By Dashnor Kaloçi
Second part
Memorie.al publishes some archival documents extracted from the Central State Archive in Tirana, where the personal fund of the former first secretary of the PPSh Central Committee is located, from which we have extracted some parts from his political diary that belongs to a period of time from the beginning of January 1979 to February 1982, where the focus of his notes are the events developed in Iran, where the Islamic insurgent forces led and inspired by Ayatollah Kohmeini who managed to dethrone Shah Reza Phalevi, who, having the full support of the United States of America, was forced to leave the country by plane, arriving first in Cairo, where he was received as a personal friend by President Janwar Sadat and also, the former president of the United States of America, Zehrar Ford, (who was on a visit to Egypt those days), to then leave for the USA. After the overthrow and impeachment of Shah Reza Palehvi, at the end of January 1979, Ayatollah Kohmeini, the religious spiritual leader of the Shia Iranians, who was said to be leading the revolution to overthrow the Palehvi dynasty, arrived in Tehran from Paris, where he was staying for years. How he described all those events, in his political diary, the leader of communist Albania, the dictator Enver Hoxha, who, among other things, says: “Shahu, to protect himself from the people, had bought from the United States of America , a large amount of the most modern weapons that they have sold abroad, he had created an army of hundreds of thousands of people, with all kinds of weapons, with airplanes, with tanks, with machine guns, with missiles of the most modern, he had built many airfields . All this was done to protect the assets of the Americans in Iran and the assets of the Shah, as well as to keep the people in misery. Of course, such a state could not continue throughout his life, although material military and political aid to the Shah came from all four corners of the world. In addition to others, even the new Chinese empire threw roses at the Shah. Hua Kuo Fen himself, went to Iran and with the greatest cordiality, talked about a: “great and healthy friendship”, with the Shah of Persia and wished long life to this powerful supplier of oil, great friends of China , the United States of America and world capitalism”.
Continues from last issue
The political diary of Enver Hoxha
TUESDAY JANUARY 16, 1979
THE SHAH WAS DRIVEN OUT OF IRAN
-GREAT HISTORICAL VICTORY OVER THE MONARCHY-
News agencies announced that Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi was expelled from Iran. The throne of the Feudal Monarch, the agent of American imperialism, was overthrown by the great popular uprising of the Iranian people and its oil proletariat. This is a great historic victory. On this occasion, I gave my friend Ramiz Alia theses for an article in the “Voice of the People” newspaper, where the dots should be placed on the i, to show the strength of the people, the strength of the proletariat in the fight against the Monarchy, against feudalism and imperialism and for the victory of democracy, a victory which must go to the end.
The people, it should be emphasized, must persistently continue the struggle, so that, through deep reforms, they can achieve even greater victories. Of course, these will take time to achieve, but the fight must continue. Regardless of who led this popular uprising, it must be said that; they are progressive elements of the bourgeoisie, who have launched a war against the feudal monarchy inside and against American imperialism, against the exploitative capitalism of the Iranian people, and that this uprising is based on the people and the proletariat.
In these events, the Marxist-Leninist party is not a subjective factor, but, of course, it has its part, although still weak. The people and the proletariat must continue the struggle for broad and deep democratic reforms and for great vigilance against the various imperialists who will not give up their diabolical plans against Iran and with all kinds of intrigues and various people they will to try to maneuver with new forms to always keep this country under the yoke and to exploit it and its assets again.
The Iranian proletariat and people must be vigilant against American, English, French imperialism as well as against Soviet social-imperialism, because there the Tudeh party will, of course, come to life and support the Soviet Union in infiltrating its Influence in Iran. The United States will also turn the page and try to find in Iran, if not Baftjar, another one like this, to come into power with a “democratic” government.
THURSDAY JANUARY 18, 1979
GREAT HISTORICAL VICTORY OF THE IRANIAN PEOPLE
In the newspaper “Voice of the People”, the article entitled: “Great historical victory of the Iranian people” will be published tomorrow, with which we welcome the departure of the Shah from Iran as a result of the uprising of the Iranian people, against the Pahlavi feudal monarchy.
