After eight months in exile, when he arrived in Tehran, he saw everything he had heard. He did not attend the meetings which had been held to draft the Islamic Charter. He went to see Mr. Beheshti. Once again, they came together to keep up the good work. Events were occurring so fast that not much time remained for researching on and compiling an Islamic charter. The wave they had been trying to create was rising with the announcements and tapes that the exiled immigrant leader was sent to target the authoritarian regime.
Mr. Khamenei came to Mashhad to once again go to Tehran for making new plans which would be compatible with the current social situation.
Another Mashhad
Mr. Khamenei set foot in a city that bore no resemblance to his past eight months. Like other large cities of Iran, Mashhad was taking a path that was representing the term “revolution” more than anything else. The political protests not only have taken on a new shape but also, they have gained a general and all-encompassing face. The situation of the SAVAK in the fall of 1978 was very different from the past. Public uprisings had weakened this infamous organization such that it could no longer confront the people’s movement.
SAVAK found out that Mr. Khamenei had delivered a speech for businessmen, seminary students, university students, and women in black dresses who were gathered at Sayyed Hasan Qommi’s house as well as in surrounding alleys on October 26, the birthday of Mohammad-Reza Pahlavi. After his speech, demonstrations had been held in which people shouting “Today is Mu’awiyah’s birthday.” Black flags were raised in some places to mark the day.
On October 27, Mr. Khamenei had spoken to the marchers who had gathered at Ayatollah Reza Shirazi’s house in the old courtyard of Imam al-Ridha Shrine; he had talked about the return of Imam Khomeini to Iran, the release of political prisoners, and the punishment of those responsible for the recent killings and torture of political prisoners. After leaving the courtyard, the people had shouted: “Death to the Shah and greetings to Khomeini.” The city witnessed the screams of the demonstrators until 9 pm.
The security agency of the country knew that, in addition to local planning, Mr. Khamenei was coordinating Tehran’s actions with Mashhad. If a national movement was to be launched to oppose the government, the issue would be reported from Tehran to Mr. Khamenei. In those days, he was the intermediary of the programs of the centre of the movement and the organizer of Mashhad’s activities.
Perhaps, the gathering of 30,000 residents of Mashhad on November 7 at Saadabad Stadium can be considered the end of the monarchy’s authority in the city. Mr. Khamenei was one of the speakers at this passionate gathering.
Probably, it was in November that Mr. Khamenei came to Tehran to attend the meetings which were held to draft the Islamic Charter. But, this time, he came to make new decisions in accordance with the current situation. He suggested that they should establish a jihadi organization; by jihad, he did not mean armed movement, but taking the leadership of the movement and sacrificing the life for this goal. He said the organization would be made up of a group of twenty people who would share responsibilities. Everything was ready for the implementation of the plan. In the meantime, Imam Khomeini’s proclamation was issued days before the month of Muharram. In the first sentence, Imam Khomeini outlined the guidelines of the struggle, which was much more general than the goals and objectives of the group of twenty people.
Designing the theory of the victory of blood over the sword, which was a truth embedded in the history of Shi’ism, left no room for the beginning of that plan. Under the new circumstances, Mr. Khamenei was offered to return to Mashhad so that the struggles in that city will be revived and managed. The first decade of Muharram was turbulent and fateful for the Islamic movement. In Mashhad, he shared all the plans and ideas he wanted to implement with Mr. Vaez-Tabasi. He also consulted with Mr. Hasheminejad and others.
On December 5, like other cities, a big march was held in Mashhad. Although Mr. Qommi and Mr. Shirazi did not support the public holiday, Mr. Vaez-Tabasi spoke for the demonstrators in front of the Iranian National Oil Company. That day, people pulled down the statue of the Shah and cut it to pieces. At least 60,000 people attended the demonstration.
Before the arrival of the month of Muharram (December 2, 1978), Mr. Khamenei and Mr. Hasheminejad had gone to the cities of Quchan, Shirvan, and Bojnourd to organize people’s movements and explain the plans for this month to the clerics of those cities. His activities outside of Mashhad continued with the arrival of Muharram, and on December 8 (7 Muharram), he went to Fariman along with Mr. Vaez-Tabasi, Sayyed Kazem Marashi and the sons of Sayyed Abdollah Shirazi. A demonstration with 20,000 attendings was held in Fariman that day while they marched in front of the crowd. Also, the statue of Mohammad-Reza Pahlavi was pulled down by the people from the Taq Nosrat of the city and the image of Imam Khomeini was installed in its place. However, his centre of public activities during the first decade of Muharram was Navvab Seminary. The schoolyard became full of young people. Every night, he would give lectures, poetry was recited, and people would become aware of the events that occurred in different cities.
