Mohammad Chātami

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Mohammad Chātami, 2007 in Davos
Signature of Khatami

Mohammad Chātami ( Persian محمد خاتمی, DMG Muḥammad Ḫātamī , [ mohæˈmmːæd xɑtæˈmiː ], after the English transcription often also Mohammed Khatami ; * October 14, 1943 in Ardakan ) was the fifth President of Iran . He was elected on May 23, 1997 and re-elected in 2001 for a second term that ended in August 2005. His successor was Mahmud Ahmadinejad .

Life

Chātami studied theology in Qom and philosophy in Isfahan and holds the rank of Hodschatoleslam val-muslimin ("Proof of Islam and the Muslims"). From 1978 he was director of the Islamic Center Hamburg . After his return to Iran, he became a member of the Majles in 1980 and Minister of Islamic Culture in 1981 , earning a reputation as a moderate Islamic intellectual. Due to differences with radicals, he resigned from his post in 1992 and became director of the national library in Tehran . He was succeeded as minister by Ali Larijani .

Domestic politics

First and second term

Chātami owed his surprisingly clear victory in the 1997 presidential elections with a 70% share of the vote to the female and young voters, as he had promised before the election to significantly strengthen their rights. He was a candidate for the second strongest party Servants of Reconstruction and surprisingly beat the favorite Ali Akbar Nateq Nuri , a radical mullah . On August 3, he took over the office of Ali Akbar Hāschemi Rafsanjāni , who had not been allowed to run for two terms. With his reform efforts, Chātami met with strong resistance from the religious conservatives and disappointed some of his voters. Nevertheless, he was re-elected in the 2001 presidential elections with a clear majority of 78.3%; his direct opponent, Ahmad Tavakkoli , got 15.9%.

Political ideas

Chātami is considered to be the first reformer in the office of president, as he based his election campaign on the rule of law , democracy and equality . These principles led to conflict with the Islamist forces of the Iranian government. In a legislative proposal to limit the power of the Guardian Council , he referred to Article 113 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic, which states that the President is the highest-ranking representative of the state after the leader of the revolution and, in addition to leading the executive branch, has the task of ensuring compliance with the Constitution control. However, the bill was overturned by the Guardian Council.

Renewed candidacy

On February 8, 2009, Chātami announced his renewed candidacy for the election of the Iranian president in June of that year . Pushed out of the reform camp by the suggestion of his supporters, he is said to have replied: “It's hard to say no when everyone wants a yes.” On March 16, 2009, he announced that he would not run as a candidate after all moderate candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi wanted to support in order to "avoid a split in the electorate".

Iranian security forces thwarted a bomb attack on an Iranian passenger plane on May 31. A quarter of an hour after the start of the machine with 131 passengers, flight security attendant discovered a self-made explosive device in one of the aircraft toilets. Chātami should originally be among the passengers. However, this took an earlier flight for unknown reasons.

Foreign policy

2003 in Geneva during the press conference on the WSIS
Chātami on February 27, 2004 in Caracas

In an interview with CNN reporter Christiane Amanpour in January 1998, Chātami praised American civilization and paid his respects to the great American people. For this statement he was later criticized by the magazine Dschomhuri-ye Eslami with the words: "The president has said everything except what he should have said."

A visit to the German Weimar he campaigned in a speech on 12 July 2000 for a dialogue between Orient and Occident and "above all, the search for compassionate and trusting Contact".

In May 2003, Chātami tried, apparently in consultation with revolutionary leader Ali Khamenei , to break open the stalled negotiations in the nuclear dispute. The fax from Swiss Ambassador Tim Guldimann , known as the “ Swiss Memo ” - Switzerland has been in charge of this connection since diplomatic relations between Iran and the United States were broken off - US Secretary of State Colin Powell was “unable to sell” in the White House .

During the funeral services on the occasion of the death of John Paul II on April 8, 2005, a meeting between Chātami and the then Israeli President Moshe Katzav took place .

In connection with the unrest in the Islamic world after the Regensburg speech by Pope Benedict XVI. Chātami was one of the moderate voices. He spoke out in favor of "reading the speech first before criticizing it". Chātami was on April 5, 2007 by Benedict XVI. received in a private audience in the Vatican with express appreciation as a “moderate reformer”.

In contrast to some other Iranian politicians and clergy, Chātami considers the Holocaust to be an "absolute, historical fact".

Personal and family

Chātami's father, Ayatollah Ruhollah Chātami, was a high-ranking cleric in Yazd . Mohammad Chātami has been married to Zohreh Sadeghi, the daughter of a religious scholar and niece of Musa as-Sadr , since 1974 . The marriage had two daughters and a son: Leila (born 1975, has a professorship in mathematics), Narges (born 1982) and Emad (born 1988); the family also adopted their son Mehdi.

Chātami's younger brother, Mohammad-Reza Chātamī , was one of the first to be elected to the sixth parliamentary term, receiving the post of deputy Majles spokesman. Mohammad-Reza Chātami is married to Zahra Eshraghi , Khomeini's granddaughter , leader of a reformist party and critical of the regime. Chātami's older brother, Ali Chātami, who holds a degree in industrial engineering, is a businessman. Chātami's older sister, Fatemeh Chātami, was elected to the Ardakan City Parliament in 1999.

In addition to Persian , Chātami speaks Arabic , English and German .

See also

Web links

Commons : Mohammad Chatami  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9705/24/iran.elex/index.html
  2. http://www.bpb.de/publikationen/SI1YYD,0,Gibt_es_in_Iran_noch_einen_Reformprozess.html
  3. Archived copy ( Memento of November 14, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  4. http://archiv.hamburger-illustrierte.de/arc2002/downloads/iranreport092002.pdf
  5. Spiegel online from February 8, 2009
  6. Financial Times Deutschland of February 8, 2009 ( Memento of August 4, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  7. Kurier : Hope bearer does not appear ( Memento from March 18, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ^ Die ZEIT online from March 17, 2009
  9. Security forces defuse bomb in passenger aircraft Spiegel online from May 31, 2009
  10. Violence mars Iranian election campaign Jerusalem Post, June 2, 2009
  11. http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9801/07/iran/interview.html
  12. http://www.druckversion.studien-von-zeitfragen.net/Chatami-Diwan.htm
  13. http://www.bundespraesident.de/dokumente/-,2.23903/Rede/dokument.htm ( Memento from October 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  14. https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/documents/us_iran_1roadmap.pdf
  15. https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/13/AR2007021301363.html
  16. http://www.stern.de/politik/ausland/582642.html?eid=583173
  17. Archived copy ( Memento of October 1, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  18. http://www.hagalil.com/archiv/2005/04/vatikan.htm
  19. ^ A b Bernardo Cervellera: Benedict XVI and Khatami: the good trail is Regensburg . AsiaNews.it, May 4, 2007
  20. American "Conceit and Pride" Led to Iraq Mess. " Www.time.com September 8, 2006