WEDNESDAY JANUARY 24, 1979
CHINA IS SILENT ABOUT THE EVENTS IN IRAN
The uprising continues in Iran. The broad masses of the people are further expanding the demonstrations in the streets of Tehran and other cities. Also, the strike in the oil fields continues. The Shah left the country, or rather was swept away. He went to Egypt, to Aswan, where he had contacts and long, even five-day talks with Sadat. Sadat did not consider the arrival of the Shah as an intervention in the affairs of Iran, because he allegedly did not wait for him to show that he was supporting him, but as a personal friend who had taken his side in the war that Egypt waged against Israel.
These are all fairy tales. Surprisingly, it “happened” that at this time, when the chess was in Egypt, the former president of the United States of America, Ford, also arrived there, who apparently did not come for the chess either. Yes, “since it happened” there, he left for Aswan, and there, in the large residential hotel, where Sadat and Shahu were, face to face, they talked for two or three days in a row. Ford is gone. It was said that the Shah, after a five-day stay in Egypt, would pass to the Sherifian Kingdom of Morocco, as a friend of Hassan II, and from there, would go to the United States, where he would supposedly spend his temporary vacation.
The arrival of the shah in Egypt, in the African regions, perhaps later going to the king of Jordan, contains in itself some risk, but not a large percentage, of an intervention or turmoil inside Iran. In Iran, the situation is like this: Baftjar’s government continues to stand and call itself Veteshet; constitutional government. The United States of America protected the Shah as best they could: more than once Carter himself spoke on the radio, but when he saw that all was lost as far as the person of the Shah was concerned, and then they thought it necessary to them saved the future, the dynasty, that they would have at their service.
Therefore, the United States of America, with its president, strongly supported and continues to support Prime Minister Baftjar. The American maneuver and the Shah’s supporters, was that with the latter’s departure, a regency was created in Iran, which was created, which possibly calmed the blood and after a while, after some fake changes, after some fake democratic rights, that would be announced, not the shah, but his son, would be restored to power. In other words, the United States of America would return all-powerful to Iran and maintain the large oil concessions. Baftjari has had and has a more and more difficult situation every day, so he too is coming to an end.
The great wave of popular insurrection has locked him in the presidential palace and from there, through Tehran Radio, he threatens Iranian opinion, the people, that, if calm and order are not established, then he will resign and notify the army, which is no longer bound by the oath against the power of the regency and the government that has emerged from this regency. In other words, it threatens that the imperial military caste may stage a military coup in Iran. In fact, this threat to the Iranian people is an expedient for the United States of America, which tried many actions, but did not succeed.
We must know that the United States has in Iran a very large number of military specialists and advisers and other people disguised as oil specialists or organizers of various societies. Therefore, inside Iran, there is a force of nearly 40 thousand Americans, regardless of what the American newspapers say, that one thousand or two thousand Americans allegedly fled, these are nothing. Let us now come to the Muslim leader of the Shiite sect, Khomeini. His position was and is against the shah of Iran. He has declared that he is against American imperialism and against all other imperialism that next Friday, that is, the day after tomorrow, he will return to Iran and, with a great popular consensus, will overthrow the Baftjar government and the regency council and declare the creation of an Islamic republic.
So Ayatollah Khomeini seems to have a lot of support in Iran. In fact, he also has an organization. This means that the big capitalist and feudal bourgeoisie, this time separated from the Shah’s regime, is organized in a national front, but with pronounced religious tendencies. Khomeini, by means of this organization, which we do not know exactly how it is and how strong it is, has managed to eliminate the perverted power of the Shah and Baftyar and, according to the news, Islamic committees, committees of power, have been created, as with said, which have assumed the role of leading the life of the country and the administration, while the army is still waiting.
What will she do with the arrival of Khomeini in Iran? Will he strike, will he make a coup, or will he be put in the service of Ayatollah Khomeini and his Islamic organization? This must be seen. But there is a chance that the blow will be avoided. Why? Because American imperialism is afraid of a civil war in Iran. A civil war in this country would be against the United States of America and all other imperialist powers. It would be another big fire in the Middle East basin. For this reason, supposedly privately, the former American Secretary of Justice, Clark, went to France, who, after a rather long conversation with Khomeini, immediately returned to Washington. So Ford, on one side, the former Secretary of Justice on the other. As it seems and as I think, the thesis that the Shah’s army will submit to Khomeini will have more possibilities.
