Principles of Solidarity and the Liberation of Persian-Speaking Peoples
By Fayaz Bahraman Najimi, analyst on regional and international affairs, member of the Advisory Council of Sangar
The primary impetus for writing this text, entitled "In Response to the Question: What Is to Be Done? Principles of Solidarity and the Liberation of Persian-Speaking Peoples," arose from the discussions held during the Hamburg Meeting. Those discussions, like a spark, called for a clear, structured, and distraction-free response.
This text was deliberately written using the decimal numbering system (following the model of Ludwig Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus) in order to construct a logical tree of ideas and demonstrate the interconnection of its principles step by step.
As noted in sections 10.9.1 and 10.9.2, the intellectual foundations of this response were formulated and evaluated earlier within the framework of Our Movement. Today, strategic cooperation with the Democratic Republic of Hazaristan represents the practical embodiment of the transition from theory to action.
This text is an intellectual geometry of liberation.
Its conclusion emphasizes that in the absence of practical and constructive action, it is better to abandon empty rhetoric and embrace silence.
1 - The political reality of our time consists of the totality of forces, relationships, and circumstances that determine our destiny today.
1.1. The principal political reality of the Persian-speaking peoples is the fragmentation of their forces and the absence of a common will.
1.1.1. This fragmentation is not merely a political weakness; it is the source of many defeats, disappointments, and the deadlocks we face today.
1.1.2. Under such conditions, our collective energy is not devoted to building the future but is instead exhausted through internal rivalries, mutual suspicion, and conflict.
1.2. No political situation is permanent.
1.2.1. What appears today as the dominant reality is the result of historical actions and human choices.
1.2.2. Therefore, the existing state of affairs is neither fate nor an unchangeable destiny.
1.3. No one can transform their reality without first understanding it properly.
1.3.1. The first step in answering the question "What Is to Be Done?" is an honest and impartial understanding of the present situation.
1.3.2. Until we understand the causes of our own weakness and fragmentation, we cannot create a sustainable political or cultural program.
1.4. Therefore, our principal problem is neither a lack of population, nor the absence of historical heritage, nor a shortage of human talent.
1.4.1. Our principal problem is the inability to transform dispersed potential into a unified collective will.
1.5. Accordingly, the fundamental questions are:
1.5.1. How can we move from fragmentation to solidarity?
1.5.2. How can we unite the forces bound together by a common language and a shared destiny around common goals?
1.5.3. And how can we transform today's fragmented will into tomorrow's organized power?
2 - The answer to the question "What Is to Be Done?" begins with an understanding of contemporary reality.
2.1. The principal weakness of us, the Persian-speaking peoples, lies neither in a lack of numbers, nor of talent, nor of historical heritage.
2.2. Our principal weakness is fragmentation.
2.3. Yet fragmentation is not a self-sustaining reality; it has specific causes and roots.
2.3.1. Among the Tajiks, one of the most significant causes of fragmentation is the predominance of localism over civilizational identity.
2.3.2. Many individuals and groups give precedence to local, regional, or personal affiliations over their broader cultural and historical community.
2.3.3. Under such conditions, our common language, shared culture, and historical memory are displaced by narrow local rivalries.
2.3.4. The consequence is the erosion of solidarity and the inability to forge a unified collective will.
2.4. Another source of fragmentation is the dominance of patronage and clientelist relations.
2.4.1. Within such relationships, loyalty to individuals replaces loyalty to principles.
2.4.2. People rally not around programs, ideas, and shared interests, but around particular personalities and networks of power.
2.4.3. As a result, politics is reduced to a system of personal dependence and loyalty founded upon patron–client relationships.
2.5. This affliction is not confined to the Tajiks alone.
2.5.1. Among the Hazaras, similar forms of localism, personality cults, and clientelist relations also exist.
2.5.2. Therefore, the weakness of solidarity within both communities has common and comparable roots.
2.6. As long as personal loyalties take precedence over shared values, lasting solidarity cannot emerge.
2.6.1. As long as local attachments prevail over civilizational identity, peoples bound by a common destiny will continue to become rivals rather than partners.
2.7. Therefore, the first principle of liberation is as follows:
2.7.1. We must move from localism to civilizational identity.
2.7.2. We must move from a personality-centered approach to a values-based approach.
2.7.3. We must move from patronage and clientelism to relationships founded upon responsibility and participation.
2.7.4. We must transform our common language, culture, and historical memory into the foundation of solidarity.
2.7.5. We must direct the energies of our societies away from exhausting internal rivalries and toward the construction of a shared future.
