PAHLAVI

Part 1 -- Part 2

Before getting to the core of problems during the era after WW II until the events of Islamic Revolution in 1979, we need to have a quick look at one of the most extra ordinary and magnificent documents which has shed light on many of dark and obscure corners of the history of our nation in modern times. This document is called "Freemasonry in Iran" authored by Esmail Raeen whose life was taken because of that as he predicted when he started preparing it over 20 years earlier. Mr. Raeen has done extensive research and gathered a lot of original documents regarding the affairs that Freemasons have been involved in our country. During his research, he was threatened multiple times. He was once even imprisoned with false accusations under influence of some Freemasons who had infiltrated every organization of the nation, but later another freemason released him from prison! He says it was right after that which he could access a lot of information and documents to prove his suspicion of evil intentions and actions of Freemasons towards our nation. Mr. Raeen has met many Iranian Freemasons from whom some were openly admitting to being a Freemason and proud of it too! According to Mr. Raeen, there are some honest, dignified and patriotic people among Iranian Freemasons but there are also others who are evil and greedy and think of nothing other than gathering wealth in corrupt ways and serving the agenda of their alien masters. He believes that it is possible that many Iranians who joined freemason did so with clean and honest intentions because they were deceived by the messages of freedom, brotherhood and equality from this fraternity but later found themselves trapped in undesirable situations with traitors and foreigners. Dr. Mohammad Mosadegh might have been one example of such case that Mr. Raeen talks about. He briefly joined Adamiyat Society which apparently promoted cause of democracy before the events that ended up with Constitutional Revolution but later started working with "majma'e ensaniyat" (humanity society) which was held in Mostofi-Ashtiyani's house. A document was later released by Fereydun Adamiyat (son of Hussein-Qoli the founder of Adamiyat Society) which apparently shows the handwriting of Dr. Mossadegh taking the oath of loyalty to the cause of Adamiyat Society that according to some interpretations was the Constitutional Revolution and dignity of human being. It is unclear why Adamiyat Society should have taken such measures in getting a written oath of loyalty from its members and what has been the purpose of secrecy in their activities. Some people believe that taking the oath of loyalty was in accord with Masonic traditions which Adamiyat Society representing.

According to Mr. Raeen, Freemasonry lodges in Iran have been linked with different Masonic grand lodges of different countries that included England, France, Germany, USA, Switzerland etc... The lodges with links to England and USA were more popular and more influential than others among Iranians. Many Iranian politicians of all ranks had membership in different lodges of Freemasonry. Mr. Raeen mentions that after events of WW II and invasion of Iran, only a few of the Iran's Prime Ministers WERE NOT Freemasons which included: Ali Razmara, Asadollah Alam, Ali Amini, Abdolhossin Hajhir and Fazlollah Zahedi. He also states in his well researched book that except for Reza Khan whose control over military might have helped him to survive and implement his nationalist agenda, all other Prime Ministers who were not Freemasons during previous 150 years, were either killed or pushed out of political power by them.

Mr. Raeen has written in some details that how Freemasonry started in Iran and mentions name of Sir Gore Ouseley as the first Freemason who entered most of Iranians of the royal court of Qajari Shah and many other high ranking Iranian aristocrats in Freemasons fraternity which included the Prime Minister at that time. Ouseley who held a high status among British Freemasons, believed that Iranian society was "wild and barbaric" and suggested to British foreign minister that keeping them in that state would help British to protect their interests in India through creation of continuous chaos and weakening of Iranian central government. He helped preparation of defeat of Abbas Mirza of Qajar in his battle against Russians by passing the secrets of military plans and arrangement of his forces to Russians which was in accordance with the policies of keeping Iranian government weak and miserable. Later, after the war, he represented the Qajar King to negotiate the treaties that broke up major areas of northern Iranian territories from the mainland. He did all of this with the help of Iranian Freemasons in the royal court and around the Qajar Shah from whom Abolhassan Ilchi had bigger role.

