Jafar Sharif-Emami

Sharif-Emami

Jafar Sharif-Emami ( Persian جعفر شریف‌امامی, also Jafar Sharif-Emami ; * September 8, 1910 in Tehran ; † June 16, 1998 in New York City ) was Minister in several cabinets, Prime Minister of Iran, President of the Senate , Vice President of the Pahlavi Foundation and President of the Iranian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Life

School and study

Jafar Sharif-Emami was born on September 8, 1910 in Tehran. After high school, Jafar was sent to the Reichsbahnzentralschule in Kirchmöser in Mark Brandenburg in Germany, along with 30 other school leavers . After 18 months of training, he returned to Iran in 1930, where he began his professional career as a foreman on the Trans-Iranian Railroad, which was under construction, with a monthly salary of 40 tomans ($ 20).

Professional career

Lessons at the Reichsbahn-Zentralschule, 1930.

While working for the railroad, he took a distance learning degree in electrical engineering. Before he graduated, the Iranian railway company sent him to Sweden to study. After three years of studies, he returned as an engineer and continued his professional career with the railway company.

He worked for the railroad until the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran in 1941. After the occupation of Iran by British and Soviet troops, the railroad was taken over by the Allies as part of the Persian Corridor and used to transport military goods from the Persian Gulf to the Soviet Union used. Jafar Sharif-Emami was seen as a potential saboteur due to his training in Germany and was therefore arrested in 1943 as a precaution.

After the end of the Second World War, Sharif-Emami became General Director of the Irrigation Agency. In June 1950, Sharif-Emami was entrusted with his first ministerial post as Minister of Transport in the cabinet of Prime Minister Ali Razmara .

After the assassination of Ali Razmara and the appointment of Mohammad Mossadegh as prime minister, Sharif-Emami was one of the politicians who opposed Mossadegh. Then his wife came from a family whose members for leadership circle of co-founded by Mossadeq National Front were, and Mossadegh was hiding after his fall in a house the family of his wife, it was at the end of Sharif Emami, who with General Fazlollah Zahedi over negotiated the security guarantees for Mossadegh before Mossadegh surrendered to Zahedi's forces.

Sharif-Emami was director of the planning authority under Prime Minister Zahedi. In 1955 he moved to the Senate . In the cabinet of Prime Minister Manutschehr Eghbal , Sharif-Emami took over a ministerial post as Minister for Industry.

Prime Minister 1960–1961

In the spring of 1960 the parliamentary elections were due and Mohammad Reza Shah wanted to finally hold free elections in Iran after the traumatic experiences of the Mossadegh era. The attempt to hold elections under Prime Minister Eghbal that could even have been remotely considered free and secret elections ended in fiasco. The parliamentary elections in spring 1960 were neither free nor secret. The election results were so obviously manipulated that Mohammad Reza Shah looked for a way to have the elections repeated. He called on the MPs to give back their mandate and pave the way for new elections. The MPs followed this request from Mohammad Reza Shah. Prime Minister Eghbal also resigned on August 31, 1960, paving the way for the new Prime Minister Jafar Sharif-Emami.

New parliamentary elections were then held in January and February 1961, which, according to diplomats at the American embassy, ​​did not differ significantly from the elections in August 1960. In May 1961 there were nationwide strikes and demonstrations and Prime Minister Sharif-Emami announced his resignation.

President of the Senate

In the following years, Jafar Sharif-Emami became President of the Senate and head of the Pahlavi Foundation . Under Sharif-Emami, the foundation expanded its economic activities considerably. It invested in factories, hotels and casinos. Jafar Sharif-Emami came under increasing suspicion of enriching himself by awarding government contracts and investing in the Pahlavi Foundation. There may have been reasons for his being given the title of "Mister 5 percent" in press articles.

Prime Minister August - November 1978

In 1978, on the eve of the collapse of Iran's constitutional monarchy, Sharif-Emami was appointed Prime Minister for the second time on August 27. Sharif-Emami's family was closely associated with the clergy. He should form a government of "national reconciliation" and win back the clergy for the constitutional monarchy under Mohammad Reza Shah through political reforms. In his inaugural address, Sharif-Emami stated that his government of national reconciliation wanted to heal the wounds that had arisen, respect the constitution, uphold the people's rights and meet the wishes of the clergy. Sharif-Emami ordered the replacement of the newly introduced old Persian calendar with the Islamic calendar, the dissolution of the Rastachiz Party, the Iranian Unity Party, and the closure of amusement arcades and casinos. Political prisoners close to the clergy were released from prisons. In return, people who had previously served the constitutional monarchy were imprisoned on charges of corruption and human rights violations. All officials received a raise to offset inflationary losses.

The result of this policy was catastrophic. Inflation continued to rise. The military and political tasks of the army and secret police had become completely unclear. Politicians loyal to the government were uncertain about the Shah's future political course, while the opposition saw itself on the right track and pushed for the overthrow of the government and the Shah. Khomeini declared: “We will not make peace at the expense of the blood of our martyrs. Closing casinos and cabarets is only intended to deceive the people and their spiritual leaders. No party, front or movement will make peace with this government. Peace with this government only means enslaving the people and betraying the nation. ”The National Front demanded the dissolution of the SAVAK and, alongside the established political groups, new parties suddenly emerged with self-appointed leaders who also felt called upon in their names of the people to make demands on the government.

