Ali Hassanniya says he used to work for the regime he’s now demonstrating in opposition to. The Iranian can be on Wittenbergplatz in Berlin on Saturday afternoon. An indication “for the end of the Islamic Republic of Iran” is scheduled to start right here in half an hour. Hassanniya experiences that he labored as an ethical police officer in Iran till 2012.
He was accountable for holding the scholars in Isfahan in test. “But some students were smart. I didn’t want them to get in trouble,” he says. When 15 college students have been locked in a mosque basement after an indication, he claimed that he wished to take them to a police station. He launched her a number of streets away. A soldier noticed this and advised his superior. He then ended up in jail. Two years later he fled to Europe.
Hassanniya grew to become a political activist: For years he has been attempting to make use of social media to community former ethical police in Europe and to get them enthusiastic about Reza Pahlavi’s motion. The former Shah’s eldest son is a beacon of hope for a lot of Iranians. Hassanniya says he has heard good issues in regards to the former monarchy from his mother and father. He needs the Shah’s son to return to Iran as king. He does not see this as a contradiction to democracy – he envisions a authorities mannequin like these in Sweden or the Netherlands.
Flag and anthem from the time of the Shah
This places him in step with the “Organization of the Iranian Parliamentary Monarchy”. The affiliation has registered 1,000 members for the demonstration. But Wittenbergplatz fills up solely slowly: when the rally has been happening for half an hour, there are solely 120 individuals there. They are virtually completely individuals with Iranian roots. Many nonetheless have kin again residence. Apart from Hassanniya, hardly any of the demonstrators the FAZ spoke to this afternoon wished to see their identify within the newspaper. Several assembly members mentioned they have been afraid of penalties for his or her households in the event that they have been named.
Despite this ever-present concern of the mullahs, the temper is peaceable and relaxed. Several girls distribute sweets, and a person in a mullah costume with a pig masks causes merriment. Speeches are given on a small stage – alternating between Persian and German. The flags of Germany, Israel, the United States and Iran are connected to the sting of the stage. The Iranian flag incorporates a lion, like within the Shah’s time. The former nationwide anthem can be sung collectively.
The audio system repeatedly thank Israel and the USA for his or her assaults on Iranian cities. A speaker mentioned these assaults have been a part of a “humanitarian intervention.” She does not wish to settle for that almost all German worldwide legislation consultants see issues otherwise: “International law has let us Iranians down for decades.” A variety of demonstrators maintain Israeli flags of their palms. Posters learn in English: “Thank you Trump! Thank you Bibi!” to learn. A protester tells FAZ that she has acquired a number of messages from her household in Tehran up to now few days. Her kin have been “grateful for every bomb.”
The opposition is split
Not all Iranians see it that manner. In addition to the monarchists, there are different opposition actions which might be lively in Germany: The “National Council of Resistance of Iran” additionally requires an finish to the mullahs’ regime, however rejects “foreign interference”. This group additionally held an indication in Hamburg on Saturday. There are round 1000 members. There will not be that many monarchists in Berlin, even when individuals be part of them because the demonstration strikes on in the direction of Adenauerplatz. A police spokeswoman mentioned within the night that the variety of members remained within the “low three-digit range”.
The “National Council of Resistance of Iran” is comparatively unknown among the many Berlin demonstrators. Those who can relate to the identify make enjoyable of the group: they are saying it’s a typical exile group with no roots in Iran. This view is supported by the truth that the “National Council of Resistance of Iran” is near the “Organization of the People’s Mujahideen of Iran”. European observers accuse this initially Marxist group, based in 1965, of cult-like constructions. In distinction to the demonstrators in Berlin, she was all the time in opposition to the Shah.
The chief of the assembly on Wittenbergplatz, Nik Jafarzadeh, additionally doesn’t communicate properly of one other opposition motion: the “Woman, Life, Freedom” motion. It is “a thing of the past,” he says. The motion arose within the fall of 2022 after the dying of the Iranian Kurdish girl Jina Mahsa Amini following an operation by the ethical police.
Its representatives advocate feminist positions, however are much less tightly organized than the standard opposition. Some of the motion is near Kurdish teams which have sympathies for a secession of Kurdish areas from Iran after a regime change. On the stage of the Berlin monarchists, nonetheless, it’s emphasised that the “territorial integrity of our homeland is immovable”.
For Jafarzadeh, the dearth of constructions of “woman, life, freedom” can be an issue: regime change in Iran is simply reasonable with a figurehead. Only Reza Pahlavi could be thought of for this. The supporters of “Woman, Life, Freedom” are “leftists with masks”. Jafarzadeh wears a cap in the course of the assembly on Wittenbergplatz. “Make Iran great again” might be learn on it.
https://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/ausland/iran-demonstration-in-berlin-fuer-pahlavi-und-monarchie-200633561.html