Gholam Reza Azhari

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Gholam Reza Azhari

Gholam Reza Azhari ( listen ? / I , PersianAudio file / audio sample غلامرضا ازهاری; * 1912 in Shiraz ; † November 5, 2001 ) was General and Prime Minister of Iran.

Life

Gholam Reza Azhari was born in Shiraz in 1912 . Azhari signed up for an officer career in the Iranian army. He was an officer comrade of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi , with whom he attended the war school together. From 1961 to 1963, Azhari was the Shah's military adjutant. In 1970 he retired with the rank of lieutenant general . In 1971 he was recalled to active duty and served as Acting Chairman of the Supreme Command Staff (SCS). General Azhari was part of the United States- trained group of generals, spoke excellent English, and had good contacts with the US military.

After Prime Minister Jafar Sharif-Emami failed with a government of national reconciliation and a political program that had largely met the demands of the clergy and the secular opposition, the demonstrations against the government continued and the demand for the resignation of the Shah and the Establishment of an Islamic Republic were increasingly voiced by protesters, Mohammad Reza Shah wanted to restore law and order through a military government , end the strikes and demonstrations and get the economy going again. Initially, General Gholam Ali Oveisi was under discussion as Prime Minister of a military government. In the end, Mohammad Reza Shah chose General Gholam Reza Azhari. On November 6, 1978, General Azhari became Prime Minister after the resignation of Jafar Sharif-Emami.

General Gholam Reza Azhari, 1978.

Mohammad Reza Shah personally announced the establishment of a military government in a speech, broadcast live on Iranian television, drafted by Seyyed Hossein Nasr, an Islamic philosopher and former rector of Tehran's Aryamehr Technical University, and Reza Qotbi , the head of state television known:

“Dear Iranian nation. In a time of political openness that has been gradually implemented over the past two years, you, the Iranian nation, rose up against oppression and corruption. As King of Iran and as an Iranian, I can only approve of this revolution of the Iranian nation. Unfortunately, in the course of the Iranian Revolution, others conspired to use your feelings and anger to their advantage and to organize riot, anarchy and revolt. The wave of strikes, many of which have been legitimate, has moved away from their original demands in recent months and is about to paralyze our economy and the daily lives of the people, even the oil production on which the economic life of this country depends, bring to a standstill. ...

I understand that as steps are taken to prevent turmoil and anarchy, past mistakes such as repression and oppression can repeat themselves. I am aware that some will think that introducing repressive measures in the name of the national interest and for the sake of the country's progress is intended to instill fear and that the unholy alliance of material and political repression is repeated again. But as your King, who has sworn to protect the country's territorial integrity, national unity and Shiite religion, I repeat my oath before the Iranian nation. I assure you that the mistakes of the past, lawlessness, oppression and corruption will not be repeated and that the damage caused by these mistakes will be made good. I assure you that once law and order are restored, a national government will be appointed as soon as possible to restore basic civil liberties and that free elections will be held to restore the Constitution won with the blood of the Constitutional Revolution can come into force. I heard the message of your revolution, Iranian nation ... "

Mohammad Reza Shah's attempt to lead the Iranian Revolution in order to prevent the Islamic Revolution seemed to him the only way to end the strikes without bloodshed and to get Iran's economy going again. Prime Minister Azhari's policy statement in parliament was met with much applause. Azhari, who was trying to talk to the opposition, seemed to be the right man at the right time.

On the same day that Azhari took over the post of prime minister, however, the attempt by the Iraqi government to expel Khomeini , the leader of the Islamic Revolution and the Shah's most vehement critic, from Najaf to Kuwait had failed. Kuwait refused Khomeini entry, whereupon he traveled back to Baghdad and from there to Paris . Khomeini explained to his supporters that a military government meant nothing more, since "the tanks, machine guns and bayonets were all rusted and would not withstand their iron will."

Khomeini turned out to be right in his assessment. The military government under General Azhari continued the very same policy with which his predecessor, Jafar Sharif-Emami, had already failed. Arrested government opponents have been released from prison, while former ministers, officials and officers have been arrested. Those arrested included Amir Abbas Hoveyda , long-time Prime Minister, Manutschehr Azmun, former Minister without Portfolio, Dariusch Humayun, former Minister for Information and Tourism, Mansur Ruhani, former Minister of Agriculture, General Nassiri , former head of the SAVAK , Manutschehr Nikpay, former Mayor of Tehran, Lieutenant General Sadri, former police chief of Tehran, Abdulazim Valian, former governor of Khorasan , Scheicholeslam Zadeh, former health minister, Nili Aram, former Deputy Minister of Health and Fereidun Mahdavi, a former economy minister. Khomeini commented on the arrests from his exile in Paris with the words

“Now they choose a different route. They are arresting those who, until recently, were the Shah's criminal accomplices. Some of you helped him in all of his crimes for twelve or thirteen years. They arrest the accomplices to protect the real criminal. "

