Islamic Revolution

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The Islamic Revolution ( Persian انقلاب اسلامی Enqelāb-e Eslāmi ),also known as the “Iranian Revolution” by secular groups, was a complex movement that led to the ousting of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in 1979and the end of the monarchy in Iran . It is also called Revolution 57 (Enghelāb-e Pandschah o Haft) , after the revolutionary year of 1357 in the Iranian calendar . A symbolic figure and later revolutionary leader was the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini , who from 1979 against other revolutionary and secular groupsenforcedhis state concept of the reign of the clergy ( Welāyat-e Faqih , "governor of the legal scholar") partly with force and became the new head of state.

The first demonstrations against the Shah, led by Ruhollah Khomeini, took place in June 1963. With the protests supported by the freedom movement (Nehzat-e Azadi) around Mehdi Bāzargān , a member of the party alliance of the National Front , the reform program of the White Revolution of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, above all the abolition of large estates and the introduction of women's suffrage , was to be prevented .

Following political liberalization under pressure from US President Jimmy Carter in 1977, the demonstrations initiated by Khomeini revived in January 1978. Between August and December 1978 organized strikes with the support of the National Front paralyzed the country's economy. The Shah left the country in mid-January 1979 and two weeks later Ayatollah Khomeini, who had been deported abroad in 1964, returned to Tehran from his French exile , where he was greeted by a cheering crowd. The constitutional monarchy finally collapsed on February 11, 1979 at the latest, when guerrilla groups and armed Islamist revolutionaries attacked sections of the army loyal to the Shah in street fighting. On April 1, 1979, the previous form of government of the monarchy was abolished as a result of a previously held referendum and replaced by the new form of government of the Islamic Republic .

Ruhollah Khomeini on his return from exile on February 1, 1979 at the airport in Tehran. Above left: Sadegh Ghotbzadeh

prehistory

The Shiite clergy ( ʿUlamā ' ) always had a great influence on the part of the Iranian population that was religious and conservative and rejected Western influences in Iranian society. That the clergy was a significant political force in Iran in 1891 was seen in the recent history of tobacco movement that each one of Naser al-Din Shah Qajar granted concession taught that the entire tobacco trade in Iran to the British Imperial Tobacco Corporation had awarded .

A few years later, Shiite clergy took part in the constitutional revolution (1905 to 1911) in the overthrow of the absolutist monarchy and the establishment of a constitutional monarchy with a constitution and a parliament. During the Constitutional Revolution there were heated discussions between the clergy and the bourgeois forces about the role Islam should play in the constitution. In his writings, revolutionary leader Khomeini referred directly to Sheikh Fazlollah Nuri , who was hanged by the constitutionalists in 1909, and referred to him as a role model who fought for the supremacy of religion in the political system of Iran. Nuri had pushed through in the constituent assembly that a commission of Shiite clergy should review every law passed by parliament to ensure that it does not contravene the laws of Islam; otherwise it is void.

Decades later, the clergy and Reza Shah Pahlavi , who had previously been in force until then, replaced the Islamic laws and courts with a modern Western legal system in 1927 , banned the wearing of the hijab and introduced coeducational education in schools.

In 1941 Reza Shah Pahlavi had to resign after the Anglo-Soviet invasion under British pressure. His son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi succeeded him on the throne. Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi sought reconciliation with the clergy and invited the ayatollahs who had fled to Iraq to return to Iran.

In 1953, an operation conducted by US and UK intelligence led to the overthrow of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh . With the secret service operation, which went down in history as Operation Ajax, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's position of power was further consolidated. Mossadegh had implemented the nationalization of the oil industry in Iran in order to stop the exploitation of the Iranian oil fields by the British Anglo-Persian Oil Company . This triggered an international crisis ( Abadan crisis ) that ultimately led to his overthrow.

The rise of Ayatollah Khomeini

Khomeini's criticism of the White Revolution

Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi handing over land tenure deeds

The leader of the Islamic Revolution, the Shiite cleric Ruhollah Khomeini , became known to a larger audience in Iran in 1963 for vehemently speaking out against the Shah's reform program, which would later be called the White Revolution . Khomeini saw the program, the main points of which were land reform , the empowerment of women and a literacy campaign , an attack on Islam. Although Khomeini branded the referendum on the reform program as an anti-God project and called on all believers not to take part in the vote, on January 26, 1963 5,598,711 Iranians spoke out in favor and only 4,115 against.

On June 3, 1963, during the Ashura celebrations, Khomeini personally attacked the Shah in a speech at Ghom's Faizieh School by delivering a speech against the tyrant of our time :

“This government is directed against Islam. Israel is against the fact that the laws of the Koran apply in Iran. Israel is against the enlightened clergy ... Israel is using its agents in this land to remove the resistance against Israel ... the Koran, the clergy ... Oh Lord Shah, oh exalted ruler, I give you the good advice to give in and give up (from these reforms). I don't want to see the people dancing for joy on the day when you will leave the country by order of your masters, as everyone cheered when your father left the country. "

After this speech, Khomeini was arrested on June 5, 1963.

Khomeini's speech against the reforms of the White Revolution was accompanied by violent demonstrations in Qom , Shiraz , Mashhad and Tehran. More than 10,000 demonstrators marched through the streets of Tehran on June 5, 1963 to protest against Khomeini's arrest. Prime Minister Asadollah Alam called on the army after he was only able to leave the seat of government in an armored vehicle. For the first time after the Second World War, there was a state of emergency in Tehran . Troops marched in the streets and demonstrators were shot at. Thousands were injured. Prime Minister Alam put the number of deaths at 20. Khomeini and his supporters spoke of 15,000 protesters dead. According to an investigation by Emad al-Din Baghi carried out after the Islamic revolution, 32 demonstrators were killed in the violent riots in Tehran on June 5, 1963. The resistance against Mohammad Reza Shah under Khomeini had formed. Leading politicians in the Islamic Republic of Iran today declare that the protests in June 1963 marked the birth of the Islamic revolution.

After eight months of house arrest , Khomeini was released and began again to agitate against the Shah and his government . In November 1964 he was arrested again and deported to Turkey.

Khomeini in exile

After his initial stay in Bursa (Turkey), he was able to travel to Iraq in October 1965 at his insistence , where he first settled in Baghdad and then in Najaf , a holy place of the Shiites . He was able to move around there relatively freely and continue his studies and teaching. It was in this climate that Khomeini's most important work was created: The Islamic State (1970). In this work he developed the state principle of the Welayat-e-faghih ("rule of the supreme legal scholar"). In his agitation he gradually succeeded in discrediting the idea of ​​social progress through the orientation towards the West, which was one of the foundations of the Shah's reform program, and in developing his own Islamic ideology of progress. He resorted to Jalāl āl-e Ahmad's criticism of the westernization of Iran. Al-e Ahmad spoke of Westernization (Gharbzadegi) as a plague that poisoned Iranian society. Another important contribution to making the backward-looking Shiite Islam appear progress-oriented were the publications of Ali Schariati . For him, Islam showed the way to liberate the Third World from the yoke of colonialism , neocolonialism, and capitalism . Morteza Motahhari's popular sermons on the fight of Shiite Islam against the injustice in the settlement of the succession of Mohammads did the rest to mobilize his audience for the new fight against the supposed injustices of the Shah Régime.