One of Mr. Khamenei’s preoccupations at Keramat Mosque was caring for fugitive soldiers. They had to hide, change their clothes and appearance so that they would not be identified. Managing the affairs of this group was not easy. Mr. Khamenei decided to take another step. Therefore, one day in the courtyard of Goharshad Mosque, during his speech, he called on the youth of Mashhad to shave their heads so that the guards could not easily identify the fugitive soldiers. The news of this initiative reached Tehran and while praising it Mr. Beheshti said: “We will tell others to do the same.”
Demonstrations continued until the Day of Tasu’a. On this day, various incidents took place in Mashhad, some of which were new. Among them was the successive fall of the statues of Reza Pahlavi and Mohammad-Reza Pahlavi and the reading of the sermon of the eve of Ashura in the name of Imam Khomeini. It was three o’clock in the afternoon in Tasu’a when a number of people removed the pictures of the Shah from the Pahlavi courtyard walls and tore them down. Minutes later, there was no sign of the name of the Shah on tiles and memorial columns of Imam al-Ridha shrine. At 5:30 pm, the statue of Mohammad-Reza Pahlavi was pulled down from Shah Square. The same incident also took place in Taqiabad Square and Shahreza Hospital.
On November 14 (13 Muharram), a mourning ceremony to commemorate the martyrdom of Imam al-Husayn was held in the house of Mr. Qommi in which Mr. Khamenei participated. While he was sitting in the house someone secretly told him that the youth have been surrounded by the military forces. He said they are in a dangerous situation. He got up and went out with him asking for the details. He heard that the military forces have surrounded a number of medical school students in Shahreza Hospital due to their association with the revolutionary people and that their arrest warrant has been issued. Aerial shooting continues to instill fear in students. The students sent the person to tell Mr. Khamenei the news. They wanted help.
The latest news was that a massacre is going to occur and if the scholars come soon, they may be able to end the tensions.
They left Mr. Qommi’s house and approached the hospital from the alleys and side streets. It took about an hour. They reached the street leading to the hospital, while a large group of people who had joined them on the way were accompanying them.
Mr. Khamenei lined up the clerics in front of the people and stood in the middle so that the group becomes organized. They passed through a line of soldiers. The soldiers tried to repel the crowd who were moving behind the first line but to no void. Students were watching the street from behind hospital bars. They managed to enter the hospital.
They passed one of the long streets leading to the square. That’s where the gunfire began. They decided to go to one of the buildings of the hospital. Imam al-Ridha Hospital was attacked three times that day. The shooting resumed at 3 pm, after which the clerics began their sit-in.
Many groups of people came to the hospital and gathered in and around it. They wanted to join those who were holding the sit-in. Because of the hospital’s affiliation with the university, the academics were the first group to announce their participation in the sit-in by issuing a statement.
Those who have held the sit-in demanded that the Prime Minister should make an apology to the doctors of Mashhad and that Brigadier Abdorrahim Jafari, the military governor of Mashhad, should be dismissed. These were only part of the consequences of the sit-in held in the hospital.
The participants in the sit-in issued statements successively. They were written by Mr. Khamenei. He had appointed three persons to copy them. It didn’t take more than a few hours before the announcement was written and distributed.
The hospital did not just witness the sit-in. Congregational prayers, successive daily lectures, small and large gatherings, meetings with local and foreign journalists, and the arrival of delegations from other cities to express solidarity were some of the ceremonies and activities of those days. The news of the sit-in in Mashhad also reached Imam Khomeini and he mentioned it in his speech delivered on November 16.
Mr. Khamenei spent all those thirteen days of the sit-in in the hospital. During the sit-in, Mr. Khamenei was informed that a Shahrbani officer had been killed by unknown individuals. Knowing what might happen after the incident, he left the hospital to deal with this issue. When he arrived at the scene, he saw the bodies of two officers and a martyr from Mashhad, who had been buried together. Perhaps in response to this, the military forces opened fire on the people on December 23, killing at least eight Mashhad residents. People gathered in front of Imam al-Ridha Hospital to hold a funeral ceremony.
