By Jennifer Jones-Kelley

The third and final portion of the MEK’s 55th Anniversary Celebration consisted of speeches from members of the Iranian diaspora.

By Jennifer Jones-Kelley

On Saturday, September 5, the MEK held an online event celebrating the 55th anniversary of its founding at Ashraf 3, its headquarters in Albania. The event was live-streamed around the world and included speeches from MEK Secretary General Zahra Merrikhi, National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) President-elect Maryam Rajavi, and representatives of over 300 Iranian groups from all over the world.

Iranian opposition PMOI/MEK celebrates 55th founding anniversary#Iran#MEKhttps://t.co/J3tuWo4NEm

— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) September 5, 2020

The prevailing theme of the day was the MEK’s continued determination to end the clerical dictatorship and bring democracy to Iran. Speakers paid homage to the founders and leaders of the MEK and vowed to carry on their work.

The following are highlights from the day’s speakers:

Badri Pourtabakh

MEK Deputy Secretary-General

“Our deepest respect and homage to the founders of this organization. They paved a new way in the history of our nation. The way of struggling against dictatorship and fundamentalism. Their names will forever shine in our history.”

“Our organization proved that the fundamentalists ruling Iran do not represent our nation and people. The PMOI/MEK is the continuation of 120 years of struggle for freedom in Iran. The MEK has stayed true to the tradition of the struggle for freedom and protected its legacy.”

“With the Resistance Units and ongoing uprisings in Iran, we will surely fulfill the dream of the Iranian people to achieve freedom and democracy.”

Zahra Merrikhi

MEK Secretary-General

“Despite the spread of the coronavirus, we are seeing each other virtually. But we cannot see another part of this gathering, namely our rebellious friends inside Iran, especially the enchained and imprisoned dissidents, and particularly, MEK members and sympathizers, as well as the brave Resistance Units who are resisting in the prisons regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.”

“The reality is that since 1971, the MEK, under repeated onslaughts by the Shah and the mullahs’ regime, has been on the verge of being totally destroyed many times. But, it has risen from its ashes time and again.”

“Khomeini’s ideology and the velayat-e faqih (absolute rule) have no other role than to enslave the people.

“Look at the questions Khomeini’s ‘Death Commissions’ asked prisoners in 1988. Amnesty International published them.

‘Are you willing to condemn the MEK and its leadership?

‘Are you willing to spy on your former comrades and collaborate with intelligence agents?

‘Are you willing to become a member of the firing squads?

‘Are you willing to hang a MEK member?’”

“The MEK’s response to these conditions has always been ever further sacrificing, honesty and selflessness and saying yes to the resistance for the overthrow of the regime.”

“Our rebellious friends and Ashrafis, those who have come a long way in the company of the MEK and sacrificed their lives and everything they had, understand these words with flesh and bone. From providing the expenses of this movement to moving past crises, storms blow, and conspiracies, Iranian communities across the world upheld the dignity and name of Iran and Iranians in different countries through their support, their protests, strikes, and demonstrations. They awakened the conscience of humanity. They were the friends of the difficult days of siege, attacks, and missiles. They took part in the movement that seeks justice for the martyrs by knocking on closed doors and opening the locks.”

“Owing to the sacrifices [of the MEK’s martyrs], today, the MEK is stronger, more solidified, and more cohesive than ever before. It has become the beacon of hope for the Iranian people to overthrow the mullahs’ regime and establish freedom in our fettered nation.

“It is not without reason that the regime’s leaders constantly warn of the expansion of popular support for the MEK and the role played by the MEK’s Resistance Units in organizing the uprising and the anti-government protests. The mullahs know better than anyone else that they have been defeated in every aspect of the face-off against the MEK, and that the day is not far until the Iranian people will rise up and topple them. Indeed, the Iranian people and the Resistance, led by the MEK, will overthrow the regime and nothing can prevent that from coming into fruition.”

Maryam Rajavi

NCRI President-elect

“The Shah, relying on his ruthless secret police, backed by world powers and superpowers, and clinging to his dream of a ‘great civilization,’ was finally toppled as a result of the Iranian people’s uprising.”

Today, we learned that the regime has changed their place of detention. This is what we say, and what our people and the world public say: Do not execute! Free them! #StopExecutionsInIran pic.twitter.com/xvs4OOwJpm

— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) September 5, 2020

“By the same token, the mullahs will be overthrown by the Iranian people and the Iranian Resistance, the great army of freedom, even though they rely on their Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and despite their inhuman suppression and massacres while clinging to their dream of establishing an “Islamic caliphate.”

“What has stood fast, firm and proud, and will continue to do so, is the Iranian people’s Resistance for freedom, with the MEK at its epicenter.”

“We honor the great founders of the MEK, Mohammad Hanifnejad, Saeed Mohsen, and Asghar Badizadegan who took the initiative for this historic breakthrough.”

“How inspiring it is that the Iranian Resistance’s Leader, Massoud Rajavi, revived and revitalized this organization despite the crushing blows of two dictatorships, leading it to the pinnacle of its struggle against the reactionary mullahs.”