One of the central themes of Khomeini was that the revolt, and especially the martyr's struggle against injustice and tyranny, was a central component of Shiite Islam and that Muslims should follow Islam and neither the western way ( liberalism and capitalism) nor the eastern way ( communism ) : Na Sharghi Na gharbi Dschomhuriyeh Eslami (Neither East nor West [but an] Islamic Republic) .

Chomeini in Neauphle-le-Château in front of Western media

On October 6, 1978, Khomeini was expelled from the country by Saddam Hussein and deported to France. It was only in Neauphle-le-Château , his place of residence in France - in Najaf, Khomeini was just one ayatollah among many - that Khomeini was able to use the possibilities of the international press to attract attention and to spread his speeches in Iran by means of tape recordings to force. Amir Taheri lists 132 radio, television and press interviews in the few months. Beheschti played a crucial role in spreading it in Iran.

The opposition movement

Despite the allegedly rigorous crackdown by the Shah and his secret service SAVAK , three important opposition movements were able to develop:

  • A second opposition movement was the center-left National Front founded by Mossadegh (also known as the National Resistance Movement ), an amalgamation of various parties. A prominent leader of this movement was Mehdi Bāzargān .
  • The third opposition movement against the Shah, which was decisive for the revolution, was essentially the Association of the Warring Clergy (Dschame'e-ye Rowhaniyat-e Mobarez) founded in 1977 . The party, with its roots going back a long way, was founded in secret by a group of Islamic clergy in 1977 in preparation for the overthrow of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. It is the oldest clerical party in Iran today. The founding members were Ali Khamene'i , the current “supreme leader” of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Morteza Motahhari , Mohammad Beheschti , Mohammad-Jawad Bahonar , Ali-Akbar Rafsanjani and Mofatteh. Motahhari spoke explicitly in one of his writings of the necessity of an “Islamic Revolution in Iran” and defined as its goals: 1. Restoration of the characteristics of religion; 2. the creation of radical religious reform in the country; 3. Security for the oppressed; and 4. Reinstatement of hadd sentences .

The association of fighting clergy was supported by the Society of Lecturers of Religious Seminars (Dschame'eh-ye Modarresin Hozeh-ye Elmiyeh) , which represented the teachers of religious schools, the Association of the Islamic Coalition (Hayat-e Mo'talefeh Eslami) , which was mainly carried by merchants from the bazaar, and the Society of Islamic Engineers (Dschame'eh-ye Eslami Mohandesin) , which was formed from technocrats who rejected the western-oriented politics of the Shah.

Demonstrations and strikes

Mostafa Khomeini's death

The first anti-Shah militant demonstrations began in November 1977 in Tabriz and Shiraz after the death of Mostafa, Khomeini's son. The number of demonstrators was a few hundred. In the Ark Mosque of Tehran - at the funeral speech in honor of his son - Khomeini was referred to as " Imam " for the first time . In the last week of November 1977, most of the businessmen in the Tehran bazaar closed their shops and went on strike to express their condolences to the mourners of Mostafa Khomeini. Even the old and well-respected Ayatollah Seyyed Ahmad Chansari was unable to persuade the businessmen to reopen their shops and call off the strike.

On December 2, 1977, a memorial ceremony for Mostafa Khomeini, organized 40 days after the death, took place in Qom. During this ceremony, the usual religious speeches took a back seat. At the ceremony, a 14-point catalog of demands was read out, which was approved by the mourners. The demands were:

  1. Khomeini's return from exile,
  2. Release of all political prisoners,
  3. Reopening of all religious schools that had been closed because of their political activities,
  4. Unrestricted freedom of speech ,
  5. Prohibition of pornography,
  6. Women's right to wear the chador ,
  7. Supporting the poor,
  8. Independence from international capitalism and breaking off diplomatic relations with Israel,
  9. Abolition of the new year counting introduced after the 2500th anniversary and return to the Islamic calendar.

By reading these demands out loud in the context of a Shiite ceremony and a kind of vote by shouting approval from those present, a religious event had become a political one. After the official end, a smaller group led by young clerics marched to the Fayziyeh religious school, which was closed in 1975 after riots, shouting "Long live Khomeini, death to the Shah". Bank windows were smashed on the way to school and a police station was attacked. 28 demonstrators were arrested.

In the last two months of 1977, Khomeini's supporters had succeeded in usurping the political initiative. Khomeini, who had been increasingly forgotten in his exile in Iraq at the beginning of 1977, was the talk of the day again. By the end of 1977, the number of demonstrators that his supporters were able to mobilize was already several thousand.

"Iran and Black and Red Colonialism"

Demonstration 1978

On January 7, 1978 (December 17, 1356) an article appeared in the daily Ettelā'āt under the name Ahmad Raschidi Motlagh, which was entitled Iran and Black and Red Colonialism . In it, Khomeini is insulted and vilified. This article is widely considered to be the catalyst for the revolution. On January 8, 1978, a few hundred students came together to rampage through the streets of Qom , smashing the windows of some banks and beating people on their way who accused them of being government agents. On January 9, 1978, several thousand demonstrators gathered in silence so as not to give the security forces any reason to intervene. The security forces had set up a roadblock at a police station in the city center. When the demonstrators arrived at the roadblock, stones were thrown to escalate. A street battle began that lasted until around 9 p.m. However, the rumor quickly spread that there had been at least 100 deaths in demonstrations in Qom, and later 300 deaths were reported. In the street battle with the police, five or seven demonstrators are said to have died.

According to Shiite tradition, a memorial ceremony for the dead takes place 40 days after a death. After this period had expired, memorial ceremonies with demonstrations for the dead of Qom took place on February 18, 1978. Despite being asked to remain calm, there was a street battle with the security forces in Tabriz, which resulted in 13 deaths. Among other things, the number of deaths was deliberately increased in order to be able to put further pressure on the clerics who were opposed to Khomeini. Grand Ayatollah Shariatmadari was furious after the Tabriz demonstrations that his call for nonviolent demonstrations had been ignored and ultimately declared that “no kind of inciting slogans or violent demonstrations are allowed” in demonstrations. After Khomeini came to power, Grand Ayatollah Shariatmadari was to receive considerable criticism for his "destructive statements after the Tabriz demonstrations".