On December 1, 1978, Khomeini attacked the military government directly. On the first day of Muharram , the Shiite month of mourning, he declared that the soldiers of the army should consider it their religious duty to leave the barracks. That night the cry of " Allahu Akbar " was heard for the first time from the rooftops of Tehran . At this point at the latest it had become clear that the military government under General Azhari would not be able to solve the problems, especially since Mohammad Reza Shah had not given his military a free hand to end the ongoing demonstrations and strikes with the use of violent measures. Since Mohammad Reza Shah in his televised address only described the military government as a transitional government until a new national government could be formed, the previous opposition politicians were feverishly looking for a new prime minister who would form a bourgeois government and the one planned for 1979 and in the televised address organized by Mohammad Reza Shah also announced free elections to parliament. In the advisory group of Mohammad Reza Shah, the former Prime Minister Ali Amini and leading figures of the National Front such as Karim Sandjabi or Mehdi Bāzargān were named as possible candidates. But Sanjabi and Bazargan had already met with Khomeini in Paris and agreed with him that they would only belong to one government under his leadership. In mid-December, Mohammad Reza Shah turned to Gholamhossein Sadiqi , an emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Tehran. Sadiqi pledged to assume the post of prime minister if he gets the approval of his colleagues in the National Front. On December 24, 1978, Sadiqi Mohammad Reza Shah had to announce that he had failed to convince the leadership of the National Front to take over the government at this point in time. On December 21, 1978, General Azhari had already told US Ambassador William H. Sullivan: “You must know and you must pass this information on to your government. This country is lost because the Shah cannot decide. "

Further talks about the formation of a government were then held with Shapur Bakhtiar . Bakhtiar, who came from a leading Bakhtiaris family, and whose grandfather Najaf Qoli Chan had been Prime Minister of Iran from July 1911 to December 1912 during the Constitutional Revolution and in 1918 at the end of World War I , was the only National Front candidate to defy The lack of support from his fellow leaders was ready to take over the post of Prime Minister at the suggestion of Mohammad Reza Shah. Shapur Bakhtiar had long been a bitter opponent of Mohammad Reza Shah. This opposition was based less on political differences than on personal enmity. Reza Shah , the father of Mohammad Reza Shah, had ordered the leader of the Bakhtiaris and father of Shapur Bakhtiras to Tehran in the 1930s as part of the crackdown on separatist movements. After he was promised safe conduct, he came to Tehran, but was immediately arrested, tried for high treason, sentenced to death and executed. Despite this personal enmity, Shapur Bakhtiar was prepared to put the country's interests above his personal aversion to Mohammad Reza Shah in this precarious political situation. The conversation between Mohammad Reza Shah and Shapur Bakhtiar was factual and clear. Bakhtiar told Mohammad Reza Shah:

“Your father killed my father. You threw me in jail. I shouldn't have any personal loyalty to your dynasty. But I am firmly convinced that Iran is not yet ready for a democratic republic. And when the nation is ready to be a democracy, it can also take the form of a constitutional monarchy. At the moment, however, our most important task is to stop these barbarians. "

On December 28, 1978, Mohammad Reza asked Shah Shapur Bakhtiar to form a new government. On December 31, 1978, Gholam Reza Azhari resigned from the post of Prime Minister. Further developments should show that even Shahpur Bakhtiar was no longer able to prevent the Islamic Revolution .

Gholam Reza Azhari left Iran after his resignation and died on November 5, 2001 in the USA.

Awards

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Army - Toys and Helpers of the Shah . In: Der Spiegel . No. 47 , 1978 ( online ).
  2. ↑ Gholam Reza Afkhami: Life and Times of the Shah. University of California Press, 2009, p. 480.
  3. ^ Charles Kurzmann: The Unthinkable Revolution in Iran. Harvard Edition, 2004, p. 106 f.
  4. ↑ Gholam Reza Afkhami: Life and Times of the Shah. University of California Press, 2009, p. 486.
  5. ↑ http://www.ghadeer.org/english/imam/imam-books/kauthar2/kuth33.html
  6. ↑ http://www.ghadeer.org/english/imam/imam-books/kauthar2/kuth33.html
  7. ↑ Gholam Reza Afkhami: Life and Times of the Shah . University of California Press, 2009, p. 490.
  8. ^ Sullivan, William H .: Mission to Iran. New York: WW Norton and Company, 1981, p. 212.
  9. ↑ Gholam Reza Afkhami: Life and Times of the Shah . University of California Press, 2009, p. 496.
  10. ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF; 6.9 MB)
personal data
SURNAME Azhari, Gholam Reza
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Iranian politician, Prime Minister of Iran
DATE OF BIRTH 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Shiraz
DATE OF DEATH November 5, 2001