Transcription
In February 1979, the Pahlavi dynasty, which stood as the leader of Iran, was overthrown by the Iranian Shia Islamic revolution. Millions of Iranians took to the streets; some of them carried photos of Khomeini, and some of them burned photos of Pahlavi while shouting, "Death to Pahlavi, death to Pahlavi." The crowd shouted death to the Shah among the despised symbols of their monarch. The marchers raised pictures of the Shah's antagonist, the bearded, far-seeing holy man. The Shah's departure made Khomeini, in effect, the new ruler of Iran. It was a triumphant and joyous welcome in Tehran today by more than a million Iranians for Ayatollah Khomeini, returning home from exile.
In historical records, this revolution was initiated by a Shiite Imam, Ayatollah Khomeini, a Shiite cleric who aspired to return Iran to its foundations, standing as a Shiite Islamic state. This second video episode is not only about the revolution but about everything regarding the involvement of the British and Americans, the coup, and the upheaval in Iran. The question is whether the Iranian people will carry out a revolution. Are there so many followers of the Shiite Islamic State, or is it just to free the Iranian people from the shackles of the Pahlavi regime?
This is Reza Pahlavi, and this is his son, Muhammad Reza Pahlavi. In leading Iran, both of them have something in common: both implemented a policy of secularism and narrowed the Shia ulama's room for movement. But fatally, both of them had differences. In the first Pahlavi's time, the British and the Soviets did not get a place in Iran. In fact, during the time of his son, Muhammad Reza Pahlavi, the influence of British imperialism happened again, fought for by his father as if it were in vain. The oil companies in Iran were eventually controlled again by foreigners; therefore, Iran's economic condition weakened, even though Iran's economy only depended on oil. This condition was actually tolerated by Reza himself, especially since in Iran he would be able to rule freely.
In Iranian chess, Itul Garan changed the condition of Iran, but this is remembered by one young Iranian whose noble ideals aimed to expel foreign influence in Iran for the sake of the prosperity of the Iranian people in the future. For him, Iran must control its wealth. Naturally, the British had to leave Iranian soil. At that time, during the Pahlavi II era, Iran had changed to a constitutional system. Mosaddegh also took this opportunity to become a member of parliament, and when the British were entrenched in Iran again, Mosaddegh could not remain silent.
Finally, on November 12, 1949, Mosaddegh, together with several national parties, established a coalition called the National Front. The aim of this coalition was very simple: Iran must be free from foreign influence and must succeed in nationalizing all its assets. The struggle was fruitful. In 1951, the National Front coalition party obtained a majority of votes in their parliamentary seats and proposed the name Mosaddegh to become Prime Minister of Iran. The Shah could not do much. Finally, on April 28, 1951, Muhammad Mosaddegh was appointed Prime Minister of Iran. A year after his inauguration, on May 1, 1952, Iranian Prime Minister Mosaddegh nationalized the British-owned AIOC oil company in Iran, which was previously controlled by England. As a result, England left Iran; of course, this was very beneficial for Iran, something that the Iranian people dreamed of.
On the other hand, this nationalization resulted in quite large losses for England, and one day England promised to destroy Mosaddegh no matter what. The nationalization of the British oil company in Iran certainly made Britain suffer huge losses as the largest empire in Europe. England asked for help from European countries, and at the end of 1952, they boycotted Iranian oil. As a result, Iran experienced economic difficulties. Responding to this, on July 21, 1953, thousands of Iranians, sponsored by the Communist Party, were accused of carrying out massive demonstrations against the Iranian government. These demonstrations demanded that the government abandon its dependence on the West and replace it with the Soviet Union.
Fearing that its position in the Ali-Ali government was actually legitimate, Pahlavi decided to flee Iran. Seeing this opportunity, Mosaddegh also fulfilled the demands of his people. Iran established economic and trade relations with the Soviets. Now, finally, Iran was making out with a communist country. Then what about Britain? Apart from Iran, the United States was also worried. If Iran started allying with the communists, then the source of the oil would fall with him. It is even possible that this condition would affect the oil companies in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. America finally decided to intervene, which was very common in the Cold War atmosphere where the Soviets were moving; there must have been America.
Now, finally, England found its ally, and in fact, they were already aware of Mosaddegh's attitude long before that. Since June 1953, the American CIA intelligence, together with the British intelligence MI6, prepared an operation called Operation Ajax. The main mission of this operation was to overthrow Mosaddegh's power. This operation began by spreading propaganda about Iran's economic difficulties through newspapers and the news in Iran that they had previously controlled. The people who had been taken in by propaganda were finally provoked.