The arson attack on the Cinema Rex

On August 19, according to the Iranian calendar, on Mordad 28th, the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Mossadegh government , Islamists set fire to 28 cinemas throughout Iran. More than 400 deaths were recorded in the arson attack on Cinema Rex in Abadan . Bahman Nirumand speaks of 477 dead, according to other sources at least 600 people died. Although cinemas were a preferred target of the Islamic opposition movement, the rumor spread by Khomeini that the SAVAK was responsible for the fire was believed. Well over 10,000 people took to the streets for the victims of the fire and against the Shah.

Black Friday

From September 1978 onwards, mass demonstrations took place regularly and the Shah declared a general ban on demonstrations , citing martial law . Massive protests began in Tehran on September 8, the death toll was 88 according to Emad al-Din Baghi. The day went down in history as Black Friday . In addition to the demonstrations, there were mass strikes that almost brought the Iranian economy to a standstill.

Mass demonstration at the Freedom Tower in Tehran

The Muharram protests

The so-called Muharram protests culminated in a mass demonstration with over 2 million participants around the Shahyad Tower (renamed the Freedom Tower ( Azadi) after the revolution ) on December 2, 1978. The angry crowd demanded the Shah's withdrawal and Ayatollah's return Khomeini.

The return of Khomeini

After the Guadeloupe Conference in January 1979, at which French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing , President Jimmy Carter from the USA, Prime Minister James Callaghan from Great Britain and Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt decided to stop supporting the Shah and to talk to Ayatollah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi left Iran on January 16, 1979 in search of Ruhollah Khomeini . His parting words were:

“I had to be patient with the unrest that is raging in our country. Now I am tired and urgently need rest and relaxation ... "

- Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

On December 31, 1978, the Shah appointed Shapur Bakhtiar , a leading member of the National Front , as Prime Minister. After confirmation by Parliament and the Senate, Bakhtiar took up his office.

The arrival

On February 1, around 9 a.m. local time, Khomeini landed on board a Boeing 747-100 ( aircraft registration F-BPVD) chartered by Air France at Tehran-Mehrabad Airport and was enthusiastically received by millions of Iranians. Meanwhile, in the eyes of many Shiites, he had become a messiah, a savior of the nation, sent by God. General Rahimi, who was responsible for maintaining the state of emergency in Tehran, had agreed with the opposition that peaceful demonstrations would be allowed for the next three days. The army had been made ready to intervene in the event of riots. The first to leave the plane after landing were the Khomeini bodyguards. Khomeini had hired thirty to forty highly trained Libyans for his protection.

When Khomeini arrived, he gave a short speech in which he declared the current government to be illegal and made it clear that he would appoint a new Islamic government within the next two days.

Address in the central cemetery

Ruhollah Khomeini in Behescht-e Zahra, February 1, 1979

Then Khomeini left the airport and drove to the Tehran Behescht-e Zahra Central Cemetery to deliver a grand address to the Iranian nation.

"Allah shall give the nation a just reward"

“In the name of Allah Almighty. We have seen a lot of calamity during this time. We had some victories. And some were great victories too. But: the misfortune of the women whose sons have died, the men who have lost their children, the children who have lost their fathers. When my eyes see someone who has lost their child, a voice comes into my ear that I can't stand. I cannot make amends for the damage our people have suffered. I cannot thank this nation that sacrificed everything it had for God. God shall give you the just reward. I offer my condolences to all mothers who have lost their children. I share their grief. I offer my condolences to the fathers whose sons have died. And I offer my condolences to the children who have lost their fathers. Let me make it clear why our nation experienced such calamity, what this nation said before and what it says today. What she has said and what she has said since raising her voice: There is murder, cruelty, robbery, and all of this continues today. What has the nation done to endure such a calamity? "

In 1980, James A. Bill, in a book published by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation , The Iranian Revolution and the Changing Power Structure, put the total number of victims in the last 13 months before the overthrow of the Shah, over 20,000 dead and more than 100,000 injured. In the late 1990s, Emad al-Din Baghi investigated the number of victims of the Shah's regime on behalf of the journal of the Iranian “Martyrs Foundation” (Bonyade Schahid) and based on the data collected by the foundation after the Islamic Revolution. He came to the conclusion that between 1963 and 1979 a total of 3,164 Iranians had been killed in the fight against the regime, 2,781 of them in the revolutionary unrest of 1977/78. He puts the number of victims of the Marxist guerrilla struggle since 1971 at 341, of whom 171 were killed in combat with the security forces, 91 were executed, 15 "disappeared" and 42 died under torture.

"Monarchy, Parliament and Government are illegal"

After Khomeini had thought of the victims in his speech, he came to the most important point of his speech, the illegality of the existing system. The first thing he did was to declare the monarchy to be illegal.

“One issue that concerns our nation is the question of the illegitimacy of the Pahlavi dynasty . Those of my age know and have seen that parliamentarism was imposed on us by the force of bayonets. The nation was not involved. The MPs were violently forced to elect Reza Shah as Shah. That is why the election of Reza Shah was illegitimate from the start.

This monarchy and the form of government of the monarchy in general is against the principles of logic and against human rights. Assuming that a nation collectively designates a person as king, it can do so because it can determine its own fate. Your vote is valid for this nation. But if a nation has voted, even if all sons and their sons also became king, on what basis and purpose can the nation from 50 years ago determine the fate of the next nation? The fate of each nation is in their own hands. In the past, for example in the Qajar period under Aga Mohammed Khan , we did not yet live. And let's assume that by a referendum, with the approval of the whole nation, it was decided that Aga Mohammed Qajar should be king, and that all the other kings who would come after him should be kings, but when we lived and Ahmad Shah Qajar on the government, none of us could understand what the time of Agha Mohammad Khan was like. On what basis did our fathers, who voted for the Kingdom of the Qajars, decide that Ahmad Shah should be King in our time? The fate of every nation is in their own hands. A nation a hundred or a hundred and fifty years ago was any nation, had some fate, and was right. But she had no power over us to impose a king on us. Let's say, when the Pahlavi dynasty was established, let's say the people wanted it that way. And the parliament was legitimized in accordance with the provisions through an election by the population. It follows that with this illegal process, even if it were correct, only Reza Khan would be legitimized as a Shah, and that he could only rule the people who were then alive.

But that Mohammad Reza Pahlavi will become king? A majority of the population and a small group who understood the situation at that time, what right did they have then to determine our fate today? That is why Mohammad Reza’s government and monarchy are illegal, because his father’s monarchy was illegal and because it was forced on us with the force of bayonets.