Ouseley was later awarded with one of highest medals of honor by Russian Tsar (probably another Freemason brother). From that point Freemasonry has always played its destructive role in the affairs of our nation and Freemasons were despised by some of Iranian people who noticed their evil deeds while a good portion of Iranian elite, for different reasons, continued to work with them against the interests of the nation. The activities of Freemasons were driven into obscurity during the reign of Reza Shah but even at that time, many of most active Iranian politicians in the system and others who were involved in different affairs of the nation were secretly linked with that fraternity. Mr. Foroughi and Mr. Taghizadeh are just two of many well known names. Others include: Mr. Jafar Sharif-Emami, Mr. Mahmoud Djam, Mr. Mohammad-Taghi Eskandani, Mr. Zaryab Kho'ee (Abbas), Mr. Yarshater (Ehsan), Mr. Zarinkub (Abdulhossein), Mr. Safa (Zabihollah), Entezam (Abdullah and Asdollah) and many others who were all involved with political, economical and cultural affairs of the nation in one way or another.

Mr. Tolou-ee in his book "Pedar va Pesar" (Father and Son) has raised the possibility of Mr. Foroughi having a hand in removal of Reza Shah through British. Apparently, other than personal grievances of Mr. Foroughi against Reza Shah because of previous maltreatment, he had also complained to British Ambassador about Reza Shah's treatment of his high ranking government officials during the same time that occupying forces were present in Iran. There are some hints in the writings of Reader Bullard (British Ambassador) and Winston Churchill which show the decision to force Reza Shah to abdicate had not been taken before invasion of Iran. Reader Bullard in his memoirs about the invasion and forcing Reza Shah out of power says that, most of Iranians were in favor of removal of Shah but we had no intention of doing that as long as transportation of goods and military supplies to Russia through Iran would continue without any problem. He has not mentioned where did he obtained that information from and who those Iranians were but it would be reasonable to think that he received such feedback from those who were in close contact with him and Mr. Foroughi with much feelings of resentment (because of previous ill treatments) towards Reza Shah was one of them. He states that we (the invaders) did not want to get into internal affairs of Iranians but Iranian people were not happy about that because they believed Reza Shah was installed and supported by British and wanted to get rid of him. This matter apparently became the foundation for spreading of lies and accusations against Reza Shah through BBC Farsi program which had started to work just for such purpose during the beginning days of occupation of Iran.

BBC's reports were prepared and sent to London from British Embassy in Tehran by a staff named Ms. Lambton to reflect most current events in Iran and provoke the society against Reza Shah. Winston Churchill has written in his memoirs about why it was necessary for British to use Iran in order to help Soviet Russians while keeping the hands of Germans from Iranian oil. British had discussed this matter with the Soviets about three months before the invasion which they agreed but their condition was to do it in joint operation. There was no mention of anything regarding Reza Shah at that time and the decision in that regard was probably taken later when British and Russian troops were in Iran. All available evidences from British communication documents show that presence of a few hundreds of German citizens in Iran was just an excuse and no matter what Iranian government would do, the invasion was inevitable. Reza Shah wrote a letter about this matter to American President after the invasion and asked for his help to protect the integrity of Iranian territory. According to Assadollah Entezam in his memoirs, American ambassador agreed with Reza Shah's viewpoints regarding the invasion by British and Soviet forces in a private meeting in which, Reza Shah verbally expressed his appreciation in response to President Roosevelt's letter and his support of Iran's territorial integrity.

After this short review of some of the issues that influenced later current of events in the country, we get to the era of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi in Iran. Mohammad Reza Shah started his reign on a very bumpy road from the beginning at the age of 22 after his father Reza Shah was forced to resign by British occupying forces. Most of the world was in the state of war and Iran was under occupation of old enemies with no real means to resist their demands and stop their mad behaviors towards the resources of the country and its people. Iranian government had no real power to deal with issues created by occupiers. Iranian politicians were mostly suspected of having links with British or Soviets, and Americans had also entered a new phase in relations with Iran to make things more complicated than before. While Soviets tried to influence the affairs of Iran through Tudeh party, British were doing the same through more obscure methods with the help of Anglophile politicians and clergies who had a long lasting relation with them. Americans, a nation founded by Freemasons, would definitely see better possibilities for themselves in future of Iran, as foreseen by Mr. Hoover.

