Imam Khomeini, in consultation with his son, Ahmad Agha, made another decision
On October 6, 1978, at 4:50 PM, Imam arrived at Orly Airport in Paris
At first, he stayed in an apartment, but with an influx of Iranians living in Europe, Imam went to the village of Neauphle-le-Château [GS1] on the outskirts of Paris.
Only for the first time and, last time, and only once do we raise our fists and say “Allahu Akbar.”
The administration of Sharif Emami was not dissatisfied with the Imam’s departure to Najaf,
He thought that with the departure of the Imam from Najaf, the intensity of the revolution would decrease,
But Neauphle-le-Château became the news centre of the world.
The National Islamic Movement of Iran will not agree with any other government, despite the survival of the illegitimate Pahlavi dynasty.
Mohammad-Reza was disappointed with Sharif Emami government and upset by Karim Sanjabi’s declaration as well.
On the same day, Sharif Emami’s government fell after three months.
And General Azhari was appointed to form a military cabinet.
Sharif Emami left the country on February 8, 1979, with the assets he had collected.
The government accepted the economic demands of the strikers.
Mohammad Reza also sent Farah to Karbala to restore his religious reputation.
The government announced; “all exiles abroad, including Imam Khomeini, can return to Iran.”
But the Imam rejected any compromise and announced;
“The people will not give up until they throw this hated monarchy into the dustbin of history.”
When the Imam was asked about a possible alternative to the monarchy, he spoke for the first time of an Islamic republic.
You strove for fifteen years for the country’s independence, what kind of government are you going to replace the imperial system in the future?
We condemn this imperial system, which is against reason and Islam, and it must be abolished.
Of course, through an referendum that will be held.
After the fall of Pahlavi regime,
the Islamic Republic, which relies on public opinion and Islamic laws, will replace the monarchy.
The military government was defeated from the first of Muharram with the presence of people in the streets at night,
And the clashes were intense during the first three days of Muharram, with a total of 700 casualties;
In Qazvin, 135 people were killed when they were run over by tanks. At a religious gathering in Mashhad, 200 people, mostly high school students, were shot dead.
It was clear that the situation would worsen on Tasu’a and Ashura on December 10 and 11, 1978.
More than half a million people came to the Tas’ua demonstration on December 10, the reports of that day worried Mohammad Reza.
Not only the workers, the marginalized, and the religious,
But also the upper-middle class, who were the main supporters of Mohammad Reza, came to the streets.
On the day of Ashura, December 11, he boarded a helicopter and saw the scene. The upper classes had really turned away from him.
The chief of the French intelligence service, who was a friend of the Shah, secretly came to Iran to ask Mohammad Reza “what should we do with Imam Khomeini?”
Mohammad Reza preferred for the Imam to stay in France and not go to a country like Syria whose government was opposed to the Shah.
The head of French intelligence described Mohammad Reza’s conditions for President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing as follows:
The Shah became like Louis XVI, Louis XVI was the king who perished in the French Revolution.
Mohammad Reza had made his decision,
When Naser Moqaddam, the head of SAVAK, called Shapour Bakhtiar’s house, a member of the National Front, Bakhtiar thought that SAVAK intended to arrest him.
But it was another matter, Bakhtiar was not one of the figures of the National Front, at the same time he was a lesser-known figure in Iran.
And it was hoped that in the absence of the Shah and, Bakhtiar’s premiership, the anger of the people would decrease.
Perhaps because of Bakhtiar’s membership in the National Front, that organization also ended its opposition.
Bakhtiar’s negotiations with the Shah progressed well, Mohammad Reza wanted to leave Iran and Bakhtiar agreed.
Shortly afterward, it was reported that General Azhari had a heart problem, or at least was pretending to do so.
“Unfortunately, with the situation I have now, it is obvious that I can’t do what the nation wants.”
Mohammad Reza also implemented his new decision, on December 30, he signed the decree appointing Shapour Bakhtiar as Prime Minister.
Mohammad Reza had moved away from the storm and had now left the job to a prime minister who introduced himself as the ‘chicken of the storm.’
“I do not think of myself as ‘the chicken of the storm,’ I am a storm wave, not a wave that escapes from the sea.”
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