FLASH
Shkruar nga Roland Qafoku
The event of June 20 after the RENEA action in the "Ashraf 3" camp in Manzë showed what a dangerous potential for Albania the members of the MEC, the "Mujahedin of Iran" organization have. From possible terrorist acts to the conflict with the state of Iran. What remains after this police action and what still endangers our country after dozens of problems faced by these oppositionists who were once considered terrorists, but it seems that this term has been unfairly removed.
There are few things that connect us Albanians with Iran. The first creations of our national poet Naim Frashëri were in the Persian language. "Rules of Persian according to the new method" published by him in 1871 was the first grammar written for this language and it was authored by the Albanian Naim Frashëri. Naim Frashëri had the first edition with poems and poems in the Persian language in 1884 with the book "Tehajjulat" (Dreams). Both of these works in Iran are still part of studies and readings in the field of language and literature, and Iranian scholars value our Naim as if it were their own. In 1924, Fan Noli, during the exercise of the office of the prime minister, he translated Omar Khajam's "Rubairat" with such skill, and Albanians have known the great Persian poet through Noli's skill, and his translation is considered one of the best in the world. The country in Western Asia with about 90 million inhabitants and with an area of 1.6 million square kilometers, has been little known by us for many, many decades. Since we had almost nothing in common, for most Albanians there was a perception that Iran was somewhere on the moon. But, everything was turned upside down by this history without history between the two countries, as in 2012 the USA and the EU connected this country well with Albania. An organization named Mojahedin-e-Khalq, abbreviated MEC, or otherwise known as the People's Mujahideen of Iran (People's Soldiers of Iran) was released from the status of a military terrorist organization. For 47 years they had been the opposition created in 1965 to the Shah's regime there, but in 2012 the US and the EU made the decision that these oppositions in exile should no longer be called terrorists, but an organization of dissidents in exile. This opposition remained the only hope to overthrow the Iranian regime, which the US has long termed as a dangerous power and the most aggressive state geopolitically. From 1965 when they were founded until 2012, MEC had found refuge in the neighboring country of Iraq, but the situation created there caused them to leave there as well. And the USA, with the status of the state that has the control panel of the international system, decided to bring it to Albania. but in 2012 the USA and the EU made the decision that these oppositions in exile should no longer be called terrorists, but an organization of dissidents in exile. This opposition remained the only hope to overthrow the Iranian regime, which the US has long termed as a dangerous power and the most aggressive state geopolitically. From 1965 when they were founded until 2012, MEC had found refuge in the neighboring country of Iraq, but the situation created there caused them to leave there as well. And the USA, with the status of the state that has the control panel of the international system, decided to bring it to Albania. but in 2012 the USA and the EU made the decision that these oppositions in exile should no longer be called terrorists, but an organization of dissidents in exile. This opposition remained the only hope to overthrow the Iranian regime, which the US has long termed as a dangerous power and the most aggressive state geopolitically. From 1965 when they were founded until 2012, MEC had found refuge in the neighboring country of Iraq, but the situation created there caused them to leave there as well. And the USA, with the status of the state that has the control panel of the international system, decided to bring it to Albania. From 1965 when they were founded until 2012, MEC had found refuge in the neighboring country of Iraq, but the situation created there caused them to leave there as well. And the USA, with the status of the state that has the control panel of the international system, decided to bring it to Albania. From 1965 when they were founded until 2012, MEC had found refuge in the neighboring country of Iraq, but the situation created there caused them to leave there as well. And the USA, with the status of the state that has the control panel of the international system, decided to bring it to Albania.
Prime Minister Sali Berisha's government accepted exactly those who were called terrorists for 47 years, but they no longer had this stain. The same was done by Berisha's successor, Prime Minister Edi Rama, who in 2017 also accepted the rest of them, bringing the number to about 3 thousand mujahedin who arrived there. Since 2012, in modern history in Albania, the relationship with Iran has taken on a strange relationship. Gradually, the Albanian state was considered an enemy state for the dictatorial regime in Iran. Some events, especially the cyber attacks against the electronic government system in Albania on July 7, 2022, turned out to be behind the Iranians. The situation reached such a point that on September 7, 2022, Albania severed diplomatic relations with Iran, while Prime Minister Edi Rama declared:
"There is irrefutable evidence, according to which Iran is behind the massive cyber attacks on July 15 against Albanian institutions. These attacks aimed to paralyze the state institutions of Albania".
This attack on a NATO member was described by the US as an act directed by Tehran, and information from the intelligence services defined this event almost as an aggression against Albania. This was the reason that for 24 hours, the embassy personnel were forced to be expelled from Albania. And this served as the boiling point of the whole story.
