Iran=Aryan=Nazi?

It has never changed... It has always been called Iran by Iranians, always.  Reza Shah requested that the name Iran be recognised internationally in 1936, as Persia was not representative of Iran's ethnic groups.

That is not the rationale put forth in Iran at the time, although Iran, like the USA and many other countries did have links with the Germans  -

No connection between Iran and Nazis?

9. In order to help the listener to better understand the historical relationship between Iran and Nazi Germany, Mr. Emory presents an article by Edwin Black, the author of The War Against the Weak, IBM and the Holocaust, and The Transfer Agreement. �Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has shot to the forefront of Holocaust denial with his rabble-rousing remarks last month. But it's more like self-denial. The president of Iran need only look to his country's Hitler-era past to discover that Iran and Iranians were strongly connected to the Holocaust and the Hitler regime, as was the entire Islamic world under the leadership of the mufti of Jerusalem. Iran's axis with the Third Reich began during the prewar years, when it welcomed Nazi Gestapo agents and other operatives to Tehran, allowing them to use the city as a base for Middle East agitation against the British and the region's Jews. Key among these German agents was Fritz Grobba, Berlin's envoy to the Middle East, who was often called �the German Lawrence,� because he promised a Pan-Islamic state stretching from Casablanca to Tehran. Relations between Berlin and Tehran were strong from the moment Hitler came to power in 1933. At that time, Reza Shah Pahlavi's nation was known as Persia. The shah became a stalwart admirer of Hitler, Nazism and the concept of the Aryan master race. He also sought the Reich's help in reducing British petro-political domination.� (�Denial of Holocaust Nothing New in Iran Ties to Hitler Led to Plots Against British and Jews� by Edwin Black; San Francisco Chronicle; 1/8/2006; accessed at: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/01/08/INGODGH99Q1.DTL.)

10. �So intense was the shah's identification with the Third Reich that in 1935 he renamed his ancient country �Iran,� which in Farsi means Aryan and refers to the Proto-Indo-European lineage that Nazi racial theorists and Persian ethnologists cherished. The idea for the name change was suggested by the Iranian ambassador to Germany, who came under the influence of Hitler's trusted banker, Hjalmar Schacht. From that point, all Iranians were constantly reminded that their country shared a common bond with the Nazi regime.� (Idem.)

11. Note the presence in this sequence of events of Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. The Grand Mufti was the first leader of the Palestinian movement and an individual whose presence figures prominently in the history of World War II, the Middle East, international fascism and the events in and around 9/11. (For more about the Grand Mufti, see�among other programs�FTR#�s 354, 414, 416, 456.) �Shortly after World War II broke out in 1939, the Mufti of Jerusalem crafted a strategic alliance with Hitler to exchange Iraqi oil for active Arab and Islamic participation in the murder of Jews in the Mideast and Eastern Europe. This was predicated on support for a pan-Arab state and Arab control over Palestine. During the war years, Iran became a haven for Gestapo agents. It was from Iran that the seeds of the abortive 1941 pro-Nazi coup in Baghdad were planted. After Churchill's forces booted the Nazis out of Iraq in June 1941, German aircrews supporting Nazi bombers escaped across Iraq's northern border back into Iran. Likewise, the mufti of Jerusalem was spirited across the border to Tehran, where he continued to call for the destruction of the Jews and the defeat of the British.� (Idem.)

12. �His venomous rhetoric filled the newspapers and radio broadcasts in Tehran. The mufti was a vocal opponent of allowing Jewish refugees to be transported or ransomed into Jewish Palestine. Instead, he wanted them shipped to the gas chambers of Poland. In the summer of 1941, the mufti, with the support of key Iranian military and government leaders, advocated implementing in Iran what had failed months earlier in Iraq. The plan once again was for a total diversion of oil from the Allies to the Nazis, in exchange for the accelerated destruction of the Jews in Eastern Europe and the Nazis' support for an Arab state. Through the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co., Iran had already been supplying Hitler's forces in occupied Czechoslovakia and Austria. Now, the mufti agitated to cut off the British and the Allies completely and supply Germany in its push against Russia.� (Idem.)

13. �In October 1941, British, USSR other allied forces invaded Iran to break up the Iran-Nazi alliance. Pro-Nazi generals and ministers were arrested, and the shah's son was installed in power. The mufti scampered into the Italian embassy, where he shaved his beard and dyed his hair. In this disguise, he was allowed to leave the country along with the rest of the Italian delegation. Once the mufti relocated permanently to Berlin, where he established his own Reich-supported �bureau,� he was given airtime on Radio Berlin. From Berlin and other fascist capitals in Europe, the mufti continued to agitate for international Jewish destruction, as well as a pan-Islamic alliance with the Nazi regime.� (Idem.)

14. �He called upon all Muslims to �kill the Jews wherever you see them.� In Tehran's marketplace, it was common to see placards that declared, �In heaven, Allah is your master. On Earth, it is Adolf Hitler.� When the mufti raised three divisions of Islamic Waffen SS to undertake cruel operations in Bosnia, among the 30,000 killers were some volunteer contingents from Iran. Iranian Nazis, along with the other Muslim Waffen SS, operated under the direct supervision of Heinrich Himmler and were responsible for barbarous actions against Jews and others in Bosnia. Recruitment for the murderous �Handschar Divisions� was done openly in Iran. Iran and its leaders were not only aware of the Holocaust, they played both sides. The country offered overland escape routes for refugee Jews fleeing Nazi persecution to Israel -- and later fleeing postwar Iraqi fascist persecution -- but only in exchange for extortionate passage fees.� (Idem.)

From:  http://ftrsummary.blogspot.com/2006/09/ftr-565-middle-east-matrix.html