Suppose, if Reza Shah's government was legal, what right did it have to determine that form of government for us? Our fathers are not our guardians. Can the people who lived eighty or a hundred years ago decide the future fate of a nation? That is another reason why Mohammad Reza's monarchy is illegal.

In addition, even if the monarchy that was established then, and also the parliament, which was right then, the nation of today, which must bear its own fate, declares: We do not want this monarchy. If the nation chooses that we do not want the monarchy of Reza Shah and Mohammad Reza Shah, we take our future fate into our own hands. That is one of the reasons why Mohammad Reza's monarchy is illegal. "

After explaining why the existing monarchy was illegal, Khomeini explained why parliament and the government were illegal:

“Now we come to the governments that were formed under the reign of Mohammad Reza and the parliaments that we have seen. During the time of the Constitutional Revolution (maschrutiat) , the population, with a few exceptions, did not participate in the election of representatives. Now that they are one nation and live in Tehran, they have become aware of this. I ask you, the people of Tehran, these members of parliament or the Senate, were you aware that they are your members? Does the majority of the population know their deputies in parliament or senate? They were also determined by force without the population being involved. A parliament that convened without asking the people and without considering their will is illegal. That is why those who sit in parliament and regard the nation's wealth as their income were not allowed to collect their earnings. This also applies to those who are in the Senate. He too was determined by force without the population being involved. A parliament that was formed without the knowledge and without the will of the population is illegal. That is why it applies to those who sit in parliament and collect what belongs to the population and what is referred to as the salary of a member of parliament that they had no right to collect this salary. Even those who sit in the Senate were not entitled to these payments. You owe these payments to the population. The government operating under a regent, a king who himself and his father are illegal, these MPs are illegal. The government elected by such a parliament and such a king, that government is illegal.

What the nation wanted to say during the reign of Mohammad Reza Khan was that we don't want this kingdom. Our fate is in our own hands. And now we say we do not recognize these Members. They are illegal, Parliament and Senate are illegal. The government is illegal. Someone elected by the Parliament and Senate and the Shah, all of which are illegal together, cannot be legal. We say they are illegal. You must go. We tell you that this government that rules now and that has presented itself as a legal government did not even believe that it was legal itself. She herself said a few years ago, as long as this prime ministry had not come into her hands, that the Shah is not legal. Now how can you say it's legal? This parliament is illegal. Ask the MPs themselves if they were chosen by the population. Anyone who claims to have been elected by the nation, we take their hand, place them in someone's care and take them to their constituency. We will ask the people whether this gentleman is their MP or not. Did you choose him? Be sure they say no. "

"The Shah's reforms were fraud"

Khomeini then went on to believe that the Shah's reform program, and particularly land reform, was a ploy to make Iran dependent on imports from the US:

“They said they wanted to reform agriculture. You said we want to turn the farmers into farmers. Until now they were farm workers. Now we want them to own the land. You made a land reform. The land reform has brought only one result after all these years, namely that agriculture has been completely ruined. The fields were completely destroyed. And now they are in need of everything. You are dependent on the foreign country. Mohammad Reza did it to create a market for America. That we remain dependent on America, importing wheat and rice from America, and bringing eggs from Israel, the colony of America. What he did under the name of a reform was bad. The land reform has caused damage to our land that we cannot repair in the next twenty years. Only when the whole nation works hand in hand and years go by will this damage be repaired.

He left our culture behind. He held back cultural development. Today the education of our young people is incomplete. After they have completed a half-education here, with all mischief and all things, they have to go abroad and study. We have had universities for more than 50 years. We have been betrayed for about thirty years since we had these universities. We have been betrayed, that is why we have had no development in this area, no human development. This person has ruined all people and people's psyche. This man, because he was a servant, built centers of prostitution. Television is a center of prostitution. The radio, most of it is prostitution. There are centers that they have allowed to open, all of which are used for prostitution. And everyone worked hand in hand to set up alcohol sales centers in Tehran. The number of centers for the sale of alcohol is greater than the number of bookstores. Other immoral centers are numerous as well. Why is our cinema a center of prostitution. We are not against cinemas. But we are against prostitution. We are not against the radio. We are against prostitution. We are not against television. But we are against what is in the service of strangers to hold back the development of our youth. We are against losing our workforce. When did we oppose modernism? Modernization, the symbols of modernity, have now set foot out of Europe in the East, especially in Iran. But the things that should have been used as instruments of civilization have brought us to barbarism. The cinema is a sign of civilization. It must serve the population and education. But you know, they have given up our youth to destruction, and so on. That's why we're against it.

By all means they have betrayed the country. We say this person himself, that person's government and that person's parliament are all illegal. If they continue like this, then they are all criminals. Everyone must be brought to justice. "

"I determine the new government"

After Khomeini had made it clear that the existing system was illegal, he explained how it should continue:

“I will appoint the new government. I will hit the existing government on the mouth. I will appoint a government. With the support of this nation, I will appoint a government. I, due to the fact that this nation believes in me

... applause, Allah u Akbar calls

This gentleman, who does not recognize himself, and who is not recognized by his friends and whom the nation does not recognize, and who the army does not recognize either, who is only supported by America, has sent envoys and has given orders to the generals, that the army supported him. England supported him too. He said we have to support him. A single person who is not supported by the nation, regardless of the level of the people. Yeah they have some thugs coming out on the street yelling. But this is the nation (points to the audience). It is said that a country does not have two governments, so the illegal government has to go. You are illegal. The government we are talking about is a government that has the support of the nation. It depends on the instructions of God. You either have to deny God or the nation. He has to sit in his seat. Or on orders from America and Co. he forces these thugs to cause a massacre.

As long as we exist, we will not allow them to have power. We do not allow this evil person to regain the old level and rule with the old cruelty. We are not allowing Mohammad Reza to return. You want to bring him back. Be awake. Hello guys, be awake. They're planning. They set up an organization wherever he is. You make relationships. They want to bring us back to the time when everyone is oppressed. And everything we have goes into the mouth of America. We won't allow it. As long as we live, we will not allow it.

And I want from the great God, I want you all to stay healthy. And I say that it is a must for all of us that we keep this movement going until they topple. And we will build a parliament and a senate again with the votes of the people. And appoint the first permanent government. "

The only political force that could have prevented him from carrying out his plans through a coup was the army. For this reason, at the end of his speech, he called on the army to support him:

“I also have to say something to the army and thank a part of the army. I say we want them to become independent. We are working hard on it. We gave our blood. We have sacrificed our honor and our face. Our mullahs went to jail and suffered. We want our army to be independent. General, don't you want to be independent? Do you want to remain servants? I advise you to come into the arms of the nation. Say whatever the nation says. We have to be independent. The nation says the nation must be independent. The army must not be under the orders of American advisers and foreigners. Come! We say this for you. Come on and say about yourself. Say we want to be independent! We don't want the American advisors to be with us. We say the army must be independent. Our reward cannot be for them to come out on the streets and shed the blood of our youth just because we say you must be independent. We want you to become master.

