Jamjid Amusegar

Jamschid Amusegar in dress uniform

Jamschid Amusegar ( listen ^{? / I} ; Persian جمشید آموزگار, English / French Jamshid Amouzegar ; * June 25, 1923 in Tehran ; † September 27, 2016 in Rockville , Maryland ) was an Iranian politician. Having previously headed several ministries, he was Prime Minister of the country in 1977/78.

Life

Jamschid Amusegar was born on June 26, 1923 in Tehran. His mother was one of the first young girls to go to public school. His father, a journalist, made a career in politics. In 1951, when the government of Hossein Ala was in office for only two months , he became minister of culture. Later his father was a member of the Senate.

Jamschid attended elementary school and later the Iranian high school in Tehran. After graduating from high school, he went to the University of Tehran and attended courses in law, political science and engineering. After two years, he went to Cornell University in the USA , where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in political science. At George Washington University he took courses in civil engineering and completed his studies with a master's in civil engineering.

Point IV program

In 1951, Jamjid Amusegar returned to Iran and began working for the Point IV program . In just 18 months he built 48 wells and designed the water supply and sanitation for 25 cities. At the age of 32, Jamschid Amusegar became a senior employee in the Ministry of Health and was instrumental in the eradication of malaria in Iran. In 1958 Amusegar took over the labor ministry in the cabinet of Manutschehr Eghbal . For the next 18 years, Jamschid Amusegar was to head several ministries almost until the end of the reign of Mohammad Reza Shah . So he took over the Ministry of Agriculture after the Ministry of Labor. As Minister of Agriculture, he was responsible for drafting reform laws on land reform. Amusegar took over the Ministry of Health in Hassan Ali Mansour's cabinet .

Finance and Interior Minister

Amusegar initially remained health minister in Prime Minister Amir Abbas Hoveyda's cabinet, but became finance minister after a cabinet reshuffle. In this capacity, he was involved in the negotiations on the OPEC's oil price increase in 1975 as Iran's representative , when the group around Ilich Ramírez Sánchez , known as Carlos the Jackal , was taken hostage . Carlos divided the hostages into three categories: the liberals, the neutrals and the criminals, with Amusegar and the Saudi Oil Minister Yamani topping the list of criminals. Reportedly, Iran and Saudi Arabia paid Carlos $ 20 million to release Amusegar and Yamani.

From March 1, 1974 to August 7, 1977 Amusegar was Minister of the Interior.

prime minister

In 1976 Amusegar became a board member and later general secretary of the Rastachiz Party ( Resurrection Party ), the unity party newly founded by Mohammad Reza Shah . In July 1977 Jamjid Amusegar took over the post of Prime Minister. However, his term of office should only last 13 months. Prime Minister Amusegar had ordered an austerity program to restore the overheated economy to normal growth rates. Since the surge in oil revenues in the early 1970s, Iran has had average economic growth of 25%. After the oil intake decreased again towards the end of the 1970s, there was a serious economic crisis. Amusegar's austerity measures, which exacerbated the crisis, were highly unpopular and led to massive criticism of the government.

The most talked about incident in the reign of Jamshid Amusegar is without a doubt the arson attack on Cinema Rex in Abadan on August 19, 1978, in which 477 people were killed. Anti-government demonstrations had been going on throughout the summer of 1978. On Constitution Day, August 5, 1978, Mohammad Reza Shah announced democratic reforms in a speech:

“This is a new chapter in the history of our country. … We will have the same freedom rights as in Europe and the limits of freedom in Iran will not differ from those in Europe. ... That means there will be parties, peaceful and unarmed parties ... We will have freedom of speech and freedom of the press on the basis of a new press law, which we will formulate along the lines of the press laws of the free world. The coming elections will be completely free; everyone has the right to vote and every vote will be counted. ... But it must be clear that no nation that calls itself democratic can tolerate fights, violence, provocations and lawlessness. "

The leader of the opposition movement, Ruhollah Khomeini , had already taken a clear position in May 1978 on the Shah's intentions to reform the political system. Khomeini had stated:

“What freedom is he talking about? It is not up to him to allow freedom. God gave man freedom. Islam gave them freedom. "

The protest marches against the government took on violent forms. On August 19, according to the Iranian calendar on Amordad 28, the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Mossadegh government , 28 movie theaters across Iran burned down. Over 400 deaths were recorded in Abadan. Khomeini and Mehdi Bāzargān and Karim Sandjabi , senior members of the National Front , accused the government of being responsible for the fires in order to "put the opposition in a bad light". As far as we know today, a relative of Seyyed Ali Chamene'i was responsible for the planning and implementation . Khomeini had long ago issued a fatwa against colonial programs and Western cinema .

On the occasion of the arson attack, Mohammad Reza Shah spoke of the great fear that would soon reign in Iran if the opposition came to power. He wanted to make the difference to his future vision for Iran, the great civilization , clear. The government under Prime Minister Jamjid Amusegar seemed paralyzed. Shahbanu Farah Pahlavi wanted to go to Abadan immediately to visit the families of the victims and express their condolences. Prime Minister Amusegar thought it would be better to wait for the results of the investigation first. The result was further demonstrations across the country. Iranian students occupied the Iranian embassies in Germany, Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands.

After the demonstrators in Tehran demanded the resignation of Mohammad Reza Shah on August 26, Amusegar resigned from the office of prime minister the next day and left the country shortly afterwards.

Private

Amusegar found exile in the United States , where he lived until his death.

He was with the German-born married Ulrike Eva Schulz († 2005). There were no children from the marriage.

Quote

"We Iranians were occupied by Greeks, Arabs, Mongols and Turks, but we never lost our identity because the foreign occupiers found a richer culture in Persia than they had ever possessed."

- Jamjid Amusegar

literature

• Alireza Avsati: Iran in the last 3 Centuries . Volume 2. Intishārāt-i Pā'kitāb, Tehran 2003, ISBN 964-93406-5-3 (Persian).
• 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. 72-78.
• Qajar (Kadjar) Orders and Decorations . http://www.qajarpages.org/qajorders.html

Individual evidence

1. ↑ https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/jamshid-amouzegar-former-iranian-prime-minister-dies-at-93/2016/10/19/fa6a5044-9628-11e6-bc79-af1cd3d2984b_story.html
2. ↑ Abbas Milani: Eminent Persians. Syracuse University Press, 2008, p. 77.
3. ↑ Gholam Reza Afkhami: The life and times of theShah. Syracuse University Press, 2009, p. 457.
4. ↑ Gholam Reza Afkhami: The life and times of theShah. Syracuse University Press, 2009, p. 456.
5. ^ Wahied Wahdat-Hagh : The Islamic Republic of Iran. 2003. Page 164/165 googlebooks