Iran
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| Islamic Republic of Iran جمهوری اسلامی ایران |
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| National motto: | n/a | ||||
| National anthem: | Sorood-e Melli-e Jomhoori-e Eslami | ||||
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| About the people | |||||
| Official languages: | Persian | ||||
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| Capital city: | Tehran | ||||
| Largest city: | Tehran | ||||
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| Politics / Government | |||||
| Established: | Islamic Revolution April 1, 1979 |
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| Leaders: | Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad |
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| Time zone: | +03:30 | ||||
| Telephone dialing code: | 98 | ||||
| Internet domain: | .IR | ||||
Iran (ايران) is a country in Southwest Asia. It has the same borders with Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey, and Turkmenistan. Tehran is the capital and the biggest city.
[edit] History
This country was called Persia for a long time by people outside Iran. But Iranians (people who are from Iran) always called their country "Iran." The name Iran is drived from "Aryan" and is also mentioned in the ancient book of the Zoroastrians, called Avesta.
People have lived there since before history. Around 3200 BC it was the centre of the Persian Empire. Then, Alexander the Great took the country by fighting and the Arsacid dynasty of Parthia later ruled. After them the Sassanian dynasty (AD 224-651) took over.
Other people took Persia by fighting like the Arabs (7th century), Turks (10th century) and Mongols (13th century). However, Iran has always maintained a distinct culture and continues to survive. The Safavid dynasty (1502-1736) made Islam the religion of Iran although Islam was always popular then. The Pahlavi dynasty ruled from 1925 until 1979, when there was a revolution and Ayatollah Khomeini created an Islamic republic.
In 1951 Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh was brought to power after being unanimously elected as prime minister by the parliament in Iran. His first act in office was to nationalize the oil industry in Iran which had been controlled by Great Britain.(Most of Britain's oil was pumped from Iran at the time) This move was seen as a danger to Great Britain's security and empire so they attempted unsuccessfuly to overthrow the government. After this they convinced the U.S. through diplomacy that the government of Iran was a communist threat.
The CIA worked in Iran to create riots which ultimately led to the removal of Prime Minister Mossadegh. The U.S. and Great Britain then installed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as leader of Iran. This was done so the Shah would owe his power to them and thus they could remain in control of Iran and ultimately its oil.
The words "Iran" and "Iraq" are similar only in Latin alphabet. In Arabic/Persian, they are different. They are spelled "ايران" and "عراق" respectively.
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Iran
| Countries and territories of Asia |
|
Afghanistan | Armenia2 | Azerbaijan | Bahrain | Bangladesh | Bhutan | Brunei | Cambodia | China (PRC) | Cyprus2 | East Timor | Gaza Strip | Georgia2 | Hong Kong3 | India | Indonesia | Iran | Iraq | Israel | Japan | Jordan | Kazakhstan | Kuwait | Kyrgyzstan | Laos | Lebanon | Macau3 | Malaysia | Maldives | Mongolia | Myanmar | Nepal | North Korea | Oman | Pakistan | Philippines | Qatar | Russia1 | Saudi Arabia | Singapore | South Korea | Sri Lanka | Syria | Taiwan (ROC) | Tajikistan | Thailand | Turkey1 | Turkmenistan | United Arab Emirates | Uzbekistan | Vietnam | West Bank | Yemen |
| 1. Includes territory in both Europe and Asia. 2. Usually thought of as Asia, but sometimes counted as part of Europe for cultural and historical reasons. 3. Special territories. |
