Voilà une des lettres type que j’ai reçu pendant une bonne trentaine d’années. Et à les relire, et a considérer les arguments les uns derrière les autres, on finit presque par comprendre pourquoi la guerre.
Dear Friends,
I am writing to express my concern regarding your articleq and maps. I am very disappointed to see that the Persian Gulf is erroneously referred to as The Gulf. I do not know where to begin to express my sheer outrage and disappointment in this.
As a respected organization, how is this mistake allowed to take place” I sincerely hope it is not an intentional doing. If so,
let me explain why this should not be allowed to take place.
The Persian Gulf has always been known as just that, the Persian Gulf. The country with the largest single maritime boarder along it is Iran, and in Iran the majority (51% according to The World Factbook 2003) are ethnic Persians. This puts the numbers at roughly 34 million Persians out of 67 million
Iranians. The official language is also Persian. Many people are under the false assumption that Persia changed its name to Iran, when in fact this is not the case.
Persia still exists today, as a large southwestern province in Iran. Persia was always but one piece of the Iranian Empire. Its central piece, and all the emperors, even up until modern times, were Persian. Iran is just the name of the Empire, because it encompasses more than just Persia (such as
Kurdistan, Azerbaijan, Baluchistan, etc.). In 1935 the Emperor, or Shah, of Iran officially asked all world leaders to refer to the nation as Iran, not Persia, which is but one part of Iran. It is similar to England versus United Kingdom or Holland versus The Netherlands. Officially calling England the United Kingdom does not mean that the English do not exist anymore.
So why has this most unfortunate fate been assigned to the Persians. In Persian, the word Persia is pronounced Pars hence the native way of saying the language, Parsi, Perisan Gulf, or Khalije Pars has been the accepted name of that body of water since ancient times, not just by Persians, but by all Iranians, and indeed, all neighboring Asians, such as Arabs, Indians, and Turks. It is also officially used by all European nations.
There are many corrupt Arab leaders who insist on calling the Persian Gulf, The Gulf or worse yet, the Arabian Gulf. This is not for cultural or historic reasons, but rather for their own selfish purposes to express their power to foreign investors, and to try to take advantage of Iran‚s current unfortunate political situation.
If respected organizations, and Newspaper allow these corrupt Arab leaders to systematically attack the respect and cultural integrity of the Persians, it will destroy a piece of history
forever. Persians do not deserve this unjust treatment. Arabs have the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and the Gulf of Oman. Calling it The Gulf is not only unwarranted, but also violates an entire people‚s cultural heritage.
Besides, there are literally hundreds of gulfs in the world ! Both the United States and Mexico touch the Gulf of Mexico, but it is still called the Gulf of Mexico; the same holds true for the English Channel, which is half French.
I urge you to take back this damage and refer to this body of water as the Persian Gulf in your future articles and on your website. It is not too late to reverse this terrible damage.
Sincerely,
XX
Teaching Assistant & Fellow Department of Anthropology
University of XX in United States
