A few years ago, in August 2019, I was invited to the Counterpoint Belgrade seminar ("The Role of Art in Times of Crisis and War") due to the translation of my books into Serbian.

This one-day conference was hosted by Vladan Vukosavljević, the Minister of Culture of Serbia, and invited artists such as Zhang Xiching from China, Emir Kusturica, the famous Serbian director, Mehmed Baždarević from Serbia, Slobodan Despot from Switzerland, and German Sadulayev from Russia. It was held in the hall of the Belgrade Cinema Museum, and my invitation was signed by the then Minister of Culture of Serbia.

Because of the seminar's theme("The Role of Art in Times of Crisis and War"), I had brought with me several non-governmental, popular experiences from myself and my friends. These included organizing book-reading competitions from the memoirs of dedicated men and women from the Iran-Iraq war, which we had held in my country's prisons and which were very well received. I also brought films about programs that reduced the damaging psychological impact of the eight-year war, first for Iranian and then for Iraqi children. I showed these at the seminar for the audience and the Minister himself. 

The Minister found these experiences very interesting and noteworthy, and on the final night, during the farewell dinner, he pulled me aside. While praising these popular initiatives and book-reading competitions for fostering better human thought and behavior among prisoners and criminals, he asked me to help in any way possible so that these competitions, using books of memoirs from Serbian generals and heroes of the Yugoslav secession wars, could also be held in their country's prisons.

With all due respect to the Minister, I told him I had three simple questions. If he answered yes to these questions, I would definitely implement this experience in their prisons.

My first question was: "Mr.Minister, do you have a general in the Serbian army who, during a ground attack, is always ahead of the most junior soldier?"

He said, "No, because a general's place is in the command posts at the rear, not on the front lines."

My second question was: "In your recent wars,do you have a commander whose death would make all the people of your country and his soldiers weep as if they had lost their father or older brother?"

I remember precisely that after a short pause, he gestured with his head, meaning no.

"And now,Mr. Minister, the third question. If your answer were truly yes, I would disregard the two previous negative answers and return to your country free of charge to conduct the book-reading competitions with the memoirs of Serbian generals and heroes in your country's prisons."

"And my question is: Do you have a commander in Serbia who, after several years of fighting the armies of Kosovo and Bosnia, all the soldiers and commanders of these two formerly enemy countries would be willing to fight selflessly for his cause, without any material incentive, and even die for it?"

The Minister's answer was clear to me beforehand; he had no answer other than "no."

Finally, I told him: "Whenever you find such commanders—not just in Serbia, but in the entire Western world—know that you can certainly use their memoirs from your wars to turn criminals in prisons into good people."

Seven years after this conference, I still firmly believe that the West never truly understands the people of the East, and in its highest echelons of statesmanship and militarism, it has never comprehended the genuine human pleasure of being a real role model for the betterment of others.

Otherwise, instead of learning from their own mistaken experiences in the East, individuals like [Zelenskyy], Netanyahu, and Trump would not have become the practical heroes of their lives.

Can these three individuals, with all the Western media's propaganda, truly be good role models for all of our children in life?

Ponder the answer to this fourth question, just like the Serbian Minister of Culture did.