MEK and Albania
The military opposition organization MEC was founded in 1965 and until 1981 had its headquarters in the capital of Iran, Tehran. But since this year and for almost 5 years, almost all of them have left their homeland. In cooperation between the USA and France, some of them were sheltered in a camp in the suburbs of Paris from 1981 to 1986. In 1986, they were stationed in Iraq, in what was called Camp Ashraf. This thing in Iraq continued in 2003 when another part of them was stationed. But the expulsion from Iraq brought a difficult situation for them. Returning to Iran was equivalent to death, Iraq expelled them and France no longer accepted. In these conditions, the only salvation remained Albania. From 2018, the Mujahideen were stationed in Manzë, Durrës, in the "Ashraf 3" camp. From this moment they became at home in Albania, while the Albanian authorities never thought that one day they would turn into a big problem. The camp in Manzë resembled a military unit and the problems between Albania and Iran kept coming and increasing. It is interesting to add that there is a woman as head of the MEC organization. Her name is Maryam Rajavi from Tehran, she is 69 years old and in the Manza camp she is the boss. One of the leaders of Iranian student protests in the 1970s, Rajavi is the person the US believes can lead the movement to oust the current government in Tehran. But her life in exile and especially the activity of the MEC was not from an angel. In 2010 Rajavi was convicted by a court in Iraq of crimes against humanity in a not very clear trial. However, she has been hailed by American diplomacy and politics as the person through which she can direct and lead the Iranian anti-government movement. On May 16, 2022, Maryam Rajavi was captured by Albanian and international television cameras in a meeting with Secretary of State Michael Pompeo at the "Ashraf 3" camp in Manzë. Pompeo said among others:
“I would also like to meet the newly elected President Maryam Rajavi. Under her leadership, the National Council of Resistance of Iran is laying the foundations for a free, sovereign and democratic republic in Iran."
Meanwhile, on June 24, 2022, Maryam Rajavi was fixed in a photograph at the "Ashraf 3" camp alongside former Vice President Mike Pence as a close ally of the US. But it seems that the US has turned against MEC and itself against Maryam. The latest international media news about him is that on June 17, 2023, the Paris police arrested Rajavi along with 150 other MEC members for terrorist activities in France. But could MEC be different in France and different in Albania? Of course not and the course of the MEC has taken the opposite way losing the confidence of the US.
Crimes in the camp
It took the event of June 20 for the Albanian public to learn what MEC was and especially what danger they represented. These days, dozens of testimonies of former members of the MEC and who are no longer part of them were published in the media, showing in detail what this organization was, what activities it had inside the "Ashraf 3" camp, and what the goals were. theirs. Testimonies from the camp members themselves are at the extreme limits to understand what we have had and what we continue to have in our land. We are selecting only four of the witnesses for the very importance of what they told for public opinion. The first witness said:
"We lived armed, divided into groups and in classes where we received theoretical and ideological lectures. They taught us how to be better than the Iranian government. The MEC organization created special groups and took them to Iran to plant bombs by creating attacks. In the organization I learned all about guns and killing people. Many of these people you see here are not people, they are war machines."
The second witness said: "In this camp, both girls and boys were raped."
The third witness testified:
"As far as I know, there are about 200 people who have left. If you become part of this organization they create some rules to keep people inside. Here in Albania the rules are different. They cannot detain people by force as they did in Iraq. But they have some rules to make the situation difficult so people can't leave. If you leave, you don't have money to live on, since you don't even have status here, you can't work. So the situation is such that people find it difficult to escape."
The fourth witness said:
"When I was in Iraq, I tried to contact my daughter and they wouldn't let me. There were many families who came to "Ashraf" to meet their relatives, but this organization forced them not to meet their children and attacked those people."
What consequences can Albania have?
The event of June 20 when RENEA intervened in the camp by seizing the computer logistics was a peak case in the Albanian history of this community. They violently opposed the police, and not only that, but they staged the death of a camp resident as if the police had killed him. The current data is that there are 2500 people in the camp. So far 500 people have left the camp, 450 have left Albania and only 50 are in Tirana. It also turns out that 400 people fled the border illegally. The June 20 event showed that the MEC remains a structured group with genuine military elements ready to take action. In a way they are a state within a state. This event seems to be over with that, but the essential question is, did the Albanian state's problems with the MEC and the Republic of Iran end there? Of course not.
First, the members of this organization remain a dangerous potential for Albania due to the very violent nature of their activity and military organization, already proven by evidence but also shown by the members of this organization who have left for these very reasons.
Secondly, the exercise of a military, armed activity is contrary to the conditions under which they were accepted to take shelter in our country. Consequently, any intervention of the Albanian police there is expected to be accompanied by tension and violence on their part.
Thirdly, Albania is endangered by the terrorist acts that these members of this organization may undertake, as they have done in Iraq and France as a sign of revenge for the intervention made by the Albanian police. This would be fatal for our country and a problem that comes from a good will to harbor them, while they use it to organize military activity and when you intervene to stop them, they become aggressive and may undertake even terrorist attacks.
Fourthly, their activity may continue to cause Albania to be the target of other attacks in the cyber field from Iran. Now our country, in addition to a thousand and one problems that it has itself, must also have an open issue with official Iran, and this is so delicate that it is no wonder that these attacks continue, bringing serious damage to the Albanian state. Based on all this, the Albanian government, in cooperation and coordination with the American partners, must take steps to find a solution, one of which is, of course, leaving our country.
Lini një Përgjigje