Parham

ManoTo.

Thank you very much Parham for interesting links.  I am honored to write on your wall for the first time!

Whenever I talk with a friend or a family member in Iran they always indicate their love and interest for the Manoto channel.  I watched myself several shows on in their website, which were really entertaining.  I heard only people in Iran and neighbor countries have access to Manoto.  Is that right?

Their shows are mainly copy of American shows like American / Canadian Idol.  There are also many versions of the show of "Befarmaeed Sham"  in other countries.  Though it's a copy version, I love their shows because they speak Farsi and they are lovely Iranians who live abroad!

Kaveh

You're right, that is incredible. Thanks for the story, I had forgotten a lot of the details. Just one thing: The way I remember it, the arms were distributed to anyone, there was no need for any ID. Proof is that a few of my friends had obtained them and even I could have put my hands on one.

Parham...

You are correct, after Guard-e Shahanshai's withdrawal from Homafar's engagement, which only lasted a few hours, the revolutionaries (Islamists and allies) called up military reserves and were passing looted rifles to anyone with military discharge ID! Which shows the level of popular support they had to call up the same reserves that should have been called up by Artesh-e Shanashahi, if they were (ever) to establish order. At that point, the military realized it is no longer in charge. These are lessons for the next uprising against IRI.

Any rate, the armed confrontation with Homafars lasted only a few hours, from a late night to early morning hours. We (the public) never learned why the investigation (operation) turned violent, who started it and who decided to abort the operation. In these videos, and a few years later, Bakhtiar (SB) speaks of this period somewhat "heroically" by stating "….I ordered them (military) to bomb the barracks and prevent the public access to the armory….". I found this statement contradictory to what was going around in some quarters back then. Although strictly heresay; Bakhtiar (SB) had requested the siege of the barracks, at some point after the opening of the armory, in order to prevent public access to military arms. But, upon receiving casualty estimates from the Guard's commander (Badrei, I think), he (SB) then declined the continuation of the operation. At the same time, I don’t think that Bakhtiar, the prime minister, was legally (or otherwise) in charge of, or involved in any military operations, or decisions, so who made these decisions ? We (the public) never heard anything about what might have gone on inside the "Setad-e Artesh" in those days. All with the exception of a couple of generals (who never talked) were killed within weeks after 22 Bahman.

I also recall another interesting detail of the Keyhan newspaper picture (Attention conspiracy theorists!). If I recall correctly, the supposedly fake picture had Associated Press (AP) copy right on it which the "Farmondarieh Nezamied Tehran" took notice and promptly complained publicly about the "foreign and domestic enemies" behind this picture who seek to "sow discord" within the Artesh-e Shahanshai. Well, as far as I know, Keyhan editors never said a word about the authenticity of the picture, or how and from whom they received the picture. Just imagine how easy it would have been for Khomeinist camp to make such picture arrangement to fracture and turn the Artesh against itself.

Mr. RG: Watch the clip!

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZVxVH3EzkA

Anglophile:

Can you please provide some details/ reference points on Huyser's suggested role in de stabilaising Shah? The link you provided , says this:

"In January 1979, while still EUCOM deputy, President Jimmy Carter sent Huyser to Iran. Sources disagree on the nature of his mission. According to Carter, Huyser, and American sources, he attempted to stabilize Iran during the turbulent early stages of the Islamic revolution. Charles Kurzman describes him as having been assigned by Carter "to rally Iranian Military commanders and help them prepare for a last-resort coup d'etat," unaware that the massive scale of the uprising left the Iranian military powerless to prevent the Shah's overthrow.[1] According to some supporters of the Shah, his goal was to destabilize the Shah's government.[citation needed] Shortly afterward, the Shah left Iran in exile and the Islamic Revolution took over the country. In his memoir Mission to Tehran, Huyser called the mission "one that started with desperation and disunity and ended in disaster," but praised the performance of U.S. personnel "

"Personal business must yield to collective interest."