In August 1953, the Iranian people launched various large demonstrations, reportedly carried out by activists who had previously been swapped by the CIA and MI6. When the time came, on August 20, 1953, when demonstrations were taking place, Iranian military forces controlled by the CIA and MI6 arrested the Iranian Prime Minister, Muhammad Mosaddegh. Two days later, after the situation was completely safe, Shah Pahlavi returned to Iran. Finally, Iran's power returned to Shah Pahlavi's hand, thanks to the coup launched by Britain and America, and now control of Iran's oil became completely American and British.
But for a country like Iran, which is controlled by the West, the threat always comes back, and one day a figure appears who will change Iran. Even though it was legal for Pahlavi to return to power, he didn't really feel safe. Pahlavi wouldn't let an incident like what happened to Mosaddegh happen again. He needed absolute power to lead Iran and therefore needed a special security agency to maintain the stability of his power. As a result, in 1957, with the assistance of the U.S. CIA Intelligence Agency and the Mossad, Pahlavi established a security agency called SAVAK. In carrying out its duties, SAVAK was known to be cruel and did not hesitate to arrest, torture, and even kill anyone suspected of opposing the leadership of legitimate Pahlavi. The people could not do anything; they chose to remain silent rather than suffer a tragic fate at the hands of SAVAK.
Then, in order to continue its modernization program in 1963, Pahlavi launched a white revolution program. This revolutionary program contained, among other things, the nationalization of property, land, compulsory Western education, and health programs for rural communities, reducing the autonomy of tribal groups, as well as social and legal reforms that gave women the right to participate in politics. Ironically, this revolutionary plan was not based on adequate facilities and infrastructure, resulting in inequality between rural and urban communities. Instead of prosperity, on the contrary, secular education launched by the government and liberalization for women in politics resulted in anger among the ulama. How could this revolution exclude the role of educational ulama? What is worse, the involvement of women in politics is a very contradictory understanding.
The anger of the ulama and the people of Iran was true. In 1963, a figure emerged from among the ulama who openly opposed all of the Shah's policies, namely Ayatollah Sayid Ruhullah Musavi Khomeini, a charismatic Shia cleric who strongly opposed the Shah's regime. Khomeini is different from Mosaddegh, who emphasized the awareness of the Shah's ideas, which had been eroded due to the oppression carried out by SAVAK, especially regarding the white revolution program, which is considered very miserable for the people. Since then, on June 3, 1963, in the city of Qom, during a large Ashura event commemorating the killing of Husain, Khomeini gave a sermon about the cruelty of the Shah and his policies. On the other hand, in Tehran, around 100,000 people gathered in a Muharram march, shouting "Death to the Shah." All these maneuvers seemed to be fully controlled by Khomeini, and indeed Khomeini was the first person who dared to openly oppose the Shah's leadership.
It didn't take long; on June 5, 1963, on orders from the Shah, SAVAK arrested Khomeini. The news of this arrest spread throughout Iran. As a result, throughout June, there were various demonstrations in various big cities such as Qom, Tehran, Shiraz, and Mashhad. Clashes between the authorities and the demonstrators were unavoidable; around 380 civilians were killed, and 30 prominent Shia clerics were arrested. Not long after that, Khomeini was exiled to leave Iran. Even though many victims were killed, Pahlavi seemed to not care about that. The most important thing for him now is that Iran will be safe because the master of all this, Ayatollah Khomeini, was exiled.
But Khomeini thought he would remain silent. In 1971, in the midst of economic instability and starvation that hit the Shah's people, he held a grand celebration at the Cyrus Museum in Persepolis. Food, fruit, flowers, and gifts were specially imported from Paris, France. Thousands of people were employed, wearing typical Achaemenid and Sasanian clothing to parade in front of the Shah and his guests. Tents and luxury apartments were erected, not for the people but for the great guests of the 69 state officials who were invited. This event had a special purpose, namely to commemorate the 2,500th founding of the Persian Empire and the appointment of Shah Pahlavi as heir to the Cyrus Empire.
