Utterly incoherent how he goes from Athens, where he denigrated Persia as the eternal Other in a clash with Western "civilization," to this embrace of Samarkand, a city that's wholly bound up in Persian "civilization," if talking about civilizations is so important to you.
Few places on Earth have historically played such an important role in global trade and commerce as Samarkand.
It’s an honor to be here today — not just to remember the history, but the opportunities for the future.