Many retired CIA analysts many years after the 1979 Iranian

revolution described the stat of the Iranian nation at that time as extremely halloo (ignorant). This assessment jives with the aftermath of the event where masses of people gravitated towards Khomenei. This is a tragedy of astronomical magnitude.

Kaveh

Many thanks for that explanation. Yes, I remember something about that -- except the way I remember it the crowd had arms for a few days before the whole bunch of generals signed that letter and declared forfeit. That's when "victory" was declared (22 Bahman).

Where did you come up with such humbug Kaveh?

The only event that sealed the fate of the Shah and his army, long before Khomeini set foot in Mehrabad was the visit by an American air force general, you guessed it you clever boy, named Robert E. Huyser.

The rest, as they say, is history.

ps - now you can go back to your drivel land and keep Mash Parham thinkin' LOL

Parham.....

The entire "22 of Bahaman" revolves around a single event, and that was the confrontation between the military and one of its minor branches; the airforce technician school, and the subsequent withdrawal from this engagement and other responsibilities (i.e curfew and security enforcement).

Because of lack of many public details and the unprecedented events, this became the subject of many conspiratorial theories. But this is what I remember from the media (TV and paper) at the time: a few days before 22 of Bahman, (I believe) Keyhan news paper published a photo of some airforce personnel in front of Khomaini's residence, in military uniform and military salute position. The "Farmondary Nezamy-e Tehran" reacted to this picture publicly and called it a fraud and a fake picture/report in order to sow discord within the military. A decision was made, within the military (with or without Bakhtiar's consent) to send the military police (Royal Guards) to investigate. On the preceding 2 or 3 night before the "22 of Bahman", the Guards surrounded the AF Technician school/barracks and sent in a few low ranking officers to demand explanation for the Keyhan report (according to media prints at the time). What ensued was an unprecedented gun fight between members of these two branches for a few hours, before the Guards withdrew completely (why or by who's request, I've read and heard conflicting reports). The AF technicians, then opened the armory to the frenzied public who eventually ransacked just about every police/gendarmerie station in town and then declared victory.

None of the military leaders survived to tell their version of the events and Bakhtiar, as far as I know, never provided more insider details (perhaps he did not know either). There are many unanswered questions, and 32 years later, one can safely observe that military withdrew from active role in the events and supporting Bakhtiar because of the fractures in the lower ranks which made it difficult to take a proactive role and enforcing law and order. There were also a number of other reasons for the military not being as effective as they should have been, high among these reasons are the non-ideological nature of the US/Western trained Artesh-e Shahanshahi. Then was the issue of the Shah's preference for subordinate senior commanders…..and so on. But, also important, the more popular support there was for regime change, the less fear of the change, even with the looming Islamic republic. The perception in some quarters was that the reactionary backward Islamists can be taken care of more effectively, in an open democratic system.

Ali P

My pleasure!

Parham

Thanks!

Kaveh

Could you say more on the airforce cadet meeting with Khomeyni and the other "critical details" please? Thank you.

Princess
You're welcome.

  Just watched all 3

Just watched all 3 parts. The documentry analysis of the events is not complete, it lacks some critical details of the events, such as the fradualent (or true) report of the air force cadets meeting with Khomeini in the news paper that (legally) forced the Guards to confront them in their barracks that sent everything into a tailspin. In the documentry, and some years later, Bakhtiar was too eager to blame the entire affair on the military leaders (perhaps righfully), but without mentioning some critical details.

Also, the only people with some, or full knowledge of the reactionary nature of the Mullahs were the grandfather types of that period. These were the people with vivid and personal memories of the end of Ghajar and early Reza Shah period and knew the reality of the Mullahs and their Islam. I often heard the elderly's concern about empowering Mullahs and their Islamic rule back then. Bakhtiar belonged to that generation and knew what was coming.

May he rests in Peace

A TrUE IRANIAN Democratic Politician.

Thanks

Thanks for sharing, Parham!