The End of the Sit-In
On December 26, a large-scale demonstration took place in Mashhad. Foreign reporters were in Mashhad to report on the demonstration. The whole city was closed, and those who took to the streets chanted slogans in honour of the martyrs of the second day of Dey in protest to the dictatorial regime of Mohammad-Reza Pahlavi. According to Agence France-Presse, 600,000 participated in that demonstration. The demonstrators listened to Mr. Khamenei’s speech when they arrived at Imam al-Ridha Hospital. It was there that they were informed about the reasons for ending the sit-in: the gathering of the scholars at one place has disrupted the work of religious services in the city; the doctors’ sit-in disrupted the process of treating the patients; Sayyed Abdollah Shirazi and Sayyed Hasan Qommi have suggested ending the sit-in.
On December 30, the occasion of the lunar anniversary of the bloody uprising of the people of Qom (Muharram 29/January 9, 1978) was a national day of mourning. In a message to the Iranian people, Imam Khomeini declared this day a day of public mourning. Mashhad government offices were closed until a week later. One of the organizers of the protests suggested that the demonstrations of that day will end in front of the Provincial Government’s office. In those days, the staff of the Provincial Government had declared solidarity with the people of Mashhad. Those who were walking in front of the demonstrators were aware of this. When the crowd arrived at the Provincial Government building, it was announced that a speech would be given at this place. It was not easy to organize the demonstration completely. A large group of different people was moving in front of the demonstrators.
This is where something unexpected happened. A number of people entered the courtyard of the Provincial Government. The crowd in that area became thicker and thicker, while no one was supposed to enter the Provincial Government’s garden. Those in charge of organizing the march could do nothing.
Meanwhile, Mr. Khamenei was informed that a tank had entered the crowd. He wanted to know the details of the matter, but the crowd did not allow him to hear the next news. People surrounded the tank, chanting slogans. Some went on the top of it and were very happy that a young soldier had come out of the tank and accompanied them. But that was not all. When the news of the coming of the second tank arrived, the sound of gunfire arose.
The clashes continued until the afternoon. However, people managed to seize one tank and two military trucks; they set fire to the ETKA mall, which belonged to the Army, four times; they attacked and set fire on the Police Stations No. 3 and 6, the Association of Iran and the United States, the British Cultural Council and the Mashhad Intelligence Service; they occupied Lashkar-e-Khorasan Hospital for an hour; also, the Women’s Prison of Mashhad was surrounded and set on fire and about 150 prisoners who had been injured were moved to Imam al-Ridha Hospital; Colonel Kalali, the military commander of one of the districts of Mashhad along with four soldiers of the governorate were killed; The Pepsi-Cola factory and the Farhang Cinema were set on fire; three SAVAK members were hanged, and some tanks were attacked with fire bottles. During the clashes of the armed forces and the people, a number of weapons, albeit a few ones, fell into the hands of the people. It was also reported that the house of an American adviser and a bank were set on fire. On that day, Mohammad-Reza Pahlavi introduced Shahpour Bakhtiar to the National Assembly as the Prime Minister.
Another Bloody Day
In the morning, in the barracks of the 77th Division, what went up was the flag of resentment and revenge. By showing a video or photo of the soldiers killed yesterday, the commanders persuaded the soldiers and officers that this is their fate; hence, kill them so you don’t get killed. The military forces who were present in the streets of Mashhad on December 31 were full of the feeling of revenge upon which they acted in the streets. The shootings started. Every citizen on the street was seen as a target. Even they threw grenades. At least six people were martyred in an attack on the house of Sayyed Abdollah Shirazi.
In the afternoon, Mashhad looked like a war-torn city. If the report of the official sources announcing the number of those killed in these two days is accepted, 300 residents of Mashhad residents were martyred on December 30-31, 1978.
Mr. Khamenei stayed in Mashhad until mid-January and, along with his friends, led the glorious Arba’in demonstrations on January 19, 1979.
It was during these days that someone on behalf of Mr. Motahhari came to Mashhad and asked him to come to Tehran as soon as possible. “I was surprised because he was aware of the heavy burden of my responsibility [in Mashhad]. I told him that I cannot. I can’t even leave Mashhad for a moment. Two days later, another message came that I had to go to Tehran. Once again, I replied that it is impossible to leave Mashhad.”
Shortly afterwards, Mr. Hoseyn-Ali Montazeri, who was with Imam Khomeini in Paris in those days, called me and said, “Imam Khomeini has asked you to go to Tehran.”
Probably, Mr. Khamenei’s negative answers were conveyed to Paris, and hence this time Mr. Montazeri contacted him directly.
Archive of Ayatollah Khamenei
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