3 - The Persian language, a shared culture, and a common historical memory are the bridges of our solidarity.
3.1. Solidarity between Tajiks and Hazaras is not an emotional choice but a historical and civilizational necessity.
3.2. Before they were two separate communities, Tajiks and Hazaras were two branches of a single civilizational community.
3.2.1. The Persian language is the principal pillar and the "house of being" of this civilizational community.
3.2.2. Our shared history, common cultural heritage, and the values that have emerged from this civilization constitute its other essential pillars.
3.3. What binds these two communities together is far deeper and more enduring than the religious, local, and political differences that separate them.
3.4. A common language is not merely a means of communication; it is the repository of the collective memory, culture, and consciousness of both peoples.
3.4.1. People who think in the same language possess the potential to unite within a common historical horizon.
3.5. Therefore, the civilizational identity of the Persian-speaking peoples must be rearticulated as the foundation of integration.
3.5.1. Not to eliminate differences, but to incorporate those differences within the framework of a shared destiny.
3.6. Any project that seeks to erect a wall between Tajiks and Hazaras effectively disregards their common foundations.
3.7. Any discourse that relegates our common language, culture, and historical memory to the periphery contributes to the perpetuation of fragmentation and Afghan-Pashtun domination.
3.8. Therefore, the second principle of liberation is as follows:
3.8.1. We must preserve the Persian language as the foremost foundation of our cultural and political solidarity.
3.8.2. We must place our shared civilizational identity above local and religious divisions.
3.8.3. We must build enduring ties among the various Sunni groups, as well as between the political and cultural institutions of both communities.
3.8.4. We must replace historical suspicion with the awareness of a shared destiny.
3.8.5. We must regard solidarity between Tajiks and Hazaras not as a temporary tactic, but as a long-term strategic necessity for our common liberation and survival.
4 - Historical tragedies must be understood, not turned into instruments of division.
4.1. Afshar became a historical tragedy for both communities—Tajiks and Hazaras.
4.2. The tragic nature of these events must never be denied.
4.3. Yet no tragedy should become a permanent prison for the collective memory.
4.4. History exists to be understood, not to imprison those who inherit it.
4.5. The annual revival of the memory of the Afshar events has become an expression of deliberate and regrettable hostility on the part of certain segments of both the Tajik and Hazara communities, who consciously sustain the presence of this tragedy in the public consciousness.
4.6. Those who continuously inflame debates surrounding this tragedy are, in effect, advancing the preservation of Afghan-Pashtun domination and acting in its support.
4.7. If the remembrance of Afshar serves to prevent the repetition of past mistakes, then history becomes a teacher of the future.
4.8. Those who persistently deepen divisions between Tajiks and Hazaras belong to one of two categories:
4.8.1. Either they fail to understand history properly.
4.8.2. Or they fail to recognize the political consequences of their own words.
4.9. The practical outcome of such rhetoric has never been the strengthening of either Tajiks or Hazaras.
4.10. Its practical outcome has been, and continues to be, the weakening of both communities.
4.11. Politics should be judged by its results.
4.12. Any discourse that sets speakers of the same language against one another, whether consciously or unconsciously, serves to preserve fragmentation and perpetuate Afghan-Pashtun domination.
4.13. Therefore, the third principle of liberation is as follows:
4.13.1. We must transform historical memory into strategic consciousness.
4.13.2. We must speak the truth.
4.13.3. But truth must never become an instrument of hatred; it must serve instead as a space for constructive dialogue and transformation.
5 - No liberation is possible without the decolonization of consciousness.
5.1. A dependent consciousness cannot build an independent society.
5.2. Dependence is, first and foremost, intellectual before it is political.
5.3. When a society views reality through the eyes of others, it loses the ability to define its own interests independently.
5.4. Freedom begins with consciousness.
5.5. Therefore, the fourth principle of liberation is as follows:
5.5.1. We must think for ourselves.
5.5.2. We must avoid blind imitation.
5.5.3. We must place our collective interests above external dependencies.
5.5.4. We must regard ourselves as subjects of history rather than its objects.
6 - Liberation requires a transition from the culture of muridism to the culture of rational thought.
6.1. As noted above, one of the greatest obstacles to the awakening of our people is the dominance of a culture of muridism and unquestioning obedience to leaders.
6.2. Within this distinctly pre-modern culture, the cult of personality and personalism take the place of ideas and critical thought.
6.3. Loyalty to individuals replaces loyalty to principles.
6.4. Criticism of such individuals is perceived as an act of betrayal.
6.5. The impulse to ask questions is suppressed, and despotism takes its place.
6.6. Yet no free society has ever been built upon the deification of individuals.
6.7. Therefore, the fifth principle of liberation is as follows:
6.7.1. We must overcome the cult of personality.
6.7.2. We must make progressive civilizational thought our guiding principle.
6.7.3. We must regard no individual as being above criticism.
6.7.4. We must derive legitimacy from programs and ideas, rather than from the prominence of particular individuals.
6.7.5. We must replace individual authority with collective reason.
7 - Solidarity cannot endure without organization.
7.1. Dispersed discontent does not create power.
7.2. Power is the product of organization.
7.3. A dream without structure cannot produce results.
7.4. Therefore, the sixth principle of liberation is as follows:
7.4.1. We must build networks of cooperation.
7.4.2. We must establish intellectual and cultural institutions.
7.4.3. We must forge an organic and dialectical relationship among intellectuals, educated women and men, and the younger generation.
7.4.4. We must develop a common discourse on identity, culture, historical critique, the paths to liberation, and other related issues.
7.4.5. We must overcome our present fragmentation.
7.4.6. Every conscious individual must regard themselves as part of a greater mission.
7.4.7. And that greater mission is to transform the very paradigm of our thinking and conduct in the struggle.
8 - The language of struggle must change.
8.1. Language is not merely a means of expression; it is also an instrument for shaping reality.
8.2. A language filled with humiliation, insults, and hostility toward one another cannot become the language of liberation.
8.3. No society has ever been built through its own perpetual self-destruction.
8.4. Therefore, the seventh principle of liberation is as follows:
8.4.1. We must replace destructive rhetoric with responsible speech.
8.4.2. Instead of producing hatred, we must strengthen trust among the Persian-speaking peoples.
8.4.3. Instead of attacking those who share our common destiny, we must devote ourselves to constructive, future-oriented criticism.
9 - The future is being created today.
9.1. The future does not begin tomorrow.
9.2. The future is already present in the relationships we build with one another today.
9.3. A society that does not learn to cooperate today will not be capable of cooperation tomorrow.
9.4. A society that does not trust others today will not be able to build common institutions tomorrow.
9.5. Therefore, the eighth principle of liberation is as follows:
9.5.1. We must begin learning solidarity today.
9.5.2. We must begin cooperating today.
9.5.3. We must begin building institutions today.
9.5.4. We must begin creating a common language today.
10 - The final answer to the question "What Is to Be Done?" is clear.
10.1. We must move from pre-modern localism to solidarity.
10.2. We must move from religious and subjective prejudice to a shared civilizational identity.
10.3. We must move from the memory of vengeance to a memory grounded in historical understanding and tolerance, centered on the values of "Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds."
10.3.1. This threefold axiom defines the moral and logical boundaries of our world. To cross these boundaries is to leave the realm of civilization and descend into the abyss of barbarism.
10.4. We must transform the culture of muridism and unquestioning obedience into a culture of rational thought.
10.5. We must move from passivity to organization.
10.6. We must affirm the understanding that Tajiks and Hazaras are not rivals, but partners united by a common historical destiny.
10.7. We must create a common language, a common program, and a common vision of the future.
10.8. We must transform today's fragmented strength into tomorrow's collective will.
10.9. What we create must not remain a slogan, but must be embodied in our actions.
10.9.1. Although the question "What Is to Be Done?" was raised once again during the Hamburg Meeting, it essentially reiterates principles whose intellectual foundations and logical necessity had already been formulated and substantiated within the framework of Our Movement.
10.9.2. Accordingly, our strategic cooperation with the Democratic Republic of Hazaristan represents the first practical example of moving beyond the abstract realm of theory and transforming words into deeds in the arena of political practice.
10.10. Liberation begins the moment we assume responsibility for bringing it into being.
Therefore, solidarity, organization, consciousness, and collective action can become reality only when we move from words to deeds.
Where practical and creative action is absent, empty rhetoric should be abandoned, and silence should be preferred.
