Iran diplomat in Finland resigns to protest hard-liners at home

LA Times ^ | September 11, 2010

[nuconvert]

The No. 2 diplomat at the Iranian Embassy in the Finnish capital, Helsinki, has resigned in protest of the hard-line government in Tehran, Finland's national news agency reported Saturday.

For more than a month before his resignation this week, former charge d'affaires Hossein Alizadeh hadn't been at the embassy, the FNB news agency said.

Alizadeh, a veteran diplomat who reportedly had worked for the Iranian Foreign Ministry for more than 20 years, said he quit because he believed last year's presidential election in Iran was unfair and marked by cheating. He also declared his support for Iran's opposition "green movement."

[sergeantdave]

“The No. 2 diplomat at the Iranian Embassy in the Finnish capital, Helsinki, has resigned in protest of the hard-line government in Tehran...”

Well, hell, Finland will do that to you. The Finns are some of the most morally upright and toughest people on planet Earth.

Few people know this, but before Stalin’s Russian divisions invaded Finland in the 1939 Winter War, the entire population of Finnish children was shipped out of the country so they wouldn’t be harmed in the war.

The Finns are a great people. They have “sisu.” (Sisu means guts, courage, standing your ground.)

[Pontiac]

Where should we send the flowers?

[SuziQ]

Something tells me this man won’t be going home to Iran.

[dfwgator]

Something tells me this man won’t be going home to Iran.

Something tells me his next home is going to be six feet under.

[widdle_wabbit]

We’ve allowed the revisionists to write lesson plans for too long.

I knew nothing of the Finn’s having removed children before the war.

On a lighter note, I once purchased an Ortho book all about Finish Carpentry and was surprised to find that it wasn’t about carpentry in Finland.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks nuconvert.

[Viiksitimali]

During World War II some 70,000 Finnish children (Finnish: sotalapset) were evacuated from Finland, chiefly to Sweden and Denmark, but also to Norway.[1] Most were evacuated during the Continuation War to ease the situation for their parents who set out to rebuild their homes in the re-conquered Karelia returning from the evacuation of Finnish Karelia. The first surge of evacuees arrived, however, during the Winter War when the Finns had reasons to fear a humanitarian catastrophe following the expected Soviet occupation.
Finnish war children