Nojeh coup
The Nojeh Coup or Noscheh Putsch was a coup attempt with the code name "NEGHAB" ( mask ) planned for July 9, 1980 (18th Tir 1359 ), with President Abolhassan Banisadr and the entire leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran including its clergy Leader Khomeini should be overthrown. The coup was supposed to start at the Shahrochi air base near Hamadan . The air base was renamed Nojeh base after the Islamic revolution. One of the leaders of the putschists was General Ayat Mohagheghi .
Preparations
Officers of the Iranian army , who had received their training during the time of the Shah, agreed to overthrow the Islamic regime that had been in power in Iran for 513 days and to reestablish the old monarchy. Officers from the army, the air force , the Imperial Guard and the SAVAK secret service were involved in the planning.
Shapur Bakhtiar , the last Prime Minister under Mohammad Reza Shah , opened an office in Paris and organized the resistance against the Islamic Republic of Iran. He was financially supported by Saddam Hussein from Iraq , among others .
One of the main leaders of the coup was General Ayat Mohagheghi. General Mohagheghi remained a general in the Air Force even after the Islamic Revolution and had access to all military facilities of the Air Force.
Planned process
As far as is known, the coup was to take place in three phases. Phase 1 consisted of an air strike on militarily and strategically important building complexes, on government buildings, the residence of Khomeini in Jamaran and buildings of the clergy in Tehran , Mashhad and Qom . In phase 2, soldiers from nine infantry divisions were to occupy central facilities in Tehran, including the state radio and television, parliament, the headquarters of the Revolutionary Guard and the Tehran bazaar. Phase 3 provided for a complete separation of the capital Tehran from the hinterland in order to cut off possible reinforcements for the Revolutionary Guards. This should be achieved with 50,000 armed Kurds , Baluch and Turkish militiamen. The militias should wear the uniforms of the Revolutionary Guard and be recognizable by a green ribbon with the words "Ya Vatan" (Oh motherland).
discovery
48 hours until the coup, all preparations went according to plan. How the government of the Islamic Republic found out about the planned coup is still unknown. Most sources state that the information came from an employee of the Bakhtiars office in Paris. Shapur Bakhtiar never commented on these suspicions. The suspicion of having passed on information about the planned coup to the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran is linked to Manucher Ghorbanifar . Ghorbanifar was a former employee of the 8th office ( counter-espionage ) of the SAVAK under the leadership of General Hashemi and later spokesman for Prime Minister Shapur Bakhtiar. Manuchehr Ghorbanifar acted as a mediator in the US arms sales to Iran, known as the Iran-Contra affair . It was he, along with others, who negotiated the arms deliveries with Oliver North on behalf of the Islamic Republic of Iran .
As part of the Nojeh coup, Ghorbanifar was supposed to deliver weapons to a specific air force base, which should then be used in the coup. However, these weapons never arrived. Ghorbanifar lived in Istanbul under the name Suzani at the time of the coup . Suzani and Ghorbanifar respectively claimed that he helped several people involved in the coup to flee to Turkey . However, Colonel Hadi Azizmoradi, Colonel Behrouz Shahverdilou and Colonel Ahmad Hamedmonfarad, whom Ghorbanifar claims to have helped to escape, were found shot dead in Istanbul. Ghorbanifar is accused of being partly responsible for her death.
In a court proceeding on the basis of the Freedom of Information Act on June 6, 2007, the aim is to obtain that all information available to the American security authorities about this failed coup is published. The complaint alleges that in July 1980 Zbigniew Brzeziński met King Hussein of Jordan to discuss the possibility of an Iraqi invasion of Iran. It is also alleged that the coup was betrayed to the Banisadr government by Soviet agents in France and Latin America.
Public announcement
The general public was informed of the planned coup on July 11, 1980 (20. Tir 1359) by President Banisadr, Commander of the Air Force Colonel Javad Fakouri and Commander of the Revolutionary Guard Morteza Rezai. Banisadr announced to the surprised public that a military coup led by Shapur Bakhtiar had been exposed. The government has known of the overturn plans for a month. The date of the coup attempt and the main locations were known to her 24 hours before the start of the military operation.
Arrests and executions
One of the leaders of the coup, General Mohagheghi, stated in a videotaped interrogation that the coup was planned by a few officers who were dissatisfied with the general situation in Iran. The plan was to steal four planes from the Nojeh Air Force Base and bomb the Khomeini house and buildings and bridges in Tehran. On July 9, they drove to the base in a bus and found the base there under strong surveillance by the Revolutionary Guards. The plan to go to the base and steal the planes has therefore been dropped. Instead, they returned to Tehran without having achieved anything. The conspirators were then arrested on the way back.
Immediately before the public announcement, other officers suspected of being involved in the coup were arrested. Eleven days after the revolt was announced, on Sunday, July 22nd, 1980 (29th Tir 1359), Air Force officers General Ayat Mohagheghi, Major Farokhzad Jahangiri, Captain Mohammad Malek and Captain Bijan Irannejad were executed. The death sentences were pronounced by Mohammad Mohammadi Reyschahri , the presiding judge of the revolutionary military court - he later became the first head of the Iranian secret service VEVAK .
In the following 65 days 115 people were executed in total, including pilots, paratroopers and officers of the artillery . Particular attention was paid to the execution of Shahriar Noor, son of the escaped Colonel Amir Hushang Noor, who was executed in place of his father, who was sentenced to death, as part of a clan conviction.
With the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq war , further arrests and executions were not made.
Web links
- Anatomy of a coup
- Shahram Javidpour: Rebellion of the 18th Tir (Nojeh Coup d'Etat, in Persian).
- English description of the Nojeh Coup including the list of the names of all people arrested and executed as part of the Nojeh Coup
- Video of General Ayat Mohagheghi's testimony before the Revolutionary Court (in Persian). on YouTube
- Cyrus Kadivar: Flight of Eagles - The proceedings of July 9, 1980, according to Ayat Mohagheghi