One of the major issues which faced Iranian government during occupation was to reach any kind of negotiation or contract with any of the invaders to accomplish anything for betterment of the nation. This matter could easily cause a lot of problems for the Iranian government as seen in the case of northern oil discussion with Americans. Another issue was that during those times, Soviet Union had taken advantage of the opportunity to start the process of secession of northern and western portions of Iranian territories by installing and supporting a group of their own puppets as local governments. This matter was carried out with the help of Tudeh party and its military organization which was formed secretly inside Iranian army. Military organization of Tudeh party, against all norms in any army in the free world (which requires army to be free of association with any political party), was formed by the followers of Tudeh party within high ranking officers of Iranian army and became an element of real threat to stability and integrity of the nation. According to some stories, another group of officers in the army had organized themselves as nationalist military organization around the same time and had links with National Front. Lack of enough control by Iranian government over the affairs of military and misconceptions of leaders of the country about democracy had resulted in a near chaos situation in the army which was built through a painstaking process and a lot of hard work during the reign of Reza Shah.

All the works which were previously carried out during the era of Reza Shah were brought under scrutiny and in many cases criticized and condemned by old and new opposition. From building of the railways and roads to organizing the military, to expansion of education and dispatch of Iranian students to Europe and everything else was condemned by opposition who apparently believed all those work was done against the interests of Iranian people! The amount of nonsense which was put forward by the opposition that was mostly encouraged by limitless freedom (without any sense of responsibility) and motivated by presence of foreign powers that openly meddled in the affairs of the nation; was beyond sanity. The behaviors of Iranian elite in that chaotic situation justified the policies which were suggested by Gore Ouseley about 150 years earlier. Vulgarity and lompanism was the order of the day, as it is in the politics of Iran of today since 1979.

Soon after end of WW II, Iranian government faced one of the most serious challenges and threats to its integrity by occupying forces of Soviet Union which refused to leave while demanding for the oil concession in the northern region of Iran. Tudeh party was 100% behind Soviets demands in this regard and they even dispatched a group of the officers from their military organization to assist in organizing an army for so called democratic republic of Azarbaijan which was declared by Jafar Pishevary with support of Soviets. This was done in order to put Iranian government under pressure and even take away Azarbaijan from Iran if possible. Prime Minister of Iran was Qavam o-Saltaneh at that time. Qavam was known as a seasoned politician from Qajar era. He was the author of the letter which was signed by Mozzafar o-Din Shah to accept the Constitutional Revolution of Iran. That letter was presented to the Shah by his older brother Vosougholdoleh who was Prime Minister of Mozzafar o-Din Shah at the time. Vosougholdoleh is well known in the Iranian history for his disgraceful agreement of 1919 with British government after accepting bribe from them. Ahmad Qavam, unlike his brother, was considered a strong and patriotic politician with a good amount of political and negotiating skills in his bag. About 25 years earlier, he had been once arrested and imprisoned by Seyed Zia who was later removed of power and sent to exile by Reza Khan and then Qavam moved from Prison to the position of Prime Minister to replace him. With such background, Qavam ol-Saltaneh turned out to be a great choice to lead Iranian government during Azarbaijan crisis.

One of the shiniest points in the report card of Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh during those days was, passing of a bill in the Iranian parliament which was attributed to him and would prohibit the government of Iran from signing any agreement with any of invading powers while their troops were still in Iran. This became a good tool in the hands of Qavam to refuse granting an oil concession to Soviet Union in Northern provinces of Iran. He promised Soviets (after meeting Stalin) that when the Soviet's troops left Azarbaijan then the oil concession would be presented to the new parliament for their approval according to the law which did not permit Iranian government to make such concessions before foreign troops leave the country. Soviets had no choice but to either leave or face an international crisis so the left. This matter created an opportunity for Iranian army to move to Azarbaijan under command of General Ali Razmara and remove the puppet government from power. Jafar Pishevari and some of his friends and army left Azarbaijan for Russia by crossing northern borders. As part of the same operation, General Fazlollah Zahedi moved the units under his command to the west to disperse Kurdistan Democratic Sect and drive them out of Iranian borders to the west. According to some accounts, there were parallel activities from other routes in convincing Soviets to leave Iranian territories from which the meeting of Princess Ashraf Pahlavi (twin sister of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi) with Stalin and also negotiation of US representative with Russians to respect Iranian territorial integrity (as promised by US President Roosevelt to Reza Shah) need to be mentioned.