I thank the classes that have allied with the nation. They have chosen their own honor, the honor of the country. I congratulate these NCOs (Homafar) and the officers of the Air Force from all of us. Everyone from Isfahan and Hamedan and other cities followed their religious and national duty, came to the nation and supported the Islamic national movement. We thank them very much. And those who are not yet part of the nation, come. Islam is better than disbelief. The nation is better for you than the strangers. We say this for your own good, do it for yourself. Drop the system. Do not believe that if they drop this system that we will hang you on. Do not believe what you have been told that we will hang you up. You see the fate of the Homafars and the NCOs. We will support you with honor.

We want the country to be a strong country. We want the country to have a strong regime. We don't want to destroy the system. We want a popular system and that system should come from the nation and be universally accepted. No system that monitors others. And the others give you orders. "

Khomeini's speech of February 1, 1979 was broadcast live on Iranian National Television (NITV). In the version made available on the Internet by Shia-TV today, some passages have been removed from the speech. The removed parts were put together in a video produced by Masoud Sadr and contain the following excerpts from Khomeini's speech:

“I have to say that Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, that evil traitor, fled and destroyed everything we had. He ruined our country and built cemeteries. "

“I will appoint the government. I will hit this government on the mouth with my fist. I will say it again. I will determine the government and I will hit the current government on the mouth with my fist. ... We want you to be independent. We suffer from the burden of our job. We gave our blood. Our mullahs have gone to jail. You have suffered. We want our army to become independent. General, don't you want to be independent? Mr. Researcher, don't you want to be independent? Do you want to remain a servant? I give you some advice. Come into the arms of the nation! "

“In addition to your material life being prosperous, we want your spiritual life to be satisfactory. You need spirituality. "

“Don't be satisfied that we build houses for you. Water and electricity will also be free. Bus travel will also be free. "

“Don't be satisfied with that. We will also improve your spiritual life. We will raise you to the level of a humanist. "

“We will fight against moral decline. Prostitution will be abolished. We will change the content on television. We will show other films in theaters. We will implement the laws of the Islamic religion. Those goddamn lion-and-sun emblems have to go. It must be Islamic emblems. "

The appointment of Mehdi Bāzargān as Prime Minister of Transition

Street fighting in Tehran

On February 5, 1979, Khomeini appointed Mehdi Bāzargān as Prime Minister of the Transition. Street fighting broke out in Tehran. After the army refused to support Prime Minister Bakhtiar and declared its neutrality in the political conflict between Khomeini and Bakhtiar, Bakhtiar had to flee his house in order not to be arrested by Khomeini's militias. The Islamic Revolution had entered a new phase.

First arrests and executions

The executed generals Naji, Rahimi and Khosraudad, February 15, 1979

After the last street fighting with troops loyal to the Shah, all ministries, authorities, barracks and the media in Tehran were captured by the Revolutionary Guards. On February 11, 1979, the previous order collapsed completely. The prison guards had fled. On February 12, 1979, former Prime Minister Amir Abbas Hoveyda , former Agriculture Minister Mansur Rowhani and several generals were interviewed on television about their previous activities. Hoveyda, who had been arrested by former Prime Minister Gholam Reza Azhari and was now at large, agreed to respond to all charges. He felt completely innocent. Rowhani defended his job as Minister of Agriculture and land reform. General Rabii explained the decision of the military to have remained neutral in the struggle for power between Prime Minister Bakhtiar appointed by the Shah and Prime Minister Bazargan appointed by Khomeini: “Bakhtiar had declared that he wanted to establish a republic on the basis of the existing constitution. Bazargan wanted to bring about a republic through a referendum. Since both prime ministers were pursuing the same goal, the military decided to be neutral in order to avoid bloodshed. "

On February 13, 1979 Ali Asghar Haj Seyyed Dschawadi wrote in the daily Keyhan : "The declaration of neutrality of the military is meaningless ... Any claim of these people for a peaceful surrender should be crushed with revolutionary cruelty." The Left guerrilla movement in Iran called for the dismissal of the generals and the creation of a revolutionary court. Two days later, on February 15, 1979, the first executions began. Generals Nassiri, Rahimi, Naji and Khosrodad were the first victims of the new Islamic justice system. Khomeini had ordered her execution. The charges were mufsed fi'l arz and mohareb ba choda . For the first time in Iran's modern history, someone was sentenced to death for promoting corruption on earth and turning against God. Colonel i. G. Meyer-Plath, Tehran, reported on February 17, 1979:

“The day before, in an act of Islamic rapid justice, Tehran's martial law administrator, General Rahimi, was sentenced to death together with three other generals and immediately shot by a peloton made up of revolutionaries and former SAVAK victims. Pictures of the corpses were published in all newspapers. "

On February 20, 1979, four other generals were sentenced to death and executed on the same charges. On February 22nd, 215 high-ranking officers were discharged from the army.

The establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran

The establishment of the Islamic Republican Party

On February 19, 1979, Khomeini's followers founded the Islamic Republican Party . With the founding of the party, the different political organizations that had been founded in the run-up to the Islamic Revolution were to be brought together in one organization. Specifically, these were the association of the fighting clergy , the Society of Lecturers of Religious Seminars (Dschame'eh-ye Modarresin Hozeh-ye Elmiyeh) , which represented the teachers of religious schools, the Association of the Islamic Coalition (Hayat-e Mo'talefeh Eslami ) , which was mainly carried out of the bazaar by the merchants, and the Society of Islamic Engineers (Dschame'eh-ye Eslami Mohandesin) , which was made up of technocrats who opposed the western-oriented politics of the Shah.

Within the circle of ayatollahs, Khomeini faced the problem that he was only one of many ayatollahs and that there were higher-ranking clergy within the ayatollah hierarchy who could have challenged him for leadership. This included Grand Ayatollah Kasem Shariatmadari , who declared that the political model of a government of spiritual leaders ( velayat-e fagih ) represented by Khomeini had no basis in Shiite theology. In his opinion, it would be better to revive the constitution of 1906 from the time of the Constitutional Revolution , which was still valid but had been modified several times by parliament over the years, especially under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

Khomeini replied that the Shah had long since disregarded the article in the current constitution that all laws in Iran must conform to the norms of Shiite Islam and that the Shiite clergy must therefore now take action themselves to protect the social To steer development of Iran back in the right direction. With the prospect of the Shiite clergy coming to power, positions in ministries and the government apparatus, and thus the opportunity to exercise power, suddenly became within reach for many young religious students, something that would have been denied them under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. With this promise, the number of supporters of Khomeini's ideas grew rapidly, which in turn gave him the opportunity to push Grand Ayatollah Shariatmaderi aside and to appoint himself “Supreme Leader”.

