Shapour Bakhtiar

Shapour Bakhtiar
74th Prime Minister of Iran
In office 4 January 1979 – 11 February 1979
Monarch	Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Preceded by	Gholam Reza Azhari
Succeeded by	Mehdi Bazargan
Deputy Minister of Labor
In office 1 July 1952 – 9 April 1953
Monarch	Mohammad-Reza Shah
Prime Minister	Mohammad Mossadegh
Leader of National Resistance
In office 1 October 1979 – 6 August 1991
Preceded by	Party created
Succeeded by	Goudarz Bakhtiar
Personal details
Born	26 June 1914 Izeh, Iran (Persia)
Died	6 August 1991(1991-08-06) (aged 77) Paris, France
Political party	National Front National Resistance Movement
Spouse(s)	Mowjgan Vahedi
Religion	Agnostic

Shapour Bakhtiar ( Shapour Bakhtiar (help·info)) (also Shapur Bakhtiar) (Persian: شاپور بختیار Shāpūr Bakhtīār) (26 June 1914 – 6 August 1991) was an Iranian political scientist, writer and the last Prime Minister of Iran under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. After the Iranian Revolution he migrated to Paris, where he was assassinated in 1991 by agents of the Islamic Republic.

Early life

Bakhtiar was born on 26 June 1914 in southwestern Persia [Iran] into a family of Iranian tribal nobility: the family of the paramount chieftains of the then powerful Bakthiari tribe. His father was Mohammad Reza Khan (Sardar-e-Fateh), his mother Naz-Baygom, both Lori and Bakhtiaris. Bakhtiar's maternal grandfather, Najaf-Gholi Khan Samsam ol-Saltaneh (a.k.a. Saad ad-Daula), was appointed prime minister twice, in 1912 and 1918. Bakhtiar's mother died when he was seven years old. He attended elementary school in Shahr-e Kord and then secondary school, first in Isfahan and later in Beirut, Lebanon, where he received his high school diploma from a French school.

Time in France

In 1936 he left for France. Being a firm opponent of all totalitarian rule, he was active in the Spanish Civil War for the Republican side against General Franco's uprising and fascism. Later he volunteered for the French army and fought in the Orleans battalion and in the French Resistance against the occupation by Germany.^[1][2] In 1945 he received his PhD, in political science, as well as degrees in law and philosophy, from the Sorbonne.

Political career in Iran

Bakhtiar sworn in as prime minister in 4 January 1979

Bakhtiar returned to Iran in 1946. In 1951 he was appointed by the Ministry of Labor, first as director of the Labor Department in the Province of Isfahan and later the same position in Khuzestan, center of the oil industry. In 1951 Mohammad Mosaddeq had come to power in Iran. Under his premiership Bakhtiar was appointed deputy minister of labor in 1953. After the Shah was reinstated by a British-American sponsored coup d'etat, Bakhtiar remained a critic of his rule. In the mid-1950s he was involved in underground activity against the Shah's regime, calling for the 1954 Majlis elections to be free and fair and attempting to revive the nationalist movement. In 1960, the Second National Front was formed and Bakhtiar played a very crucial role in the new organization's activities as the head of the student activist body of the Front. He and his colleagues differed from most other government opponents in that they were very moderate, restricting their activity to peaceful protest and calling only for the restoration of democratic rights within the framework of a constitutional monarchy. Despite these moderate demands, the Shah refused to cooperate and opted to outlaw the Front and imprison the most prominent liberals. From 1964 to 1977, the imperial regime refused to permit any form of anti-state activity, even from the moderate liberals like Bakhtiar. In the following years Bakhtiar was imprisoned repeatedly, a total of six years, for his opposition to the Shah. He even rose to the position of deputy chief of the illegal National Front in late 1977 when the group was reconstituted as the Union of National Front Forces with Bakhtiar as head of the Iran Party (the largest group in the Front).

Bakhtiar with Mohammad Reza Shah

Because he had been a leader in the resistance, Bakhtiar, at the end of 1978 as the Shah's power was crumbling, was chosen to help in the creation of a civilian government in place of the military one, which had existed up to this point. He was appointed to the position of Prime Minister by the Shah, as a concession to his opponents, especially the followers of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Although this caused him to be expelled from the National Front, he accepted the appointment, as he feared a revolution, in which communists and mullahs would take over the country, which he thought would ruin Iran. In his 36 days as premier of Iran, Bakhtiar ordered all political prisoners to be freed, lifted censorship of newspapers (whose staff had until then been on strike), relaxed martial law, ordered the dissolving of SAVAK (the former regime's secret police) and requested that the opposition give him three months to hold elections for a constituent assembly that would decide the fate of the monarchy and determine the future form of government for Iran. Despite these conciliatory gestures, Ayatollah Khomeini refused to collaborate with Bakhtiar, denouncing the premier as a traitor for siding with the Shah, labeling his government "illegitimate" and "illegal" and calling for the overthrow of the Monarchy. Bakhtiar made some key mistakes during his premiership including allowing Khomeini to re-enter Iran. In the end, he failed to rally even his own former colleagues in the National Front behind him and his government was overwhelmingly rejected by the masses, except for a very small number of pro-Shah loyalists and some moderate pro-democratic elements. The opposition was not willing to compromise and the Shah was forced to leave the country in January 1979; Bakhtiar left Iran again for France in April of the same year.