Tudeh Party which had expanded its influence and operations throughout the country by taking advantage of democratic atmosphere of the country, had found a good foothold among working class especially Iranian oil workers in southern province of Khuzestan. Oil, once again became a hot topic in the politics of Iran. Americans who had a long term plan to enter the oil business activities in Iran and had failed the first attempt due to meddling of Tudeh Party and Soviets during Prime Minister Sa'ed, did not intend to let others get away with sweet deals that they were getting from Iranians without sharing it with them. Many among Iranian elite had developed friendly sentiments towards Americans as they believed that, because of their historical conflicts with British over their independence, Americans would be supportive and reliable ally for Iranians who shared some views with them regarding meddling of British in their own affairs. In fact, Americans were considered benevolent liberators in the view of many Iranians (probably even today) who would help other nations in eliminating influence of old and evil colonial powers. Whether this view was correct or not, is debatable but the truth is that, foundation of the United States of America was put in place by some powerful Freemason figures who followed their own globalist agendas and this was the same fraternity which had influenced the politics of Iran at least since a couple of centuries ago and it might have not been very realistic to think that they would be much different than their European Mason brothers like Gore Ouseley.

The roles and influence that Tudeh party had in one of the most crucial periods of Iran's history and the links that it had with both (Russian and British) colonial powers and also to the deposed dynasty of Qajar, is so significant that requires much more attention and study to reach some real understanding and logical conclusions about this party and its effects on the current affairs in Iran. Tudeh party was successful in gaining support among some newly arrived intellectuals and working class through popular slogans. They talked about the issues which were pleasant to the ears of the portions of society that had no share in ruling power and felt to be left out. Leaders of Tudeh party were mostly coming from aristocrat families or had links with high ranking clerics with a lot of grievances and complaints towards the system which was established by Reza Shah. Nouredin Kianouri who climbed to the position of party leader in 1979, was the grandson of Sheikh Fazlollah Nouri, one of the famous Clerics of his time with proven ties to British. Sheikh Fazlollah whose opposition to Constitutional Revolution in favor of a version of religious ruling system (Velayat Faghih) became the foundation for establishment of Islamic Republic in Iran, was later tried and executed as a traitor to the nation. Nouredin married Maryam Firuz, sister of Firuz Mirza Nosrat ol-Doleh whose death during house arrest was blamed on Reza Shah by his family. According to some stories, after Reza Shah abdicated, a case against someone named Dr. Ahmadi was brought to the court of justice regarding this matter and based on complaint by Nosratol Dowleh's son, Mozzafar Firuz. The result was conviction of Dr. Ahmadi.

Maryam Firuz in her memoirs about what brought her to join Tudeh Party mentions two reasons: "the suffering of my father under Pahlavi's reign which I witnessed with my own eyes and the suppression of woman's rights" and then she adds: "I will never forget when my father desperately said if there would be anyone to revolt against the Shah and take his revenge of him?". She says that in those days everyone was on the Shah's side and the only group who fought Shah was Tudeh Party so she joined them. Maryam Firuz admits that she never studied Communism theories even though she was an important member of central committee of the party and believed that there was no need for such knowledge to join the communist party. In her view, if someone considered herself a human being, if she loved her country and her nation, she would join Tudeh Party. About her first contact with Dr. Kianoury, she says that her father and her family were familiar with Sheikh Fazlollah Nouri and his family and loved and respected Sheikh Fazlollah very much so they knew each other through family ties. Reading through these lines, one may understand that how the menace of Qajar dynasty has continued to influence the affairs of our nation since over 200 years ago even after their removal from power.

