On Sunday, June 20, 2021, a large gathering was held on the 40th anniversary of June 20, 1981, the start of the nationwide resistance against the religious dictatorship ruling Iran, and the “Day of Martyrs and Political Prisoners” in Ashraf 3.
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), attended and spoke at the event. Iranian supporters of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) and the NCRI from all over the world also joined online.
On June 20, 1981, more than 500,000 supporters of the MEK staged a demonstration in Tehran to protest the suppression of basic freedoms. On Khomeini’s direct orders, the peaceful march was turned into a bloodbath.
The Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran(NCRI) issued a statement in this regard.
The full text of this statement is as follows:
The event, held, two days after the regime’s election masquerade, Mrs. Rajavi referred to the Iranian peoples’ nationwide boycott of the clerical regime’s sham election as being worthy of a historic congratulation, appointing a mass murderer and a criminal against humanity as president, indicates that the religious dictatorship is in a downward spiral, and must be swept aside, she said.
Mrs. Rajavi added that emerging out of this disgraceful election, the religious dictatorship will be more vulnerable and fragile. It is bound to perpetrate worse crimes with the henchman of the 1988 massacre at its helm. Raisi must be brought to justice in the International Court of Justice.
The NCRI President-elect noted that the clerical regime’s sham election and installing the henchman of the 1988 massacre and the mass murderer of the MEK as its president is an attempt doomed to failure and will not save the regime. Just as the appointment of General Az’hari [in the final months of the Shah’s rule] did not save the Shah’s dictatorship, the appointment of the henchman of the 1988 massacre will not save Khamenei’s dictatorship. No other internal regime development could have shed more light on its political demise and looming overthrow. He is not a solution for the regime, but a symbol of the regime’s impasse and the fact that it has run out of options.
Moreover, his appointment indicates that Khamenei does not trust even the loyal members of his inner circle. Only someone can become the regime president who is immersed in the blood of the massacred MEK members and supporters. Therefore, Khamenei accepted both the scandal of appointing this person and the disgrace of a boycotted election. By their nationwide boycott of the sham election, the people of Iran demonstrated their resolve to overthrow the regime. The boycott is another representation of the glorious November 2019 uprising. In this boycott, one can hear the footsteps of the looming uprisings.
She added: To close his regime’s ranks to confront popular uprisings, Khamenei, on the one hand, opened the path for the spread of the Coronavirus in Iran, causing the deaths of more than 300,000 of our compatriots to date. On the other hand, he installed Ebrahim Raisi, the henchman of the 1988 massacre, as president.
More than anyone else, Khamenei is aware of the decaying state and deficiencies of his regime, as well as the society’s readiness to overthrow it. Therefore, he has adopted a defensive posture, closing ranks at the top of the regime, and resorting to war with the Iranian society and the international community.
Referring to the research done by Iranian academics in the U.S. and the U.K. universities, which indicates that the number of those who were slain in November 2019 was approximately three times more than the 1,500 declared by the PMOI at the time, the NCRI President-elect said: The removal of his rival faction from the mullahs’ parliament, the slaughter of the November 2019 protesters, the strategy of causing mass Coronavirus casualties, picking the people’s pockets and plundering their wealth, missile attacks on ships, oil tankers, or centers belonging to neighboring countries and the U.S., as well as unleashing its nuclear program.
All these are parts of a strategy whose political expression is the presidency of the henchman of the 1988 massacre. This strategy, however, does not have any socio-economic or international support. Instead, it is a strategy that will make the regime more fragile and will aggravate its conflict with the Iranian society many times more.
On Sunday, June 20, 2021, supporters of the MEK and the Iranian Resistance held rallies in major European capitals and cities, including London, Cologne, Vienna, Oslo, Geneva, and elsewhere, during which they called on the international community to put an end to all dealings with, and appeasement of a regime whose president is one of the worst criminals against humanity in modern times.
At Sunday’s gathering, dozens of representatives of youth associations and resistance supporters in different countries spoke in commemoration of the anniversary of the resistance day. At the end of the Ashraf 3 gathering, the participants paid tribute to 120,000 martyrs of the Iranian Resistance who laid down their lives on the path to freedom in Iran.