even Donald Trump, never shy of blunt statements, acknowledged that “the people are starting to take control of some cities,” saying the Iranian regime is facing “very big problems.”
This looming fall of the Iranian theocracy is sending shockwaves far beyond Tehran. In Algiers, the military regime, a strategic ally of the mullahs and an active supporter of regional destabilization axes, is watching with anxiety as popular anger sweeps away dictatorships one after another. The similarities are striking: seizure of power, repression of freedoms, constant propaganda and the instrumentalization of ideology to mask economic and social failure.
The collapse of the Iran Hezbollah Syria axis is no longer a distant hypothesis but a dynamic already under way. With it, an entire system of authoritarian regimes built on fear, violence and isolation is also beginning to shake. History is moving forward, and it never spares for long those powers that turn their backs on their people.
Translated from Abderrazzak Boussaid’s French article – le7tv