When there is not a qualified leadership organization, there could be no fundamental change or development. As in the time of the Constitutional Revolution, people rose up and compelled the authoritarian monarch to accept the constitution, but there was no guarantee. #Iran pic.twitter.com/VqmBVLl5k8

— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) September 5, 2020

“Even today, we see that the clerical regime is admitting it in a thousand different ways that its main problem is the structure of the PMOI/MEK. So, it must be obliterated and beheaded to guarantee the regime’s survival. This is the common goal pursued by all the regime’s mercenaries.”

“The uprisings in Iran since December 2017 up until now clearly demonstrate that the protests are the scene of public support for the views and policies of the PMOI/MEK, especially among the younger generation. They are also the venue for the PMOI/MEK to make progress and the place for increasing activities by Resistance Units.”

 IRANIAN CIVIL SOCIETY CAMPAIGNS FOR JUSTICE

In the midst of the anniversary of the 1988 massacre of political prisoners in Iran, it is essential to consider why this issue is still highly relevant today. Since the summer of 2016, Iranian civil society has been breaking taboo to discuss the massacre openly. The youth of Iran are demanding justice and campaigning for an inquiry into the mass killing of political prisoners, mostly members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK/PMOI), in 1988.

Amnesty International: Families of Iran’s 1988 massacre still seek truth#Iran#1988Massacrehttps://t.co/a3ojn0Gwtg

— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) August 14, 2020

In a report published on 2 August 2017, Amnesty International discussed this:
“Human rights defenders targeted for seeking truth and justice include younger human rights defenders born after the 1979 Revolution who have taken to social media and other platforms to discuss the past atrocities, and attended memorial gatherings held at Khavaran.”(Part of Tehran’s main cemetery, known to have buried a large number of MEK martyrs during the 80s and particularly the 1988 massacre)

The report further states that there has been “a chain of unprecedented reactions from high-level officials, leading them to admit for the first time that the mass killings of 1988 were planned at the highest levels of government.”

A video clip of a speech on 22 April 2017 has spread across social media, in which a student at Tabriz University challenges a top Revolutionary Guards commander and denounces the 1988 Iranian massacre: “Your theory and your discussions defend the horrific, inhumane, illegal and irreligious massacres of 1988. … We will neither forgive, nor forget your betrayals and crimes. Our people will avenge the pain and grief of the mothers [of the martyrs] of our nation.”

Mohammad Nourizad was once a close associate of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei before the 2009 uprising in Tehran, he wrote that: “Here, in a matter of 2 or 3 months, 33,000 men, women, young and old were imprisoned, tortured and executed. Their bodies were taken to Khavaran Cemetery and barren lands by trucks and buried in mass graves, happy of what they had done…” Nourizad is currently a political prisoner in Iran, after calling for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to resign in June 2019, alongside 13 other activists. In May 2020 he attempted suicide in prison. According to his lawyer, Mashhad Maleki, this was to “highlight the oppression political prisoners endure.”

CALLS TO END IMPUNITY

Iranian regime officials continue to defend their actions despite the campaign against them and publish articles across state media, such as online publications and Intelligence Ministry outlets, attempting to justify the massacre. In a sermon on 21 July 2017 Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a board member of Iran’s Assembly of Experts and Tehran’s acting Friday prayer leader, said: “Confronting them (imprisoned dissidents) and wiping out the Monafeqin (Meaning hypocrites, a pejorative name used by the regime for the MEK to justify their murder) was one of the Imam’s (Khomeini) most righteous and valuable actions, and all of the persons who complied with his edict should be awarded a Medal of Honour. … However, those who on their websites have switched the place of martyrs and murderers should repent and beg for forgiveness.”

Regime Advisor Defends 1988 Massacre, Vows to “Eliminate MEK”

Further to this, the mass murderer Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi, a member of the “Death Commissions” during the 1988 massacre, who was the regime’s Justice Minister until August 2017, was quoted on 28 August 2016 by the state-run Tasnim news agency as saying: “God commanded show no mercy to the nonbelievers because they will not show mercy to you either and there should be no mercy to the [MEK] because if they could they would spill your blood, which they did. … We are proud to have carried out God’s commandment with regard to the [Mujahedin-e Khalq- MEK] and to have stood with strength and fought against the enemies of God and the people.”

While the massacre may have taken place in 1988, it is as prevalent as ever to the politics and human rights of Iran. Iranian civil society continues to unify over their calls for the prosecution of those involved in the massacre and will campaign until justice can finally be achieved.

Shahriar Kia, reporting for the MEK, has stated that throughout the last few days several fires have been observed in at least 8 sites related to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or its civilian wing, the Basij.

This took place from July 23-26th. The meeting coincided with the 40th anniversary of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).

This message was spelled out by Morgan Ortagus, spokesperson for the US State Department on July 17th.

The opening day of the Free Iran Global Summit online which took place last week was supported by the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI / MEK Iran). The Summit connected 30,000 places throughout the world and was attended through Zoom by more than 1,000 important global figures.

The public health crisis caused by the spread of coronavirus in Iran, where over 75,000 victims had been counted by early July, has not stopped the Iranian authorities from continuing their campaign to suppress and demonize the opposition.

Oped by Wesley Martin Retired US Army Colonel: The Free Iran Global Summit online is expected to attract tens of thousands of Iranians who live overseas as expatriates but who overwhelmingly support democracy in their country when it takes place on July 17^th.

The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI / MEK Iran) has recently been attracting more and more Iranians, particularly youth, to its campaign for real and positive change in Iran which means overthrowing the present regime which does not permit freedom of expression.