On September 4, 1978, at the end of the fasting month of Ramadan , the followers of Khomeini turned a festival of breaking the fast organized by the merchants of the bazaar into a large demonstration against Mohammad Reza Shah. The monarch, who had given a reception for the diplomatic corps of the Islamic states that day, was shocked. He had never been criticized so openly and bluntly by demonstrators since the days of Mossadegh . Up until now he was still convinced that the political demands of the opposition, which were now publicly formulated as an expression of the freedom rights he and the Sharif-Emami government had decreed, could be met with reforms. But Khomeini wanted more than just reforms and on September 6, 1978 urged his supporters not to give in and not to be satisfied with the government's reform offers.

On September 7, 1978 there was another large demonstration with demands for political freedom, the release of all political prisoners, the dissolution of the SAVAK and the establishment of an Islamic government led by Khomeini. For the first time, the call was made to abolish the constitutional monarchy and establish an Islamic republic. Several thousand Khomeini supporters had gathered on Jaleh Square and chanted "Death to the Shah". The government had convened the National Security Council. Prime Minister Sharif-Emami said he had information that Islamist groups were planning to gather in Jaleh Square on September 8, then march to the nearby parliament to occupy parliament and proclaim an Islamic republic . It was agreed to declare a state of emergency for the next day and appoint General Oveisi as military governor of Tehran.

Jaleh Square on September 8, 1978

On Friday, September 8, 1978 (17th Shahrivar 1357), the political clashes between the government and the opposition came to a head - they went down in Iran's history as Black Friday . The government had mobilized troops to put a stop to further demonstrations in Tehran. On Jaleh Square, a square in downtown Tehran, soldiers wanted to stop a march with shots in the air. A few minutes later, dead demonstrators and police were lying in the square without it being clear at first how the fatal shots had come about. The Islamist groups spread the news that "thousands of peaceful demonstrators had been massacred by Zionist troops." The demonstrators were allegedly shot at from tanks and helicopters. Indeed, there were even witnesses who claimed that the Shah personally shot the demonstrators from a helicopter. The story of the "Jaleh Square Massacre" was born. What really happened that day was investigated by the military and reported to the press by Minister of Information Ameli Tehrani. Tehrani said the number of people killed and injured in clashes with security forces across Tehran that day was 86 dead and 205 wounded, 64 of whom were killed in Jaleh Square. He said that the troops in Jaleh Square were shot at and that they shot back. Trained professional agitators in Libya and Palestine had joined the march of demonstrators , who were supposed to fuel the mood. In the cabinet it was said that in addition to the 64 demonstrators, 70 police officers and soldiers were killed in the exchange of fire on Jaleh Square, but this should not be announced.

The news of "15,000 dead and wounded" spread by the opposition groups sparked further nationwide demonstrations against the government and ultimately led to a general strike that also affected the oil industry . Nobody wanted to believe the official figures of the 64 dead protesters in Jaleh Square.

The “Jaleh Square massacre” sealed the fate of Prime Minister Sharif-Emami's government and, as it soon turned out, that of Mohammad Reza Shah too. On November 5, 1978, Tehran was on fire. Administrative buildings of foreign companies, cinemas, shops where alcohol was sold, buses, cars and, above all, bank buildings were set on fire by opposition groups. Almost 400 bank branches were set on fire that day. Prime Minister Sharif-Emami's government of national reconciliation had failed with its policy of concessions to the opposition. On November 6, 1978, Jafar Sharif-Emami resigned and left Iran a little later.

Death in exile

Jafar Sharif-Emami died on June 16, 1998 in New York City .

Investigations carried out after the Islamic Revolution on the events of September 8, 1978 revealed that the initially widespread figure of “15,000 dead and wounded” increased to 84 dead and an unspecified number of wounded, 64 of them dead on Jaleh Square. had to be reduced. This confirms the figures announced by Information Minister Ameli Tehrani before the Islamic Revolution.

See also

• Political Development of Iran

literature

• Abbas Milani: Eminent Persians. The men and women who made modern Iran, 1941–1979. Volume 1. Syracus University Press et al., Syracus NY et al. 2008, ISBN 978-0-8156-0907-0 , pp. 305-310.
• Habib Ladjevardi: Memoirs of Sharif-Emami . Ibex, Bethesda MD 1999, ISBN 0-932885-22-5 ( Harvard Iranian oral history series 7), (Farsi).

Web links

• A question of numbers

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Abbas Milani: Eminent Persians, Syracuse University Press, 2008, p. 306.
2. ↑ Abbas Milani: Eminent Persians, Syracuse University Press, 2008, p. 307.
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Alireza Avsati: Iran in the last 3 Centuries. Tehran, 2003. Vol. 1 ISBN 964-93406-6-1 Vol2 ISBN 964-93406-5-3
4. ↑ Abbas Milani: Eminent Persians, Syracuse University Press, 2008, p. 308.
5. ↑ ^{a b} Gholam Reza Afkhami: The life and times of the Shah. University of California Press, 2009, p. 461.
6. ↑ Abbas Milani: Eminent Persians, Syracuse University Press, 2008, p. 310.
7. ↑ Gholam Reza Afkhami: The life and times of the Shah. University of California Press, 2009, p. 464.
8. ↑ Gholam Reza Afkhami: The life and times of the Shah. University of California Press, 2009, p. 465.
9. ↑ Ervand Abrahamian: History of Modern Iran, Cambridge University Press, 2008, pp. 160f.