Going back to story of Tudeh party, we can not study this Iranian political group without knowing about Iraj Eskandari. Dr. Eskandari was among newly educated and trained students who came back from Europe when he was arrested along with Dr. Taghi Arani. Arani was one of the founders of communist movement in Iran along with some other people (total of 53 mentioned in previous part). According to Dr. Fereydun Keshavarz (another Tudeh Party member of the same group of 53) Eskandari was considered one of the most knowledgeable people of the group after Dr. Arani himself. After Reza Shah was removed from power, Eskandari and others were released. Shortly after that, the foundation of Tudeh Party was laid by Iraj Eskandari with the help and influence of his uncle, Soleyman Mirza Eskandari, and he became an important element within its leadership. He later climbed to the position of party leader and stayed in that position until 1979 that he was removed and replaced by Dr. Kianouri. His family was linked with Qajar royals (he was cousin of Maryam Firuz) and this matter had gained him the title of "red prince" by some communist friends. His uncle, Soleyman Mirza, was a member of Adamiyat Society (a cover name for Masonic lodge) founded by Mirza Hussein-Qoli Adamiyat. Iraj Eskandari, in his memoirs, has written in much details about everything related to Tudeh party after he left the party and took asylum in France. In order to understand Tudeh party better, Dr. Eskandari's memoirs is one of the best sources which allows us to have a look inside this party from the viewpoint of an important member and a leader who had been involved with the affairs of the party since the beginning. It is necessary to mention that Mr. Eskandari who is remembered by many of his comrades and friends as a true righteous person might have never written anything about realities of Tudeh Party for future generations (as himself put it) if the new leadership of the party would not try to smear his name through lies which they spread about him in the Islamic regime's media while in captivity.

Dr. Eskandari has written about sectarianism policies within the party which promoted certain people and even certain families which put their own interests and agendas above the policies of the party. He writes about how the problems and divisions in the leadership of Tudeh Party caused its ineffective reactions to the events in 1953 (as per Tudeh party’s historical mission) while the ordinary members followed the leadership like a bunch sheep. He says that the issue of blind following of leaders had resulted in dictatorial behavior of certain elements within the leadership which finally resulted in putting the whole party under control of KGB. He claims that as a result of false reputation of some elements, unqualified characters took over the leadership which later turned into a tool to identify and persecute of freedom lovers by Islamic Republic regime. These matters along with sheep-like attitude of followers in worshiping certain characters within leadership finally resulted in disgraceful demise and total failure of the party. Mr. Eskandari explains how Tudeh Party turned into a subdivision of so called Democratic Sect of Azarbaijan (fergheh democrat azarbaijan) after forming a union with this entity during late 1950's and early 1960's. He blames Abdolsamad Kambakhsh (of Tudeh Party leadership) who was the main ally of Kianouri, for disclosing the secret group of 53 to the government and the arrest of Dr. Taghi Arani and because of that, he had proposed (in a party convention) expelling of him and his allies from the party. The differences were temporarily settled later with the help of Maraym Firuz until Dr. Kianouri tried to climb to party leadership by making a case against Kambakhsh (resulting in his dismissal) in late 1969- early1970. Dr. Eskandari says that he did not want to allow Kianouri in such position so he became party leader himself. Eskandari says that Kianouri never believed in Communism. He (Kianouri) was very weak against any source of power and was a real coward person despite pretending to be brave. According to Eskandari, Kianouri's specialty was in lies and conspiratorial activities in which he had developed very high skills. Changing camps and joining Khomeini apparently was not out of character of Kianouri according to Eskandari. He had once praised Reza Shah in his doctorate theses as a genius and it was only after defeat of Germans in Stalingrad (St. Petersburg) that he joined communist camp.