So it is not surprising that with all this luxury, many people thought that Shah Pahlavi was an extravagant leader of the country. Instead, this also increasingly sparked the anger of the Iranian people. In exile, far from his place of origin in Najaf, Iraq, Khomeini continued to carry out his activities against the Pahlavi regime. Instead of alienating him, Khomeini gained many followers in Najaf. He was very active in spreading the teachings about the state system that Islam demands. The method used in spreading was quite unique; among his followers, every sermon delivered by Khomeini was recorded, and then the recordings were smuggled into Iran. This method proved to be very effective and succeeded in raising the fighting spirit of his followers. Not only that, he published a book with the legal code about the concept of government based on Shia Imami. The book was printed and smuggled into Iran. Recordings of the sermons and Khomeini's book were widely heard and studied by his followers in mosques and places of education. The aim of all this was to mobilize the power of the masses to overthrow the Pahlavi regime.
But it didn't last long; this was sensed by Pahlavi. Pahlavi couldn't stay silent to lower his reputation. On January 6, 1978, Pahlavi's regime, through the Iranian daily newspaper, published news stating that Khomeini was a British agent serving colonialism. Worse still, he was called a homosexual who had no morals. This immediately sparked the anger of the Iranian people. They were already consumed by doctrinal teachings. However, the news about Khomeini's ugliness, his followers would not believe it. Three days later, on January 9, 1978, in the city of Qom, thousands of residents took to the streets demanding accountability for the news published in the daily news. Clashes between demonstrators and the authorities occurred again; around 300 people died. Since then, the members of the legitimate regime have moved more aggressively towards their opponents.
On August 19, 1978, there was an incident at the Cinema Rex cinema. At that time, the cinema was showing a film that told the story of the village residents' struggle against a tyrannical landlord. When the film was being shown, suddenly a number of people set fire to the cinema and all its contents. Around 400 people died in this incident, and 233 others suffered injuries. This incident further complicated the position of the Iranian people themselves, accusing the regime of being the mastermind behind this tragic event. They were fed up with Shah Pahlavi. The Iranian people could only wait for when they could tear down the legitimate regime.
"I'm not afraid of my people. It's not a political campaign. I'm not going to look at the post tomorrow to see if I'm to degrees higher or lower, and that's because this confidence exists between me and my people." As a continuation of the Cinema Rex tragedy, on September 7, 1978, the legitimate regime imposed martial law throughout Iran. Instead of frightening its people, on January 8, 1978, thousands of people from various circles gathered in Tehran's Jaleh Square to demonstrate again. Clashes between people and the military ensued, and a series of bullets hit the demonstrators who were loudly shouting the name of Khomeini. In this massacre, 4,000 lives were lost due to the ferocity of the Shah and his military.
This event is known as the Jaleh Square incident. As their numbers increased, they pressed forward, and the military opened fire. It was said later that the Shah himself had been firing from a helicopter directly. But the bloody Friday was not the end. In October 1978, tens of thousands of company employees, such as those in banks and oil companies, took action. This action really hit Pahlavi's government. In response to this, Pahlavi moved to Paris, France.
The peak of this whole year was in January 1979, when massive demonstrations took place in many areas such as Tehran, Isfahan, Tabriz, and Mashhad. Millions of Iranians carrying photos of Khomeini took to the streets, demanding the overthrow of the legitimate regime. The demonstrators destroyed statues of the Shah and burned photos of Pahlavi. These demonstrations lasted for days. Iran's increasingly chaotic situation finally made Pahlavi afraid. Now Pahlavi no longer cared about his position.
On January 16, 1979, Pahlavi began to leave Iran. Pahlavi's departure then marked the fall of the power of the Pahlavi dynasty. This condition was not wasted by Khomeini. On February 1, 1979, Khomeini finally returned to Iran. Millions of Iranian people filled the airport to welcome the arrival of the ulama and leaders they had been waiting for. Not long after that, on February 11, 1979, the Iranian Armed Forces declared a neutral attitude towards the community in Iran. On March 31, a referendum was immediately held containing the question: Should the Iranian monarchy be abolished in favor of an Islamic government? Ninety-eight percent of the Iranian people voted in favor of Khomeini's Shia-style Islamic government. From the results of this referendum, the monarchical system that had ruled Iran for so long was wiped out. With this, the Islamic Republic of Iran was established, which was spearheaded directly by Ruhullah Ayatollah Khomeini. Now, finally, Iran is truly free from the Pahlavi dictatorship.
Even so, one day Iran will face a problem with its neighboring country. Who else if not Iraq? More than that, Iraq wants to spread Shiite teachings throughout the Middle East. From here, Iran played an important role in the theater of conflict and war that occurred in the Middle East. Not here. At least in the next episode.