{"id":335874,"date":"2025-08-22T08:24:02","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T07:24:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=335874"},"modified":"2025-08-22T08:24:02","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T07:24:02","slug":"iran-news-commentary-seeks-to-whitewash-1988-massacre-shield-khameneis-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/iran-1988-massacre-of-political-prisoners\/iran-news-commentary-seeks-to-whitewash-1988-massacre-shield-khameneis-role\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran News: Commentary Seeks to Whitewash 1988 Massacre, Shield Khamenei\u2019s Role"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_330650\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-330650\" style=\"width: 1000px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-330650\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/iran-tehran-khavaran-cemetry-flowers.jpg\" alt=\"Families of 1988 massacre victims place flowers and photos at Khavaran, a site long known as the burial ground of the regime\u2019s atrocities and fallen freedom fighters\" width=\"1000\" height=\"562\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/iran-tehran-khavaran-cemetry-flowers.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/iran-tehran-khavaran-cemetry-flowers-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/iran-tehran-khavaran-cemetry-flowers-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/iran-tehran-khavaran-cemetry-flowers-747x420.jpg 747w, https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/iran-tehran-khavaran-cemetry-flowers-150x84.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/iran-tehran-khavaran-cemetry-flowers-696x391.jpg 696w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-330650\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Families of 1988 massacre victims place flowers and photos at Khavaran, a site long known as the burial ground of the regime\u2019s atrocities and fallen freedom fighters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Two-minute read <\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">On August 21, 2025, in a deeply <a href=\"https:\/\/www.etemadnewspaper.ir\/fa\/main\/detail\/237175\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">troubling front-page opinion piece in <em>Etemad<\/em><\/a> titled <em>\u201cKhavaran: A Challenge That Must Be Overcome,\u201d<\/em> Emadeddin Baghi\u2014a former regime insider and columnist at the Kayhan daily\u2014reshapes the narrative of the 1988 mass executions in Iran.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Baghi grotesquely reframes the planned and premeditated mass executions of political prisoners in 1988, falsely portraying them as regrettable but necessary actions taken after the National Liberation Army\u2019s (NLA) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/iran-resistance\/thirty-six-years-after-nlas-grand-operation-irans-regime-shivers-while-hailing-its-survival\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Operation Eternal Light<\/a>. However, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/iran-1988-massacre-of-political-prisoners\/iran-human-rights-record-of-ebrahim-raisi-eyewitness-accounts-assadollah-nabavi\/?utm_source=chatgpt.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">prisoner and witness testimonies<\/a> make clear that the massacre was prepared months in advance and <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/statedeptspox_a\/status\/1284216751941652484\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">had already begun<\/a> before the NLA operation. Baghi selectively quotes Ayatollah Montazeri to imply that while he may have questioned secondary executions, he accepted the killing of \u201cMEK operatives.\u201d This deliberately omits <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/BR5QMd3Kn4I\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Montazeri\u2019s full condemnation<\/a> of the massacre as \u201cthe greatest crime\u201d of the clerical dictatorship. Any framing to the contrary is nothing more than propaganda and historical distortion.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Equally cynical is Baghi\u2019s attempt to absolve the then-President Ali Khamenei, claiming Montazeri\u2019s archived audio shows he was unaware of the executions and \u201ctried to stop them.\u201d This is an unauthenticated claim, absent verifiable evidence, that desperately tries to cleanse one of the regime\u2019s central figures of direct involvement.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">&quot;We levelled Section 41 where PMOI members were buried &amp; turned it into a parking lot&quot;<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\uded1 The head of Behesht Zahra Cemetery admits Iran destroyed thousands of political prisoners&#39; graves. UN must act now to stop Iran from erasing evidence of atrocity crimes. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/NoImpunity4Mullahs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#NoImpunity4Mullahs<\/a>\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/U3FfqKCzR3\">pic.twitter.com\/U3FfqKCzR3<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; M. Hanif Jazayeri (@HanifJazayeri) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HanifJazayeri\/status\/1958447331176571383?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 21, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Baghi supports the <a href=\"https:\/\/iran1988.org\/iran-destroying-graves-of-political-prisoners-in-behesht-zahra-cemetery\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tehran municipality\u2019s decision<\/a> to destroy the burial sites of executed prisoners\u2014many of whom were secretly interred in Khavaran Cemetery, with no access given to families. He justifies turning these burial grounds into parks by citing urban development traditions and legal loopholes.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In reality, this is a strategy of erasure of collective memory, making state-sanctioned violence invisible and blocking any path toward truth or accountability.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Most revolting is Baghi\u2019s exploitation of the victims\u2019 families, the so-called Khavaran mothers\u2014claiming they have recently condemned Israeli and American attacks\u2014to argue that they should be \u201crewarded\u201d with access to Khavaran as a supposed gesture of goodwill. By co-opting their grief, he weaponizes their pain into state propaganda, attempting to turn their suffering into a pseudo-nationalist symbol that perversely glorifies the very regime responsible for their loved ones\u2019 murders.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">This manipulation is not just cynical\u2014it\u2019s criminal. Baghi is turning the blood of victims into ammunition to feed his regime\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/khameneis-nationalist-masquerade-a-desperate-bid-for-legitimacy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">fabricated national unity<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Convicted <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/1988Massacre?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#1988Massacre<\/a> Perpetrator <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/HamidNoury?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#HamidNoury<\/a> Sparks Outrage with Provocative Cemetery Video<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ezI5T333Hp\">https:\/\/t.co\/ezI5T333Hp<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/iran_policy\/status\/1904971619208147115?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 26, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">This desperate attempt to rewrite history exposes far more than the regime intends. By erasing the graves, distorting <a href=\"https:\/\/iran1988.org\/montazeris-letter-addressed-members-death-commission\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ayatollah Montazeri\u2019s admission<\/a>, and exploiting the grief of victims\u2019 families, the clerical establishment is trying to sever the link between today\u2019s nationwide grievances and the organized resistance that has challenged its authority for decades.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Yet these efforts only underscore the regime\u2019s deepest fear: the enduring influence of the People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (<a href=\"https:\/\/english.mojahedin.org\/pmoi-resistance-units\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">PMOI\/MEK<\/a>). The 1988 massacre was designed to eliminate the PMOI and bury their ideals along with their bodies. But as Iran faces unprecedented economic collapse, mass protests over basic necessities, and widening cracks at the top of power, the same ideals are resurfacing in the streets.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The regime knows that the memory of those massacred\u2014and the movement they represented\u2014still haunts it, fueling the rising calls for justice and freedom. It is precisely this explosive convergence of social unrest and organized opposition that terrifies Tehran\u2019s rulers and drives their relentless campaign to erase their bloody past.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two-minute read On August 21, 2025, in a deeply troubling front-page opinion piece in Etemad titled &ldquo;Khavaran: A Challenge That Must Be Overcome,&rdquo; Emadeddin Baghi&mdash;a former regime insider and columnist [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":330650,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,15,284],"tags":[142,197,276],"class_list":{"0":"post-335874","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-iran-resistance","8":"category-human-rights","9":"category-iran-1988-massacre-of-political-prisoners","10":"tag-1988-massacre","11":"tag-mek-iran","12":"tag-iran-human-rights"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Iran News: Commentary Seeks to Whitewash 1988 Massacre, Shield Khamenei\u2019s Role - NCRI<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Two-minute read On August 21, 2025, in a deeply troubling front-page opinion piece in Etemad titled \u201cKhavaran: A Challenge That Must Be Overcome,\u201d\" 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