Dr. Eskandari speaks about the passing of information about Iranian army to Soviet Union government by members of military organization through Tudeh Party which he disagreed about but could not do anything to stop it. He states that Tudeh Party in those times, was just a follower of agendas of Soviet Union and any time Soviet government was in good relations with Iranian government then Tudeh Party would stay silent. Eskandari atributes the appointment of Kianouri to party leadership and replacing him to the Soviets intelligence service, KGB which had gained full control over the party's central committee. According to him, Soviets had put the affairs of Iran and Tudeh Party in the hands of the KGB branch in Soviet Azarbaijan Republic where former members of so called "Azarbaijan Democratic Sect" stayed and worked with them. Eskandari says that Gholam-Yahya Daneshian who worked with KGB and was a close friend of Kianouri, personally made the proposal of dismissing Eskandari and appointment of Kianouri during the meeting of central committee in early months of 1979.  This, Eskandari says, happened after he rejected a suggestion (in 1978) made by someone from Soviet government who was neither related to Azarbaijan nor to the ministry of foreign affairs (probably a member of central KGB), to gather Iranian military personnel who lived as refugees in all Eastern Europe in order to make them ready for initiating a civil war in Iran so that Americans had to send their forces to interfere and thus, Soviets could move their forces into Iran too; like they did in Afghanistan. Eskandari also mentions that the original suggestion to give oil concession to Soviet Union came from Kianouri and was later promoted by Ehsan Tabari who used the term "Soviet domain" for northern region of the country in this regard. He says that himself (Eskandari) once used this silly term in presence of Dr. Mosadegh who pointed at him with his pencil sharpening knife and said to him that if he (Eskandari) talked about anyone's domain in that country one more time then he (Dr. Mosadegh) would personally cut his tongue with that knife!

As we can see, decades after Qajar dynasty has been removed from ruling power in Iran, their legacy of corruption, servitude, lies and deception along with insatiable feeling of revenge from those who took away their undeserved privileges and luxuries continue to hurt our nation through the institutions and organizations that were founded mostly by the members of that family and their associates. The culture of attaching meaningless titles with ridiculous rights and privileges to the people with no real valuable qualifications, and also dependency to strangers and foreigners for petty materialistic gains and offering unconditional trust to them, had created such a poisonous environment in the politics of Iran that telling a friend from a foe was not an easy task if not impossible. Moreover, promotion of superstitious behaviors by Qajar kings and their dependent families and increasing power and role of clerics in the affairs of the nation through the royal court of Qajars had created a strong religious aristocracy within the system which spread its influence into the fabric of society that was comparable to (or even more powerful than) the influence of Zoroastrian clerics in Sassanid dynasty era. Unfortunately, this matter did not vanish after them either. The depth of corruption among elite and the extent of ignorance and illiteracy in Iranian society would not allow a speedy process to eliminate or even significantly reduce the negative effects of centuries of mismanagement by corrupt ruling powers and meddling of colonialists.

While majority in society were struggling with all kinds of miseries, the elite were busy to make plans and take revenge against one another and when everything went wrong then they tried to justify their own wrong doings by invoking complicated ideological theories or blaming others for problems. The truth is that although patriotic Iranians were not scarce in those times but infiltration by enemies and plentiful of sellouts along with egocentric behaviors of many who were involved in the politics of the nation; had created a very bad combination which called for inevitable disaster.

After WW II ended and all occupying forces left Iran, once again the issue of oil and its revenue came into focus and new negotiation started in order to advance the benefits of Iran from this natural resource by making amendments to the agreement that was made with AIOC during Reza Shah’s era. A supplemental agreement was reached between AIOC and Iranian government in 1949 that would provide Iran with 33 percent more royalties than 1933 agreement. This agreement was rejected by parliament for not addressing some major points including control over the price of oil sold inside the country and the rights for Iranian government to inspect AIOC’s financial books. Dr. Mosadegh and a group of his followers spoke up against the agreement and the discussion over this matter was dragged until the parliamentary period was over and the issue remained for next parliament to discuss after a new election. The next few years after this were the eventful years which resulted in one crisis after another and created deep divisions in our nation that were taken advantage of by enemies through manipulative propaganda and intelligence activities till this day. In the next part: the struggle over oil and promotion of falsified history about the events of 1950’s by Iran's enemies and those whose private agendas in self promotion would overshadow the Iranian national interests.