IIAF

A patch for pilots in the Imperial Iranian Air Force (IIAF).

530 days have passed since the revolution and many killing since have happened in the name of God. At the same time his Imperial Majesty was spending the last days of his life in a military hospital in Cairo, Egypt. In Iran, 52 American hostages were held by the so called hard line students of the Islamic Republic. Mr. Shapour Bakhtiar as the last and legal prime minister of Iran was in Paris, France and started activities against the Ayatollahs, supported by the Iraqi government politically and financially.

The television interview allowed people to find out about the military coup in Iran. The media reported that Shapour Bakhtiar was thankful to the group participating in overthrowing the Islamic Republic and was sadden by its discovery and ultimately defeat. This gives us the indication that Bakhtiar was aware and involved in the plans. During the same period we also became aware of the complete knowledge of the coup by the Islamic Republic a month before with exact date and location. Many of them never had a chance to even fire a bullet. Only a captain, N. Rokni, was able to fire his gun at the time of his arrest at his home and killed a Pasdar in the name of Mohammad A. Ghorbani.

General Mohagheghi

Before his trial, General Mohagheghi was beaten and interrogated and later brought on television where he was questioned by Hojatoleslam Reyshahri about his role in the coup attempt. Despite his shabby appearance he appeared calm and defiant as he sat in a white short-sleeve summer shirt alongside four other defendants. Clearly there was no doubt in his mind as to what awaited him at the end but he was determined not to disgrace himself.

Eleven days after the discovery of this coup the executions started by the order of Reyshahri, the presiding Judge of the military tribunals. In that day General A. Mohagheghi, Major Farokhzad Jahangiri, Captain M. Malek, Captain Bijan Irannejad, were executed. The executions continued, until the Iraqis attacked Iran. During 65 days the Islamic republic executed 115 believed in participating in the coup.

Many of these unsung heroes participated, believing that Mr. Bakhtiar was the chef d’orchestre of this coup (it is a common believe that the leaks to the Islamic Republic came from his office). Manoucher Ghorbanifar, was the former prime minister spokesman, a former Savaki at the 8^th bureau (Savak: intelligence service during the Monarchy) and his director was General Hashemi. In 1980 this two met in Lisbon (Portugal) with Navy General Ahmad Madani (former Islamic Defence Minister) to forward him funds from US intelligence service C.I.A.

M. Ghorbanifar resided in Istanbul (Turkey) under the name of Suzani and continued working with Bakhtiar. He helped the people who participated in this coup to escape Iran: such as Colonel H. Azizmoradi, Colonel Behrouz Shahverdilou, and Colonel A. Hamedmonfared.

One of the most shameful story is the execution of 18 years old Shahriar Noor (son of Colonel Noor), who’s father was a participant in the coup attempt and had weapons in his basement. He escaped the country. The Islamic republic took his son and executed him in place of the father.

The Military base of Hamedan, Shahrokhi, was renamed the military base of Noje, name of the Colonel who supported the Islamic Republic and helped discover the Coup. He later, was killed in the military action in the Kurdistan region.

In another word

The core officers who were recruited to start the preliminary planning of the coup came from various sources: infantry, air force, army, ex-Immortal Guards, Imperial Guards, and some former members of the Savak secret service. The officers were chosen carefully based on their experience and level of nationalism, resentment of the Islamic regime. They were picked based on their access to military facilities, jet fighters, jet fuel, ammunition, maps, and knowledge of regime’s military bases. The higher ranking officers were assigned to planning and logistics, while the lower level officers and pilots were given the task of implementing all stages of the coup.

The plan was comprised of three stages: stage one was a combination of twelve-hour air assaults against military, strategic, government, and clerical targets in Tehran and five other cities followed by two dozen low altitude supersonic flights over Tehran, Mashhad and Qom. The first stage was to be followed immediately by the second which consisted of dispatching nine infantry divisions to tactical locations such as the State Radio and Television, parliament, headquarters of Islamic Revolutionary Guards, and Tehran’s grand Bazaar.

The third stage was the most ambitious. It called for cutting off Tehran from the rest of the nation with the help of fifty thousand Baluch, Kurdish, and Turkish mercenary fighters brought from other side of the borders, under the leadership of an unknown national figure. The interesting and ruthless part of the third stage was to have the fighters outfitted as Revolutionary Guardsmen with a green bandana which had the words Ya Vatan (“Oh Motherland”) embedded on them. That way the coup forces could distinguish the coup fighters from the regime’s forces.

The fighters’ orders were to create pandemonium and confusion among Revolutionary Guardsmen and the backers of the young Islamic Republic by attacking the government forces that were dispatched from other cities to defend Tehran. There were, however, two problems with the last stage of the plan: one was the fact that majority of Baluch, Kurdish, and Turkish fighters were not familiar with Tehran’s landscape, and the other obstacle was that some of them did not speak Persian.

It is estimated that the coup cost somewhere in the neighbourhood of a million dollars. The money covered expenses for travelling from Tehran to Paris and Istanbul and most of the was spent on hiring Baluch, Kurdish, and Turkish mercenaries. The money was managed personally by Bakhtiar and no one else.

It is a known fact that the coup was no secret to Islamic regime and on the night of July 18^th, the Islamic regime’s president Abolhasan Banisadr’s task force, which consisted mostly of members of the Mojahedin Khalgh Organization, were ready and waiting for the operation to start. Many of the pilots were captured hours before the start of the operation and other officers were arrested on the way to their bases. However it’s not known who snitched and how the regime uncovered coup. The circumstances leading to the leak is by far the most fascinating part of this ordeal.

There are many different theories out there making attempts at explaining the circumstances behind the failure of the coup and its leaders. But the most intriguing piece comes from sources who claim that Saddam Hussein’s government tipped the Islamic Republic a month before D-Day. It is said that Iraq intentionally reported the details of the operation knowing that the capture and execution of the best pilots and military commanders would seriously weaken the Iranian forces (Iraq invaded Iran two months later). Some even go so far as to allege that the coup was reported to the Iranian government by the U.S. to buy the release of American embassy hostages in Tehran. However, it is likely the information cam from British sources, long lasting ally of clergies in Iran.

Some believe that the success of the coup would have led Iran on the path of a bloody civil war and the assassination of Khomeini would have turned him into a mythical figure. These are legitimate concerns and yet it cannot be denied that the failed “Nojeh Coup” of 1980 was conducted by servicemen who deeply cared about their country. No evidence has surfaced so far that links the coup to foreign powers or shows that the officers had illegitimate intentions. The very fact that the coup’s resources were not managed efficiently and plans were executed poorly, demonstrates the fact that the movement was most likely home-grown. Many of the officers believed that the country was heading in a wrong direction and in a desperate attempt to save Iran, they lost their lives.

Killed in Nojeh uprising

Know that behind each number, and each name, there is a man, a woman, a child, a face, a smile, a tear, put yourself in place of the condemned and imagine the solitude and loneliness of the moment when they come to take them away, this last voyage, where are you at this very moment, partisan of human rights? Why has the world suddenly become a vast desert where there exists only the victim and his executioners? How much longer can you stay silent?

Below is a list of all those who were affiliated to NAMIR or its military wing — NEGHAB — and were murdered by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Of these victims, none had the rights of an accused as foreseen in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.