Gholamreza Azhari’s name mixed with a humorous reminder. In the last days of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s reign, he officially became as prime minister, and in a speech to the National Parliament, he said:
“The voices heard on the roofs of the houses at night are recorded sounds played back, not the voices of real people.”
Because of declared martial law and bans on coming to the streets, the people, on the roofs, were shouting: “God is the greatest, Khomeini is the Leader, Death to the Shah…” and after hearing his talk on radio and television, they would chant in the streets: “Fool Azhari, four-star ass, say it’s a play-back yet, it’s a bunch of noise with legs, you’ve got a hangover.”
Gholamreza Azhari was born in Shiraz on February 18, 1912. After graduating from high school, he graduated from the Officers’ College as a second lieutenant. Afterward, he went to the United States to pursue a military police training course at the National War College in Washington in the 1950s. He had held the following positions since returning to Iran until retirement from the army:
Commander of the Eleventh Infantry Division
Commander of the Officers’ College
Chief of Staff of the Army Ground Forces
Commander of the 1st Division
Iranian Military Representative at CENTO
Chief of Staff of the Central Military Police
Special Adjutant of the Shah.
When retired, Azhari was a lieutenant general. On May 15, 1969, he was recalled to the army again and was commissioned as the deputy Commanders-in-Chief of the Joint Staff of the Imperial Iranian Army. Two years later, as a general, he became the Commanders-in-Chief of the Army and served until November 6, 1978.
In 1978, the uprising of the people against the reign of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi intensified. On November 4, several schools and college students were killed and wounded in demonstrations at the University of Tehran. The day after that, the protests widen and Tehran witnessed bloody clashes between the people and the regime’s armed forces. This was one of the causes of the fall of Jafar Sharif-Emami’s government known as the “National Reconciliation Government.”
The Shah, by the Americans, was proposed to defeat the uprising by establishing a military government. This policy was called the “Iron Fist” and the chief executive was no one but General Azhari. On November 6, 1978, he was appointed as prime minister by the Shah’s order and formed a government including eight military members. A few days later, he received 191 votes in favour and 27 against in the National Parliament. At the same time, the press went on strike to protest the censorship, which had increasingly intensified since November 15 for two months.
After the appointment of Azhari as prime minister, Ayatollah Khomeini who was in Paris at the time, declared in an interview:
“The Shah’s new conspiracy, namely the appointment of a military government, is about to kill and surrender the Iranian people, which is only not a way for the Shah but also traps him and his supporters in a worse impasse.”
On the eve of Muharram, Azhari attempted to confront the people’s demonstrations. On the first night of Muharram, at his command, the troops fired at the people. But he soon realized that people were not afraid of the Iron Fist policy. Having arrested some politicians and militants and released some political prisoners, he tried another way and decided to show a new face of himself. He also commissioned officials to control the royal family property. All this was merely to show that he restricted the Shah’s interference in the affairs of the country. But the flames of the uprising become increasingly more day by day.
During the days of Tasu’a and Ashura (December 10-11, 1978), large marches were held in Tehran against the government, and Azhari’s government failed to respond seriously.
On December 21, he suffered a heart attack, and the Shah found out that he would not be able to do anything more, and the Iron Fist policy – as Ayatollah Khomeini had predicted – had come to a dead end.
Azhari resigned on December 28, and a few days later, he left Iran on the pretense of treating his heart failure. After the victory of the Islamic Revolution of Iran on February 11, 1979, he worked with the armed opposition of the Islamic Republic in the National Liberation Army of Iran for a while then withdrew.
He died of cancer in McLean, Virginia, United States, on November 5, 2001.
Archive of The History of the Islamic Revolution
leave your comments