Persian Realm

Dear Kaaveh V;

You are well-aware that revolutionaries did not execute all high-ranking officers (generals) in the Shah's military.  Fardoost is an excellent example.  The new system needed them to establish a base to put its foundations upon.  Perhaps, remnants of SAVAK were absorbed to the system as well.  Let's not claim things that later to be ashamed to face.  We have to learn from what we thought was good (however many of them were false) over thirty years ago.

In case of the army, leftist movements wanted it dismantled.  Occurance of the insurgencies in different parts of the country and Marxist movements leading them showed that the Left movement intended to swipe the power.  The same army thwarted those movements in an effective way; and Khomeini repeatedly appraised their efforts; and the army became popular with the people especially after the war with Iraq.   

These said, you are aware, that any rank above Full Colonel (Sarhang Tamaam) in the Iranian army (at the time of the Shah and perhaps at this time) was given by commander in chief of the armed forces (the Shah at that time) due to certain (political) loyalties to the system.  So, the new system retired all of those except for two leiutenant generals: "Sarteep" (Fallaahee and Zaheer Nezhaad).  Certain elements of generals who had a hand in killings were put to death.  Batmaan Gheleech who had a hand in 28th of Mordaad 1332 was condemned to death, but was given clamancy due to his old age and was given life in prison. 

Gharanee was a different story.  He was retired by the Shah long before the revolution (due to suspecion of planning a coup) and was called to service by Baazargaan's government (perhaps with the recommendation of Madani who was Defence Minister in Baazargaan's government).  Perhaps, Jazanee was right in his assessment: suspecion of planning a coup was not an easy one in those days (Jazanee was dead long time before that too), however Gharanee showed a strong fist in Kordestan in early stages of civil war.  Labeling others (by mostly Marxist trends) was normal those days.  Many other people including Shareeatmadaaree (the Ayatollah) were labled as capitalists. 

Gharanee's assassination was committed by Forghaan who claimed responsibility and its members were (mostly) executed.  If I remember it correctly, Gharanee was replaced by a Sarhang Tavakolee. 

Vive la Roi

Dear Mr. Kadivar, thank you for all the nostalgic memoirs and blogs that reminds me of some of the most secure and mythical-like period of our lives (except there were no myths and all are bygone fortunes). Even though, this particular blog. is not related to that period, but pretty close to that time.

Dear Mr. Avaznia, your mentioning Major General Gharani's post revolution command of the joint chief of staff and his quick removal from the post reminds me of the circumstances around his murder. He was murdered at a time when his comrades and the entire professional cadre of high and mid level officers of IIAF were being slaughtered by Khalkhali and his Islamist thugs. The question that was raised, (in my mind) back then, why did they (Islamist revolutionaries and Khalkhali) not execute him like others ? These thugs were certainly not shy about taking people from their homes in the middle of the night and shoot them at dawn. If they found Gharani was not suitable for them why did they not arrest and shoot him after the customary summary trial ?

Let's not forget the treacherous leftist contribution to his murder. MG Gharani was labeled by Bijan Jazani as an "American" Coup organizer in his writings (Coup d'état-chi-eh Amricaii). What are the chances that this label alone was responsible for his removal as the JSC and subsequent murder ?

فضولی و کاوه گرامی؛

سپاس از اطلاعات دقیق.  کاش مدعیان به اندازه یک دهم ادعا مطالعه می کردند.  این صورت با این اصلاحات درست نمی شود. ما تلاش کردیم چندین بار.  ببین زیرنویس فیلم را هم نادیده می گیرند.

سرلشکر قرنی یا به عبارتی قره نی فردی نیرومند و اولین رئیس ستاد مشترک ارتش در زمان انقلاب بود.  به نظرم ترجمۀ درستتر درجه اش میجرجنرال می شود.

باسپاس

Army Chief of Staff Lieutanent General Qarani

April 1979.

Motahari and (unsuccessful atttempt on) Rafsanjani in May 1979.

//fouman.com/history/Iranian_History_1989.html scroll down to the section on Rafsanjani.

//www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,916776,00.html

Akhoond (Ayot...) Qazi Tabatabie in Tabriz, November 1979.

Yes you can be sure, it wasn't the Beheshti bombing (that bombing was more significant because of those who should have been present but weren't, geddit? - "A popular conspiracy theory within Iran is that Rafsanjani is responsible, based on that Rafsanjani allegedly had left that meeting only minutes before the explosion"). 

Mr. Fozolie

KavehV Thanks

Interesting feedback ! 

Are you sure it is different from the Hafte Tir Bombing ?

Appreciate your corrections and feedbacks.

Best,

DK

FYI

This is the 1979 attempt (a few months after the so called revolution) on Akbar Rafsanjani. At the time he was living in Dezashib area north of Tehran. This was in a series of murders that were carried out by an obscure group called "Forghan" (as mentioned in the video). Most likely a power struggle from within the Islamist thugs. I also recall Forghan group claimed the murder of a retired former Imperial army general (unfortunately I have forgotten the name after all these years), and Ayatollah Motahari.