At the beginning of the year, the US armed forces killed the Iranian general Qasem Soleimani. The following international crisis was omnipresent for a short time. We spoke with the Kassel Shami Salwati about the incident and the current situation in Iran.
The interview was conducted Arthur Becker.
Shami Salwati left Iran in the early 1990s and now lives in Kassel. Those: Arthur Becker
The new year was only a few days old, The world seemed to be on the brink of a new world war. Am 3. In January, Iranian General Qasem Soleimani was killed by a US drone strike. This caused further tensions between both countries and in the Middle East in general. The situation seems to have calmed down now, or have we just gotten used to the state of emergency?
We spoke to Shami Salwati about this incident, an Iranian opposition figure, who now lives in Kassel. He tells about it, how it was, being politically active in Iran and how he assesses the current situation.
Youth in illegality
Shami grew up in the north of Iran, which is predominantly inhabited by Kurds. He experienced it there as a teenager 1979 the Islamic Revolution. From day one he opposed the new Islamic government, he reports. That's why he was arrested for the first time in the early 1980s because of his political work. He was then 19 Years old and active for the banned Iranian Communist Party. While many of his friends and comrades were tortured and murdered in custody, he was able to leave prison three years later.
“Even if I suffered damage to my health, I was lucky, that I was released at all. After prison I was even more convinced, because I had seen, which regime we are dealing with.”
Back in freedom, he was even more active, as if he had to make up for lost time. During the next six years he traveled extensively around the country. He tried, to educate the people of Iran and to win them over to the fight for democracy and equality between men and women. More, and building cleaners lost at a company in Kassel, was not possible underground.
Weapons were carried for fear of arrest, Everything had to be organized secretly. This fear was justified: Two of his friends were arrested during this time, because they had distributed political leaflets. The younger of the two, only at this point 17 year old, was shot in custody. The older one also died in prison as a result of torture.
“This is how the regime in Iran has been acting against opposition members for decades. That's why we also criticize parts of the German left, which indirectly supports the regime with its demands.”
Shami (front right) as a young man in Iran. Those: Private
From Iran to Kassel
At the beginning of the 1990s, Shami began to doubt the prospects of success of his previous political work. He remained true to his convictions, he emphasizes, However, he saw no further prospects in living and working underground. Eventually he left the party, and also the country. After a short stay in Iraq, he came to Germany and received political asylum there. He settled in Kassel and started his own business with a food truck.
Barely arrived in Germany, he resumed his political work. He was involved in the Iranian Refugee Council, To this day, he regularly writes political articles and poems for Persian newspapers. He also found a second home politically in the newly founded Workers' Communist Party of Iran. From then on he took part in this from exile.
Who mourns a murderer
From exile, Shami is also closely watching developments in Iran. On the question, how he assesses the killing of Soleimani and whether he shares the assessment, There is a threat of a new world war, becomes immediately clear, that he doesn't shed a tear for him. He blames him for numerous crimes against the Iranian people.
In fact, Soleimani was involved in quelling the uprisings in the Kurdish part of Iran shortly after the Islamic Revolution 1979 involved. About 10.000 People were killed, alone 1.200 Kurdish prisoners were executed. He also blames Soleimani for the use of children to clear minefields during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.
In the wake of the Iran-Iraq war 1980 the Quds Force was founded. The elite unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard specializes in operations abroad. Shortly after its founding, Soleimani became its commander. The unit operated under his leadership, whose declared goal is a worldwide Islamic revolution, in the following years on almost all battlefields in the Middle East.
Also in Syrian Soleimani had a hand in the civil war, is itself Shami for sure. He and his units were behind this Assad regime and supported it, War against your own to lead the population.
“Soleimani always did all of this on behalf of the Iranian government. From day one, he supported Assad on their behalf, while massacring his own people.”
That hundreds of thousands of Iranians still took to the streets and mourned his death, is no proof of this for Shami, that the Iranian people are truly mourning Soleimani. The participants in the mourning demonstrations are mainly exempt state employees, been students or militia members. Even though the government did it, to stage large demonstrations of mourning, only a small part of the total population is really loyal to the regime.
Finally live in peace
The demonstrations by the Iranian opposition are of much greater importance. This happened again and again last year, and also in response to the shooting down of an airliner. Shortly after Soleimani's death, a Ukrainian passenger plane was shot down near Tehran, by the Iranian military as it later turned out.
In the demonstrations that followed, hundreds of thousands of Iranians took to the streets to express their hatred of the government and its handling of the incident. And although it 2019 there have been hundreds of deaths and thousands of arrests, Nevertheless, people continued to take part in the demonstrations against the government.
This would be in Recently, there have also been repeated attacks on the regime's institutions, Banks, Police stations or even religious institutions were attacked. That people dare to do that, was unthinkable for a long time.
This one too large opposition demonstrations, that the country is split; and impress Shami even more: Their followers After all, they wouldn’t get a day off to take part, but would potentially have to fear for their lives.
As reasons for Shami primarily identifies the ongoing protests as growing Dissatisfaction with the government's attempts, all aspects of the people's private lives and their religious values subdue. But also the state of war that has been going on for years people no longer wanted to accept it.
“Since the emergence of this regime, it has been constantly at war and hostile to almost all of its neighboring countries. Many people in Iran are tired of the war and these hostilities.”
Who benefits from enmity
But in his opinion, the USA is also not innocent in the difficult situation, in which the Iranian population currently finds itself. Their Middle East policy primarily served their own interests.
For example, when the American military responded to the attacks on 11. September 2001 went to war against the Taliban in Afghanistan, Soleimani and his notorious Quds Force were still a close US ally there. What role he played in quelling the unrest in Iran, didn't seem to bother the US at the time. At the same time, the Iranian government did not shy away from cooperation, although the supposedly hated West has been portrayed as an enemy for decades.
Both states would also benefit from today's particularly heightened hostility. On the one hand, the Iranian government is trying to stir up hatred and fear towards the USA, thereby securing influence in the region. Conversely, the American government benefits from the fear of many Arab states about Iran, because they then bought expensive weapon systems from America.
This also applies to both states, that they wanted to distract from domestic political problems through their warlike foreign policy. In view of the tense situation within Iran, this is an approach, as is typical of dictatorships.
“When there are problems in your own country, is distracted from it with war propaganda. That’s why the image of America as an enemy is necessary for the survival of the Iranian regime.”
Reactions in Germany
While the killing of Soleimani by the USA affected parts of the German peace movement came onto the scene, organized Iranian Opposition members in exile also staged occasional protests in Germany, around to respond to the shooting down of the Ukrainian passenger plane.
Organizing protests in Kassel or other smaller cities is difficult, Shami regrets. But there are plans, Here too, as part of an internationalist movement with the German left, to organize protests against the Iranian regime together and to educate people in Germany about the situation in Iran. That Shami will continue this fight against the Islamic regime throughout his life, is beyond question.