The referendum on the question of an Islamic republic

Khomeini used two strategies in the implementation of his ideas: the strategy of jihad and that of ijtihad . With the jihad directed against the own population, the Islamization of politics and society should be enforced by force. With the declaration of jihad, he made it clear once and for all that the revolutionary movement regarded by the secular opposition as an “Iranian revolution” is an Islamic movement and therefore the term “Islamic revolution” should be used instead of the Iranian revolution.

After the referendum held on March 30 and 31, 1979 with the options

  • Islamic Republic:
    • yes (green)
    • no (red)

An overwhelming majority (over 98% yes-votes) voted for the Islamic Republic, Khomeini proclaimed the Islamic Republic of Iran. Now the drafting of a new constitution could begin. The German Counselor Strenziok summed up on April 2, 1979:

"On 1.4. At noon, one day after the referendum and before the votes were counted, Khomeini proclaimed the 'Islamic Republic' from his residence in Qom. The Ministry of the Interior announced today the provisional election result: 18 million eligible voters, 98 percent voter participation, 97 percent of which were yes-votes. All three numbers are definitely wrong. "

More executions

Former Prime Minister Amir Abbas Hoveyda, executed on April 7, 1979

Iran thus became the state of God under the rule of a minority of the highest spiritual authority of Shiite Islam, which did not hesitate to use force to enforce their rule in Iran. The first goal of the jihad proclaimed by Khomeini was to eliminate the main military, politicians, ideologues and supporters of the Shah. Khomeini divided the population of Iran into two groups, the mustaz'afeen (the poor or oppressed) and the mustakbereen (the rich or oppressed). Anyone who could in any way be associated with the previous government were "oppressors". In doing so, they were guilty of the Iranian people and Islam and had to be punished. On the same evening of the referendum, Khomeini declared that the arrested representatives of the Pahlavi regime were not "defendants" whose guilt must be proven. Rather, they are "criminals" whose guilt is beyond doubt. What followed was another wave of executions. Former Prime Minister Amir Abbas Hoveyda was shot on April 7, 1979, and Generals Rabii and Khadschenuri two days later. On April 10, 1979, the former leaders of the SAVAK General Moqaddam and General Pakravan and the commander of the Imperial Guard General Neschat were executed. On the same day, the former Foreign Minister Abbas-Ali Chalatbari , the President of Parliament Abdollah Riazi , the Agriculture Minister Mansur Rowhani and others were executed.

On May 13, 1979, revolutionary judge Sadegh Chalkali declared the Shah, Farah Pahlavi, Princess Ashraf Pahlavi , the brother of the Shah Prince Gholam Reza , the Iranian ambassador to the USA Ardeschir Zahedi , the former Prime Minister Jafar Sharif-Emami , Hushang Nahavandi and the Generals Azhari and Oveisi, which were all abroad for mahdur-ud-dam ( outlaws ) . Anyone who kills these people is acting on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Court.

On August 15, 1979, Department 311 of the Foreign Office noted:

"So-called. Islamic revolutionary courts continue to pass death sentences against supporters of the previous regime, of whom over 300 people have now been executed ... but also against new opponents of the revolutionary regime. These rapid proceedings do not meet the rule of law requirements either in terms of the course of the procedure or the nature of the charges. "

First counter-demonstrations

In mid-August at the latest, the long-smoldering resentment of the Iranian middle class about developments in the Islamic revolution was released in a demonstration for press freedom organized by the National Democratic Front and various secular groups. Counselor Strenziok reported from Tehran on August 13, 1979:

“During confrontations with orthodox Islamic groups, who apparently attacked the demo participants with stones, knives, daggers and clubs, there were fights that lasted for hours. Newspapers reported 300 injuries, some seriously. ... Apart from spontaneous demonstrations against negative phenomena in post-revolutionary Iran (committee attacks, arbitrary acts by Revolutionary Guards, compulsory veils for women, treatment of minorities, unemployment, etc.) this was the first major organized demonstration. ... reactivated by the most recent blatant election manipulation. "

On August 12, 1979, a new press law was enacted that restricted reporting by the foreign media and consolidated the government's monopoly of opinion. The largest opposition newspaper Ayandegan had already been closed a few days earlier and several opposition journalists were arrested.

Elimination of the previous political opposition

The second aim of the jihad proclaimed by Khomeini was to turn the opposition movement against the Shah into a purely Islamic movement under his leadership. On the one hand, opponents in the ranks of the Ayatollahs such as Grand Ayatollah Shariatmadari should be eliminated, and on the other hand the bourgeois and left-wing opposition and the guerrilla groups should also be eliminated. Opposition clergy, members of the Tudeh party and any left opposition faced brutal persecution. The bourgeois opposition to the National Front was also the victim of imprisonment, torture and executions. Members of the People's Mujahideen were arrested and executed.

On November 4, 1979, the American embassy in Tehran was occupied by radical students and the hostage - taking of Tehran for more than a year , for which Khomeini had previously indirectly called in a statement, began.

"It is therefore up to the dear pupils, students and theology students to intensify the attacks against the USA and Israel with all their might so that they can force the USA to extradite the deposed and criminal Shah ..."

With the occupation of the US embassy and the hostage-taking , the building of a theocratic state began after Riyahi, the second phase of the stage , to add new forces to the declining momentum of the revolution with the establishment of an external enemy. The first thing that took place on November 6, 1979 was the replacement of Mehdi Bāzargān, who was appointed by Khomeini as interim prime minister, by a "cabinet without a prime minister," in which Abolhassan Banisadr worked as foreign, economic and finance minister. President Carter's security advisor, Zbigniew Brzeziński , met Prime Minister Bazargan in Algeria on November 1, 1979. This meeting fueled Khomeini's suspicion that Bazargan could come to an understanding with the US on further political developments in Iran. With the occupation of the US embassy, ​​this path was blocked and Bazargan had to resign.

Building an Islamic State

On December 3, 1979, a referendum was held on the new Iranian constitution . According to official information, as in the referendum on March 31, approval was almost 100%, but other sources only speak of around 60%. Thus the former monarchy of Iran became the Islamic Republic, a Shiite state of god, led by Khomeini as the highest religious and political authority.

The third aim of the jihad proclaimed by Khomeini with the occupation of the American embassy was the building of an Islamic order with a presidential system consisting of an executive, legislature and jurisprudence, which were responsible to both him, the supreme leader , and the Iranian people. The daily life of the population should be forced into Islamic conformity by a moral code for everyone and dress codes for women. The Revolutionary Guardians (Pasdaran) were established to monitor compliance with Islamic order.

