Crisis at the SAVAK on the Threshold of Islamic Revolution

 

Mozaffar Shahedi

 

SAVAK is known as the main repressive machine of the Pahlavi regime during its last twenty years of dominance. Most opponents of Pahlavi regime have had very unpleasant memories of how SAVAK treated them. In fact, this organization had the greatest part in establishing security order in Iran’s socio political context. This word was so much formidable so that that the nation felt a strong hatred for it. As mentioned before, on one hand it had great role in strengthening of Pahlavi regime, on the other hand its track record was of the main reasons of the regime’s downfall. The political disorders of 1970s hinted to the inefficiency of this system.

 

In the midst of revolution, criticism of SAVAK and expressing dissatisfaction with its doings were among the main complaints of the opponents. It was in such context that some members of the SAVAK staff (probably the administrative ones not the political) announced their solidarity with the revolution led by Imam Khomeini, when there was little doubt of its success.

 

In the following document known as the “second official announcement” some members of this organization express their disapproval of SAVAK’s unlawful actions and introduced some agents of SAVAK as the main figures of its cruelties, among them we may refer to lieutenant general Nasser Moqqaddam, Parviz Sabeti, brigadier general Seifollah Foruzin, lieutenant general Ali Mohammad Kaveh, Reza Attarpur, colonel Hormoz Ayrem, and Asghar Rabiei.

 

Some photos of the above people are included here. The original text of the declaration and the photos are kept in the archive of the Institute for Iranian Contemporary Historical Studies.