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The Martyrs of Islamic Revolution, the Most Innocent Martyrs of Iran history
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Spring of 1979 was different from the other springs for Iran's people and the history of this country. This was the first green season without the sovereignty of Sultans and the rule of kings. Liberated people of Iran called the spring of 1979 "Spring of Freedom".
In Nowruz of 1979 people went to the graves of Revolution Martyrs and spent the New Year ceremonies at their tomb. This slogan "In the Spring of Freedom, We Miss the Martyrs" formed there and was on everyone's lips for years by spring times.
But who truly are the Revolution Martyrs and how many are they?
I have confronted with more than 300 thousand copies of books, magazines, bulletin, documents directly and indirectly during twenty years of working at Hozeh-ye Honari (Arts Center) and one of the questions which occupied my mind during these twenty years was the number of Martyrs of the Islamic Revolution. If we assume beginning of Islamic movement early 1960s and its end on 11th of February 1979, how many Iranians have sacrificed and devoted their lives for their country’s liberty from Pahlavi tyranny during this period.
The Martyrs of the Revolution can be divided into several categories, the ones who were executed, killed under torture, in armed conflicts, street protests and etc, but the common thing between them was the point that the Pahlavi regime titled them as agitators or obstructionists and most of them were buried innocently without any funeral.
For having access to statistics and the names of Martyrs of Islamic Revolution and mentioning them in the book series of Islamic Revolution Chronology published by the Bureau for the Islamic Revolution Literature, we took the measures of extracting the names from the sources such as magazines, books, documents, memoirs and taking the names from the Center for Statistics and Information Technology Foundation of Martyrs, taking notes from Coroner Offices and interviews with Coroner staff and some of the cemetery (Behesht-e Zahra) staff.
At the end we came to the conclusion that the number of Martyrs of the Islamic Revolution, according to documents (their names and manner of martyrdom, etc.) is less than ten thousand people. Even one of the centers that provided us with information of Islamic Revolution Martyrs orally noted us not to cite their statistics in published books because of inconsistency of their statistics with the context of the Constitution.
Mas'oud Zaribafan vice president and chief of Martyr Foundation and Veterans Affair in a live TV program called "National Park" announced the statistics of Islamic Revolution Martyrs about 2700 people.
While Sadegh Ghotbzadeh the then-head of IRIB declared in his speech on 16th March 1979: “the campaign of Muslim people of Iran for gaining identity and creating a community of Islamic justice continued in the worst conditions and Muslim people of Iran gave more than 60 thousand dead and 100 thousand injured for the establishment of the Islamic Republic.”
And later in the introduction to the Constitution was that the nation paid the price, by fertilizing with blood of more than 60 thousand Martyrs and 100 thousand injured and disabled and leading to billions of Tomans loss among the cries of "Independence, Freedom, Islamic Government", the seedlings of Revolution after about one year of continuous and consistent campaign paid off.
But it seems that with regard to passing more than three decades from the victory of Islamic Revolution, the related centers to Islamic Revolution Martyrs should clarify the statistics and identification of the names of innocent Islamic Revolution Martyrs regardless of propaganda slogans. The Martyrs who lived oppressed and died oppressed and buried in obscurity and loneliness.
Mirzabaqer Aliannezhad
Translated by: Atiyeh As’ad
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