French exile and series of assassination attempts

Bakhtiar in Paris

Out of Paris, Bakhtiar led the National Movement of Iranian Resistance, which fought the Islamic republic in his homeland. In July 1980 he escaped an assassination attempt in his home in the Parisian suburb of Suresnes, which killed a policeman and a neighbor. But on 7 August 1991, Bakhtiar was murdered along with his secretary, Soroush Katibeh, by three assassins in his home. The inquest found that he was stabbed by a knife matching a nearby blood stained bread knife. Bakhtiar's dead body was not found until at least 36 hours after his death, despite the fact that he had heavy police protection and that his killers had left ID (presumably faked) with a guard at his house.^[3] Two of the assassins escaped to Iran, but the third, Ali Vakili Rad, was apprehended in Switzerland,^[4] as well as an alleged accomplice, Zeyal Sarhadi, a great-nephew of former president of Iran Hashemi Rafsanjani,^[5] and both were extradited to France for trial.^[6] Vakili Rad was sentenced to life in prison in December 1994, but Sarhadi was acquitted.^[7] Vakili Rad was released from jail in France, after serving 18 years of his sentence on 19 May 2010. He was received as a hero by Iranian officials. This happened only two days after Tehran freed Clotilde Reiss, a French student accused of spying by the Islamic regime. Both the French and Iranian governments deny the two affairs are linked.^[8][9][10]

Bakhtiar is buried in Montparnasse Cemetery, in Paris.

Hours after the assassination of Bakhtiar, a British hostage was released from Lebanon, presumably held by Hezbollah, but a French hostage was taken.^[11] Although many in the Iranian exile community speculated of official French complicity in Bakhtiar's death,^[12] the second kidnapping is said to cast a shadow over such theories, allegedly as the French would seem unlikely to support an operation that included the kidnapping of another French hostage in Lebanon, although there is no apparent connection between the two events.^[3]

Writings

In addition to many articles, Bakhtiar's books "Ma Fidélité" in French (Edition Albin Michel, Paris, 1 December 1985, ISBN 2226015612, ISBN 978-2226015617) and "37 Days after 37 Years" in Persian ("Radio Iran" Publications, Paris, 1982) including his biography and political career until the Iranian Revolution as well as his beliefs are of special interest regarding society and politics in the Pahlavi Era and the period of riots and turbulence before the fall of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi.

Quotes

• If everyone is free to say whatever they want, that's called democracy. But if everyone acts whatever way they want, that's not even anarchy. No government on earth could tolerate such a thing. (Talking about the riots during the revolution.)^[13]

• If I go back to the days of revolution for hundred times and my past comes back to me for thirty times, I'd say again and again, as Galileo said that the earth goes around the sun no matter what others say... I'd say that democracy is the only relief for Iranians, no matter how difficult it might be realized. (Being interviewed whether he'd do the same democratic acts, or act differently, if he's once again appointed as the Shah's prime minister during 1979 revolution.) ^[14]

Notes

1. ^ Wolfgang Saxon: Shahpur Bakhtiar: Foe of Shah Hunted by Khomeini's Followers. New York Times; 9 August 1991
2. ^ Chapour Bachtiar: Ma Fidélité", Edition Albin Michel, Paris 1985
3. ^ ^{a b} Riding, Alan. "France Vows to Press for Release of Newly Taken Hostage", New York Times, 10 August 1991. Retrieved 5 November 2007.
4. ^ Rempel, William C. "Tale of Deadly Iranian Network Woven in Paris", Los Angeles Times, 3 November 1994. Retrieved 5 November 2007.
5. ^ Greenhouse, Stephen. "French Ask Swiss on Jailed Iranian", New York Times, 28 Dec. 1991. Retrieved 5 November 2007.
6. ^ Riding, Alan. "3 Iranians Go on Trial in France in Slaying of Exiled Ex-Premier", New York Times, 3 November 1994. Retrieved 5 November 2007.
7. ^ U.S. State Department, 1994 Human Rights Report: Iran. Retrieved 5 November 2007
8. ^ http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/middle-east/Iranian-Assassin-Heads-Home-From-France-94163684.html
9. ^ http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=126891&sectionid=351020101
10. ^ "Iran Agent Freed by France Arrives in Iran", by Aurelien Girard, The Epoch Times, 19 May 2010
11. ^ Schmidt, William E. "Pressure Mounts on Israel to Free Its Arab Hostages", New York Times, 10 August 1991. Retrieved 5 November 2007.
12. ^ Kadivar, Cyrus. Iranian.com, "Dialogue of Murder" The Iranian, Janunary 23, 2003, noting that "Many Iranians, including the families of the victims, blamed France's diplomatic rapprochement with Tehran for the deaths. Two years earlier, in February 1989, Roland Dumas had visited Iran to discuss trade opportunities and on 27 July 1990 President Mitterrand had ordered the release of the Lebanese terrorist, Anis Naccache, who had led the first attempt on Bakhtiar's life in 1980. Relations between Tehran and Paris led to lucrative contracts and greater restrictions on the activities of the Iranian opposition." Retrieved 5 November 2007.
13. ^ Interview with Dr. Shapour Bakhtiar, The Iranian
14. ^ Interview with Dr. