MOSCOW, January 15. /TASS/. Aggression and lynchings during street protests in various countries indicate that people have become more violent over the past 20 years and increasingly perceive events as a video game, former Austrian Foreign Minister, head of the G.O.R.K.I. center at St. Petersburg State University Karin Kneissl, told TASS in an interview.
Commenting on the current protest activity in Iran, Kneissl refrained from making predictions about further events, while emphasizing that this is far from "the first time the country has experienced severe protests and equally severe repression." She recalled, in particular, the protests in Iran in 2002, when Mohammad Khatami was president of the Islamic Republic and "promised a great deal to his voters but was unable to deliver those promises."
"Back then, people took to the streets with the question: where are our rights? It was precisely about rights. Economic demands were not yet on the agenda," the former Austrian foreign minister noted. "Now 20 years have passed, and we are observing a process of societal hardening worldwide. The way lynchings occur on the streets today is, in my opinion, less about Iran specifically and more about a general brutalization that, unfortunately, is increasingly manifesting among younger generations."
She emphasized that this trend is not unique to Iran.
"Just look at the United States, how harsh and cruel street clashes have become there. Or look at Israel, how people are treated there. Within this protracted ‘Palestine-Israel’ tragedy, where I lived for two years, there were never such outbreaks of violence in the past as we see today. The Israeli war in Lebanon in 1982 was brutal, but still not as brutal as what is happening now," the diplomat continued.
"I cannot say exactly where this comes from. Perhaps it reflects a general coarsening of society, a breakdown of taboos that seems to happen on its own. Perhaps it's related to the fact that many have begun to perceive events as a video game rather than reality: when people are killed remotely with drones, as Israelis do, or when food supply blockades are imposed, and so on," Kneissl summarized.
Current Iranian protests
At the same time, as the diplomat noted, the current wave of protests in Iran, compared to previous ones, is characterized by "a higher level of violence from the demonstrators." "Perhaps, if I may express my personal assumption, this is related to the emergence of a new generation," she continued. "Economic problems are part of today’s agenda. The social question in 2002 was not as acute. Back then, they genuinely spoke about civil rights and freedom. Those demonstrations in December 2002 were suppressed extremely brutally. This was followed by what were essentially show trials with extremely harsh sentences."
She noted that in conversations with her, younger colleagues shared information that the level of repression at that time was such that a period of calm followed. When protests against former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad began in 2010 after his re-election for a second term, "serious protest actions followed his re-election."
"And I had the impression at the time that external forces were already quite actively interfering. In 2002, I think that wasn’t the case, but during the protests against Ahmadinejad’s re-election, when people took to the streets saying ‘I didn’t vote for him,’ this slogan was later used in other countries, I am almost certain that foreign actors were already at play then," she added.
"At the same time, I remember the numerous waves of protests in Iran well. And if we compare the events of 2002, then 2018, as well as the protests against mandatory hijab a few years ago, we can say that, undoubtedly, external players were already present then as well. However, all of this must be approached with nuance. I would say that the current protests are the result of a combination of many factors. There is no simple black-and-white division here," Kneissl concluded.
The unrest in Iran began on December 29, triggered by protests over the sharp decline of the Iranian rial, which quickly spread across major cities. Authorities reported the deaths of approximately 40 law enforcement officers. Since January 8, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stated that armed terrorists had infiltrated the demonstrators. Tehran has accused Israel and the United States of orchestrating the unrest. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump previously warned that he was seriously weighing the use of force against Iran.