In addition to jihad, there has always been a dimension of idschtihād , the creative interpretation and application of Islam. It was clear to Khomeini that he could not build an Islamic state as part of the international world order on the basis of jihad. Khomeini solved the question of how to secure an Islamic state in the long term in his own way. In addition to the jihadis, he also allowed an Islamic opposition movement, which viewed themselves as reformers and were led by Mohammad Chātami . This opened up a political discussion inherent in the system between the hardliners and the reformers, which would not question the Islamic system as a whole, but would rather stabilize it politically.

Support for the Islamic Revolution from abroad

Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)

At first there were only rumors of a collaboration between supporters of Khomeini and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The fact that on September 8, 1978 - the day that went down in Iran's history as Black Friday - Palestinian militiamen first fired at the demonstrators and then at the soldiers on Jaleh Square in Tehran from the surrounding houses could then also be only later corroborated by testimony from eyewitnesses.

The public announcement and institutionalization of the cooperation between the Islamic Republic of Iran, which is currently being established, and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) took place on February 17, 1979. The German ambassador to Iran Ritzel reported to the Foreign Office on February 18, 1979:

“The Chairman of the Executive Committee of the PLO, Yasser Arafat, has arrived in Tehran on a week-long visit, leading a 50-strong delegation. Arafat describes the overthrow of the Shah as the first step towards the victory of the Palestinian revolution. The PLO will set up a permanent mission in Tehran (in the building of the previous Israeli mission). "

A meeting of Arafat on July 13, 1979 with the SPD chairman Willy Brandt and the Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky in Vienna, at which Arafat was asked to stand up for the Iranian Jews against Khomeini , shows how significant the relations between Khomeini and Arafat were . Arafat also complied with this request, according to a memo from Legation Councilor Schenk.

Syria

In a conversation held in Damascus on August 27, 1979 between the then Syrian Foreign Minister Chaddam and Federal Foreign Minister Genscher , when asked about the situation in Iran, the Syrian Foreign Minister admitted:

“Syria had been in contact with the revolutionaries for nine years. We gave some support to the revolution. We were sure that the revolution would come. According to our analysis, the revolution had to be either communist-Marxist or national-religious. ... The situation in Iran affects us one way or another. This explains our interest. "

Chaddam then frankly responded to further cooperation with the Iranian leadership, revealing that Syria had agreed to cooperate with the Iranian leadership in a number of areas. There is absolutely no doubt that the state authority lies with Khomeini.

Assaults in the Federal Republic of Germany

On August 15, 1979, Section 511 of the Foreign Office noted:

“Since the beginning of 1979, more than 30 incidents have been registered in which Iranian nationals were suspected and threatened as SAVAK agents, some were physically assaulted or Iranians reported a feared danger to the German police stations. In some cases, the persecutors confiscated the suspects' passports and sent them to the Iranian embassy. In four cases, a larger number of perpetrators and spectators appeared as a 'tribunal' or 'Islamic court'. Investigations have been launched into, among other things, coercion, extortion, assault and activity in a criminal organization. The investigative authorities identified more than 70 people as perpetrators. 29 suspects were arrested. By August 16, 1979, 16 people had been released. There are currently eight Iranians in custody in Hamburg and five in North Rhine-Westphalia. With one exception, the attacked are recorded on a list that circulates in large numbers among Persian students in Germany. "

Reactions

On February 2, 1979, Zbigniew Brzeziński assured President Jimmy Carter :

"We should be careful not to over-generalize from the Iranian case ... Islamic revivalist movements are not sweeping the Middle East and are not likely to be the wave of the future."

"We should be careful about generalizing what is going on in Iran ... Islamic renewal movements are not going to sweep the Middle East with it, and it is very unlikely that they will grow into a wave in the future."

On February 21, 1979, a meeting of NATO foreign ministers took place in Brussels. The consensus on content was established:

“At the moment there is nothing left but to support Khomeini and the Bazargan government pragmatically and inconspicuously. Only Khomeini has a sufficiently broad base. Any other solution is worse for the West under the given circumstances. "

Iran-American relations came to a complete standstill with the hostage-taking of Tehran . The USA was built up by Khomeini as an enemy and called Great Satan .

Khomeini's claim to export the revolution to neighboring Islamic countries ( revolution export ) led to a negative attitude towards Iran among the governments there. Saddam Hussein even started the Iran-Iraq war in 1980 , which lasted until 1988 and ultimately undermined the Khomeini regime's export ambitions.

The former British ambassador to Iran, Anthony Parsons, comes to the conclusion in his memoirs that the political upheavals of 1979 were not a revolution at all, but a counter-revolution.

“There has only been one revolution in Iran since the 16th century, namely that of Reza Shah Pahlavi, which was continued by his son Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. If one defines revolution as the destruction of existing social structures and the building of a new society that is different from the previous society, then that was exactly what Reza Shah did. .... Khomeini, on the other hand, has only restored the two centers of power that have dominated Iranian society for hundreds of years, the hierarchy of the Shia Muslim clergy and the bazaar merchants. ... The new constitution is far more reactionary than the constitution of 1906. The modern administrative and economic structures that the Pahlavis had created have been shaken to the ground. "

literature

  • Amad Farughy, Jean-Loup Reverier: Persia: Departure into Chaos? An analysis of developments in Iran from 1953–1979 . Munich 1979, ISBN 3-442-03846-4 .
  • Ahad Rahmanzadeh: Revolution and Re-Islamization in Iran . In: Communications from the German Orient Institute . No. 21 . Hamburg 1984.
  • Cheryl Benard and Zalmay Khalilzad : The Government of God: Iran's Islamic Republic (1984), ISBN 0-231-05376-2 ; German: God in Tehran. Iran's Islamic Republic. From the American by Charlotte Blaschke, Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1988 ( ISBN 3-518-11327-5 ).