The United States will mobilize its own people, its great agency in Iran, and will try to penetrate the Shiite organization of Ayatollah Khomeini; The United States will accept, advising him, what will be decided by Ayatollah Khomeini, who declared from Paris, that he will not form any government in which the leftists, the communists, will participate, but only popular progressive elements, who are for reform etc. In other words, it seems that Ayatollah Khomeini has under his leadership a fairly strong and organized party, in the dark, but which has now come to light and which may not accept, especially in the direction of the state, the elements of the party. Tudeh” which is under the influence of the Soviets.
The “Tudeh” party also came out with declarations and banners and during street demonstrations showed that it accepted the points of Ayatollah Khomeini’s program and that it would support him in his activities. Therefore, it is possible to ask Ayatollah Khomeini to participate in power. Whether Ayatollah Khomeini will accept it or not, of course, we will see this later in life. As for the Marxist-Leninists, that is, those who are inspired by the Workers’ and Peasants’ Communist Party, also known as “Tufan”, or other groups around this Marxist-Leninist party, as the news agencies speak, and they have come out in demonstrations in the streets and their slogans are right.
They support the popular uprising and demand that it be deepened, that the people fight for deep bourgeois democratic reforms, for the total liquidation, from the foundations, of the fascist monarchical regime of the Shah and that the future regime be a regime with sound democratic features. Against this revolt, so powerful in Iran, which had and has a great repercussion in the world, the China of Hua Kuo Fen and Ten Hsiao Pin, remains mute, has completely closed its mouth. She has nothing to say, nor does she know what to say, because she has been openly in defense of the shahinshah of Iran and against the popular uprising.
We know that Hua Kuo Feni, when he returned from Belgrade, stopped in Tehran, where he met, talked and ate bread with the Shah of Iran, at the moments when there were grand demonstrations of the people in the streets of Tehran, against whom they fired volley bullets, the machine guns of the Shah’s imperial guard.
Now Hua Kuo Fen’s China is preparing to send Ten Hsiao Pin to Washington. Foreign agencies and the New York Times newspaper in their leading articles say that the United States of America and Carter will give Ten Hsiao Pin a grand reception, as grand as the one they gave Khrushchev. . They will wait for him with flowers and letters, which will be thrown from the skyscrapers.
That’s why China “doesn’t have time” to talk about the war and the revolt of the Iranian people!
SATURDAY JANUARY 27, 1979
IN IRAN, THE SITUATION IS COMPLICATED
In Iran, the situation continues to be turbulent and is not yet finding stability. Ayatollah Khomeini, who declared that he would necessarily be in Iran on Friday, could not carry out his decision, because Baftjar’s government closed all the country’s airfields and declared that at least for three days Ayatollah Khomeini, cannot return to Iran. So, there the aerodromes everywhere have been occupied by the army and during this time, of course, combinations are being made between the government of Baftjar and the Shah, who comes round to the parks of the King of Morocco and it is said that he will return to Egypt to his friend, Sadat.
The Secretary of the US State Department, as reported by news agencies, has returned to Washington.
All data show that the actions of Baftjar’s government are commanded by the United States of America. Baftjari declared that within four months he will hold legislative elections for the Constitutional Assembly and from these elections it will be determined whether the people will choose the republican regime or the constitutional monarchy. Of course, – says Baftjari, – then it will be decided whether Khomeini can be forgiven and can come, or Khomeini can also not be allowed to come. So, throughout this period, a thousand and one intrigues will be played out. As for Ayatollah Khomeini, he has stated that tomorrow, Sunday, he will leave by plane for Tehran.
How can he land there when Iran’s airfields are full of tanks? The civil war must break out, that is, the clash between the military forces and the people, because in order to occupy the airfields, the people must defeat Baftjar’s army. Only in this way can Ayatollah Khomeini be returned.
There remains another way, the illegal one, which is both possible and impossible. On the part of Saudi Arabia, Ayatollah Khomeini cannot go, because this does not allow him, because he is pro-Shah and because the longer the commissioning of the wells and refineries of Abadan is delayed, the better it is for him.
