MER Article Letter from Gilan The western road from Tehran to the northern province of Gilan runs for about 270 miles up over the Elborz mountains till it reaches the Caspian port of Enzeli. Leaving Tehran on a clear Saturday morning, the first day of the week, the way is flanked by vendors -- melon sellers and men offering an a Fred Halliday • 7 min read
MER Article The Tudeh Party in Iranian Politics Excerpted from Iran: Dictatorship and Democracy (1979), pp. 227-234: The Tudeh Party was, in contrast to the National Front, an organized political party, indeed, the most organized political force ever seen in Iranian politics. The earlier Communist Party (founded 1921) had been crushed by Reza Kh Fred Halliday • 6 min read
MER Article Interviews with Fedayi, Mojahedin and Tudeh Activists Since the overthrow of the Shah, over 150 distinct political groups have declared their existence in Iran. Of these, the majority are probably groups adhering to some version of revolutionary socialism, and few have as yet a substantial following in the country. Perhaps the largest left-wing group j Fred Halliday • 19 min read
MER Article The Guerrilla Movement in Iran, 1963-1977 One crisp morning in the winter of 1971, thirteen young Iranians armed with rifles, machine guns and hand grenades, attacked the gendarmerie post in the village of Siakal on the edge of the Caspian forests. Killing three gendarmes, they tried to release two colleagues who had been detained a few day Ervand Abrahamian • 36 min read
MER Article Letter from Jordan In July 1979, the Union of Jordanian Engineers held a forum in Amman on the “Economic and Technical Consequences of the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Accord.” The participants expressed the fragile hope that the meeting would lead to similar activities in the future, for Amman is a city bare, not only of g A Special Correspondent • 6 min read
MER Article "The Political Power of the Turkish Bourgeoisie Has Been Increasing with Every Decade" Feroz Ahmad, author of The Turkish Experiment in Democracy, visited Turkey for a month in the summer of 1979, after an absence of two years. On November 12, 1979, MERIP editors Philip Khoury and Joe Stork spoke with him at his home in Boston about recent political developments in Turkey. One featur Feroz Ahmad • 13 min read
MER Article Turkish Politics and Class Struggle, 1950-1975 Feroz Ahmad, The Turkish Experiment in Democracy, 1950-1975 (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1977). Ertugrul Ahmet Tonak, Irvin Cemil Schick • 15 min read
MER Article Egypt's Agriculture in Trouble The horrendous state of the Egyptian economy is a principal factor underlying Sadat’s willingness to address the Knesset in Jerusalem and to make major concessions at Camp David and since. Multiplying shortages, deteriorating infrastructures, and spiraling foreign debts comprise the economic news on Alan Richards • 33 min read
MER Article Vatikiotis, Nasser and His Generation P. J. Vatikiotis, Nasser and His Generation (New York: St. Martins Press, 1978). Black Saturday -- the burning of Cairo on January 26, 1952 -- was a signal of the impending breakdown of the ancient regime. When Cairo went up in flames, so too did the last vestiges of authority held by the tradition Selma Botman • 1 min read
MER Article Gran, Islamic Roots of Capitalism Peter Gran, Islamic Roots of Capitalism: Egypt, 1760-1840 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1979). Eric Davis • 6 min read
MER Article Egyptian Communist Party Communique: "The Elimination of All Voices Opposing the Treaty” An Egyptian Communist Party was first established in the 1918-1920 period, but was not active again until after 1939. In this period, through the late 1950s, there were several communist organizations, the principal one being the Democratic Union for National Liberation. Following the 1952 revolutio (Author not identified) • 6 min read
MER Article A Very Strange Peace Rarely in history has a peace settlement seemed so dismal. The Treaty of Washington between Egypt and Israel was signed on March 26, 1979. Since then there has been little excitement in Egypt about this new era in the nation’s contemporary history. There were several more or less spontaneous gatheri Marie-Christine Aulas • 10 min read