Web links

Commons : Islamic Revolution  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files
photos
Video

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Techrasa, April 23, 2016 (English)
  2. ↑ Gholam Reza Afkhami: The life and times of the Shah. University of California Press, 2009, p. 234.
  3. ↑ a b c Cyrus Kadivar: A Question of Numbers . In: Rouzegar-Now , August 8, 2003.
  4. ↑ Abbas Milani: Eminent Persians. Syracuse University Press, 2009, p. 51.
  5. ↑ Bahman Nirumand: With God for Power. Hamburg 1989, p. 125.
  6. ↑ Sandra Mackay: Iranians . 1996, p. 215.
  7. ↑ Nikki R. Keddie: Modern Iran . 2003, p. 201 ff.
  8. ↑ The Last Great Revolution Turmoil and Transformation in Iran by Robin WRIGHT.
  9. ↑ Amir Taheri: Khomeini. P. 284.
  10. ↑ Heinz Nussbaumer: Khomeini. Munich 1980. p. 125.
  11. ↑ a b c Amin Saikal: The rise and fall of the Shah. Paperback edition 2009, p. Xxi.
  12. ↑ Cf. Mortaza Motahhari: Al-Ḥarakāt al-islāmīya fi l-qarn ar-rābiʿ ʿašar al-hiǧrī. Dirāsa wa-taḥlīl Tehran, approx. 1980. pp. 77–80.
  13. ^ Charles Kurzmann: The Unthinkable Revolution. Harvard University Press, 2005, p. 164.
  14. ^ Charles Kurzmann: The Unthinkable Revolution. Harvard University Press, 2005, p. 28.
  15. ^ Charles Kurzmann: The Unthinkable Revolution. Harvard University Press, 2005, p. 29.
  16. ↑ Bahman Nirumand, Keywan Daddjou: With God for Power . Hamburg 1987, ISBN 3-499-12718-0 , pp. 161 f .
  17. ↑ Amir Taheri: Khomeini and the Islamic Revolution . Hamburg 1985, ISBN 3-455-08237-8 , pp. 248 ff .
  18. ↑ Monika Gronke : History of Iran . Munich 2003, p. 109 .
  19. ↑ Katajun Amirpur, Reinhard Witzke: Schauplatz Iran . Freiburg 2004, ISBN 3-451-05535-X , p. 68 .
  20. ^ Charles Kurzmann: The Unthinkable Revolution. Harvard University Press, 2005, p. 37.
  21. ↑ Fariborz Riyahi: Ayatollah Khomeini. Ullstein, 1986, ISBN 3-548-27540-0 , p. 48.
  22. ^ Charles Kurzmann: The Unthinkable Revolution. Harvard University Press, 2005, p. 46.
  23. ↑ Nirumand, Daddjou 1987 S. 167th
  24. ↑ Taheri 1985, p. 274.
  25. ↑ Nirumand, Daddjou 1987, p. 202.
  26. ^ Revolution in Iran: "In joyful anticipation of martyrdom" Article on Spiegel Online from February 2, 2009, accessed on May 12, 2018.
  27. ↑ Video of Khomeini's arrival on Wikimedia Commons . At minute 0:57 the identifier "Victor Delta" can be seen above the nose wheel.
  28. ↑ Taheri 1985, p. 251.
  29. ↑ General Robert E. Huyser: Mission to Tehran. New York 1986, p. 251.
  30. ↑ http://www.shiatv.net/view_video.php?viewkey=87ca7b7d9b2d2b997135 Video documentation of Khomeini's speech on February 1, 1979
  31. ↑ James A. Bill: The Iranian Revolution and the Changing Power Structure . In: Iran in crisis . Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Bonn 1980, ISBN 3-87831-341-1 .
  32. ↑ http://www.shiatv.net/view_video.php?viewkey=87ca7b7d9b2d2b997135
  33. ↑ Video on YouTube
  34. ↑ Video on YouTube
  35. ↑ Robert E. Huyser: "There is blood on your hands" . In: Der Spiegel . No. 45 , 1986 ( online - Nov. 3, 1986 ).
  36. ↑ Javidpur, Shuresh-e 57, pp. 20-30. Quoted from Gholam Reza Afkhami: The life and times of the Shah . University of California Press, 2009, p. 541.
  37. ↑ a b Gholam Reza Afkhami: The life and times of the Shah. University of California Press, 2009, p. 541.
  38. ↑ Michael Ploetz, Tim Szatkowski: Files on the Foreign Policy of the Federal Republic of Germany 1979 Vol. II: July 1 to December 31, 1979. R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2010, p. 1116.
  39. ↑ Abbas Milani: Eminent Persians. Syracus University Press, 2008, p. 375.
  40. ^ Amin Saikal: The rise and fall of the Shah. Paperback edition 2009, p. Xxii.
  41. ↑ a b Amin Saikal: The rise and fall of the Shah. Paperback edition 2009, p. Xxiii.
  42. ↑ Michael Ploetz, Tim Szatkowski: Files on the Foreign Policy of the Federal Republic of Germany 1979 Vol. I: January to June 30, 1979. R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2010, p. 464.
  43. ↑ Gholam Reza Afkhami: The life and times of the Shah. University of California Press, 2009, p. 556.
  44. ↑ Michael Ploetz, Tim Szatkowski: Files on the Foreign Policy of the Federal Republic of Germany 1979 Vol. II: July 1 to December 31, 1979. R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2010, p. 1114.
  45. ↑ Michael Ploetz, Tim Szatkowski: Files on the Foreign Policy of the Federal Republic of Germany 1979 Vol. II: July 1 to December 31, 1979. R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2010, p. 1115.
  46. ^ Amin Saikal: The rise and fall of the Shah. Paperback edition 2009, p. Xxv.
  47. ↑ Michael Naumann, Josef Joffe: Teheran, A Revolution is executed. Munich 1980. p. 214.
  48. ↑ Riyahi, Fariborz: Ayatollah Khomeini. Page 70.
  49. ↑ Vali Nasr : Forces of Fortune. New York 2009, p. 138.
  50. ^ Amin Saikal: The rise and fall of the Shah. Paperback edition 2009, p. Xxxi.
  51. ^ Amin Saikal: The rise and fall of the Shah. Paperback edition 2009, p. Xxix.
  52. ↑ Manouchehr Ganji: Defying the Iranian revolution. Praeger Publishers, 2003, p. 15.
  53. ↑ Gholam Reza Afkhami: The life and times of the Shah. University of California Press, 2009, p. 665.
  54. ↑ Michael Ploetz, Tim Szatkowski: Files on the Foreign Policy of the Federal Republic of Germany 1979 Vol. I: January to June 30, 1979. R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2010, p. 209.
  55. ^ A b Michael Ploetz, Tim Szatkowski: Files on the Foreign Policy of the Federal Republic of Germany 1979 Vol. II: July 1 to December 31, 1979. R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2010, p. 1020.
  56. ↑ Michael Ploetz, Tim Szatkowski: Files on the Foreign Policy of the Federal Republic of Germany 1979 Vol. II: July 1 to December 31, 1979. R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2010, p. 1113.
  57. ↑ Andrew S. Cooper: The Fall of Heaven. New York 2016, p. 490.
  58. ↑ Michael Ploetz, Tim Szatkowski: Files on the Foreign Policy of the Federal Republic of Germany 1979 Vol. I: January to June 30, 1979. R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2010, p. 208.
  59. ^ Anthony Parsons: The Pride and the Fall. London 1984, p. 151 f.