Also for Iraq, as well. The Soviet path remains, but Ayatollah Khomeini has declared that he is neither with the Soviets nor with the Americans, therefore Ayatollah Khomeini’s illegal entry into Iran will be the sign of the beginning of a civil war. If Khomeini is determined to do this, he will do no wrong, but it should not be done through the Soviets.
However, the revolution must go forward and defeat the armed guard supported by the imperial bourgeoisie of the Shah and the CIA!
The matter is quite complicated. It is a fact that during these times the people continue to go out on the streets and demonstrate against the shah’s regime, against the government of Baftjar, against the curfew, against the army and are being killed. Every night there are dozens killed, there are large movements of students and workers, who are on strike. Now how the situation will develop, we will see why the development and the path that the events in Iran will take are of extraordinary importance in the current international situation.
MONDAY FEBRUARY 12, 1979
NEW VICTORY OF THE IRANIAN PEOPLE
It was announced that the Iranian government of Shapur Baftjar, which the Shah had installed before he was expelled, as well as the regency he left behind, were overthrown. This is a new victory of the long struggle of the Iranian people for the liquidation once and for all of the Pahlavi dynasty and, at the same time, of the influence of American imperialism in this country. The formation of a new government has been announced. The situation is very honorable but revolutionary in all Iranian cities. There have been bloody clashes with the police and military units loyal to the Shah.
TUESDAY FEBRUARY 13, 1979
THE REVOLUTION OF THE IRANIAN PEOPLE TRIUMPHED
The popular revolution in Iran triumphed; the Pahlavi feudal monarchy was overthrown. Yesterday, the shah’s government, headed by Shapur Baftjari, gave up. The regency established for maneuvering against the people fell, and the famous imperial guard was disbanded. SAVAK, the infamous Chess Security, was also crushed. This is a great triumph of the broad Iranian popular revolutionary masses, which persistently, bravely, selflessly fought for years and these last three or four months, gave the decisive blow to the hated Monarchy of Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi. This anti-feudal and anti-imperialist revolution of the Iranian people has emphasized the spirit of the Shiite mullahs, with Ayatollah Khomeini at the head, the successor of Ayatollah Kashan, who at the time of Musadek, was the leader of the Shiite sect in Iran.
The fact that they have influence cannot be denied, but this influence of theirs, however dressed in supposedly democratic clothes, is nothing but the result of a retrograde idealistic philosophy, as medieval as that of the monarchical regime. Now it is time for them, under this cloak and under this philosophy, to establish in Iran a so-called Islamic republic, which, if not today, tomorrow can strengthen the foundations of a reactionary power and establish connections, of course new, in forms somewhat more favorable to Iran, with American imperialism and with other imperialists.
In this movement, where the power of the people is decisive, the Shiites of Ayatollah Khomeini maneuvered, but there were also other forces. The “Tudeh” party, which, as far as we know, is under the influence of the Soviets, did not stand idly by. In this revolution the progressive anti-imperialist element and the Marxist-Leninists could not be a great force. They were still not properly formed, but during this revolution they learned how to fight. Now their task is to consolidate and persevere through the broad masses of the people so that this revolution with a democratic-bourgeois character moves forward and, little by little, moves away from the idealistic Shiite ideology.
So they should be the first to expropriate the properties of the feudal lords and capitalists, making them the property of the whole people, to carry out the agrarian reform, but an agrarian reform, not so much to say, but in the interest of the poor peasants and middle of Iran. Also deepen the revolution, pushing forward the great revolutionary force of the Iranian proletariat, oil workers and other sectors of industry, because in Iran American imperialism has invested large capitals, built modern refineries, built, also, also various other factories, where a large working class works.
Therefore, the effort of the Marxist-Yeninists, the revolutionaries and the progressive elements of Iran should aim to cope with the idealistic philosophy, without immediately entering into a frontal war with the Shiite movement, which, it seems, has a stronger influence in Iran of this movement, because now we see that these religious people have taken action. The mosques there are becoming the main centers of indoctrination, and Ayatollah Khomeini calls for the people, for everything, to go to the mosque, where, in addition to the instructions given by Khomeini himself, the Khojallars will advise him on what to do. Memorie.al
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