My fellow compatriots,
Families of martyrs and political prisoners,
On the 27th anniversary of the massacre of 30,000 political prisoners, let us commemorate the heroes and heroines who are the shining symbols of perseverance against religious fascism.
In 1988, following his acceptance of the ceasefire in the Iran-Iraq war, Khomeini issued a fatwa to massacre groups after groups of PMOI and other political prisoners, because they refused to surrender to the religious dictatorship. They remained steadfast and dedicated a remarkable chapter to the annals of Iran’s history.
Today, images of atrocities perpetrated by ISIS arouse outrage among people around the world over the brutality of religious fundamentalists. Three decades ago, however, it was Khomeini who laid the foundations of this type of barbarism by massacring thousands upon thousands of Iranian youths after issuing fanatical fatwas.
At that time, the current Supreme Leader of the regime, Ali Khamenei, was the president and he publicly condoned the 1988 massacre by saying, “We execute prisoners and have no quarrels about it.” The regime’s current President, Hassan Rouhani, was at the time the deputy to the acting commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces and a senior regime official.
The reality is that both factions of the regime were involved in the massacre of political prisoners.
Over the past 27 years, defending this genocide has been a litmus test of loyalty to the institution of the velayat-e faqih (absolute clerical rule). Indeed, all of the regime’s internal factions, including phony reformists, the so-called Greens, and supporters of moderation, have this massacre as part and parcel of their identity and history. But the other piece of reality is that the mullahs can never whitewash their role in the killings; nor will the Iranian people forget about this manifest case of crimes against humanity.
And finally, another part of this reality is the unjustifiable silence of Western governments appeasing the regime as well as that of the United Nations. They, too, must be held accountable.
Today, the beloved mothers and families of the victims are prevented from visiting the unmarked graves of their children. The ruling mullahs are doing their utmost to wash away the evidence of this horrific crime against humanity. They even destroy the victims’ unmarked graves to remove all traces of it. But it will be impossible for them to simply wipe out this enormous event from Iranian history. This is because it was the blood that was shed in 1988 that distinguishes between the past from the future and draws a line between dictatorship and freedom. The percolating blood of those martyrs continues to threaten the mullahs’ existence and serves as a source of inspiration for the struggle and uprising of Iran’s young generation to overthrow the mullahs’ oppressive rule. Khavaran Cemetery or anywhere else that these heroes and heroines are resting in peace are and will be revered shrines for the Iranian people. Indeed, their sacred memories bear witness to the dawn of freedom in Iran.
It is also the anniversary of the patriotic “Eternal Light” operation in 1988, and we hail the martyrs whose epic struggle created a lasting nightmare for the mullahs’ religious dictatorship that they will be overthrown.
The revered Eternal Light martyrs waged a remarkable struggle in the history of the Iranian people’s Resistance. They demonstrated the endless capacity of human beings for bravery and for making sacrifices in order to ensure the triumph of freedom. Men and women who said “no” to the regime and delivered on their irrevocable pledge to defend the cause of liberty.
Regardless of the extent to which the mullahs kill, torture and subjugate people in Iran and no matter how much they foment terrorism and war in the region, they cannot escape their fate of being overthrown. This is because the ocean of blood shed from the most valiant children of Iran, the PMOI and other activists, has forever stripped the regime of legitimacy and stability.
In recent years, anticipating that he will have to drink the poisonous chalice of nuclear retreat, Khamenei attempted on many occasions to destroy a potent force fighting against the regime, the PMOI members in Ashraf, and thus curb the threat of being overthrown. However, the steadfastness of PMOI freedom fighters and the vigilance of supporters of the Iranian Resistance around the world foiled the velayat e-faqih conspiracies aimed at repeating the 1988 genocide, a setback that has been one of the major causes for the regime’s impasse today and the crises that beset it in its entirety.
It is the Iranian Resistance’s great commitment to turn every drop of blood spilled from the bodies of these martyrs into a force for freedom and victory in Iran, and to ensure the triumph of their cause.
On that day, the heroes and heroines massacred in 1988 will be present in the enormous waves of the movement of the Iranian people and their army of liberation, and they will put an end to fundamentalism, tyranny and oppression. From Monireh Rajavi, who was hanged only because she was Massoud Rajavi’s sister, to the thousands who kissed the hanging noose in the name of Massoud, and the 120,000 martyrs who have given their lives for the cause of freedom.
As Massoud Rajavi (the Leader of the Iranian Resistance) said in his latest message: “The people of Iran will not be satisfied with anything less than the overthrow of the mullahs’ religious dictatorship and the establishment of freedom and popular sovereignty.”
The struggle for liberty, the overthrow of the Caliph of Fundamentalism, free elections, and drafting of the constitution for a new republic by the National Constituent and Legislative Assembly are the inalienable rights of the Iranian people.
Hail to the martyrs of the 1988 massacre
Hail to freedom
Hail to the people of Iran
