On February 17, 2023, a grand rally of freedom-loving Iranians and supporters of the Iranian Resistance (NCRI and MEK) was held at Max-Jozef-Platz, in front of the security conference in Munich.
Several German Parliament members and political personalities attended the rally, which addressed supporting the Iranian people’s demands for freedom and democracy.
Leo Dautzenberg, Chair of DSFI, Former Member of the German Bundestag, gave a speech to the demonstrators at the rally.
A translated version of Mr. Dautzenberg’s speech is as follows:
Hello Iran – Hello Ashraf
Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends,
Today, the Iranian uprising enters its sixth month. We are gathered here to support this courageous uprising. The voice and demands of the Iranian people should be heard at the Munich Security Conference.
We see ourselves as part of this uprising because its goals are freedom, democracy, rule of law, equality, separation of state and religion, and a democratic republic.
A high price has been paid for this goal so far. At least 750 demonstrators, including 70 children and 60 women, have been killed by the regime in the last 5 months. More than 30,000 demonstrators were arrested. We demand the release of the political prisoners.
Even before the start of the current uprising, there had been resistance to the clerical regime for decades, especially by the People’s Mojahedin Organization, about which the western media reported only insufficiently.
I remember the execution of more than 30,000 political prisoners in 1988. There are other examples of the inhuman policies of the mullahs over the last few decades, which are very depressingly documented in the museum in Ashraf.
The commitment to freedom and democracy must not be forgotten either, but should be an incentive for us to continue to support the groups in Iran.
This struggle is waged by many ethnic and social groups. The mullahs’ disinformation policy exposes itself by claiming that there is no opposition in Iran. If this is true, then why is the brutal force being used against the demonstrators?
They are fighting for a great cause worth sacrificing for so much. The cause is striving for an Iran in which the people’s right to self-determination is recognized.
For this reason, it is very important that the first article in Mrs. Rajavi’s ten-point plan for a free Iran reads: “Abolition of the Velayat-e Faqih (the absolute rule of the clergy) and the establishment of popular sovereignty in a republic based on universal suffrage and pluralism is established.” This is a real alternative to the dictatorship of the mullahs.
The protesters in Iran have long since made their choice: they say yes to the republic and no to totalitarian autocracy, regardless of whether it is Khamenei who rules Iran now or what the shah’s dictatorship was like in the past.
Interested parties are now working intensively on presenting Reza Pahlavi – the son of the former Iranian dictator Shah – as part of “civil society” and making him socially acceptable. Here, we face a great deception that can harm the uprising in Iran.
The Iranian people and all of us had a very bitter experience with the 1979 revolution that led to the overthrow of the Shah and the rise of Khomeini. At that time, when in Paris, Khomeini promised would he come to Iran, he will renounce power and any position, and that he would go to Qom – the center of the clergy – as a priest. Everything is the choice of the people, Khomeini said at the time.
But we do know that when he arrived in Iran, he never relinquished power and imposed his style of government – that is, a religious dictatorship around the “leader” – on the people.
And now Reza Pahlavi is also talking about a referendum in the future, whereas in the past he had already crowned himself, took the royal oath, and never took that oath back. He has also already introduced his successors of the dynasty on his website. This is a clear contradiction that exposes his delusion that he doesn’t value citizens’ votes. He should first return the billions of dollars that were snatched from the people at the time.
He sees himself as the continuation of a dynasty that is actually responsible for many massacres in Iran. There were massacres against civil protesters, ethnic minorities, and political prisoners. The crimes of Shah’s notorious secret police, SAVAK, are well known. The autocratic monarchy in Iran was rejected by the majority of the Iranian population in 1979. That is why the revolution in Iran happened. But Reza Pahlavi was never willing to take a stand against SAVAK or criticize it in the slightest. Without a clear condemnation of past ones, crime keeps Reza Pahlavi open to the return of dictatorship. And that is a big danger.
The alleged participation of Shah’s son Reza Pahlavi as Iran’s representative at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) is all the more astonishing and incomprehensible for us. His invitation is a provocative act for us and helps the clerical regime. This invitation distracts from the important discussions about the now-required solidarity with the Iranian people and their struggle for freedom.
For many years, we have also had to defend ourselves against targeted defamation campaigns on social media. The trolls of the mullahs will stop at nothing.
After 100 years of the dictatorship of Pahlavi and the clerics, the Iranian people do now deserve to enjoy democracy. We are destined for victory.
Long live freedom!
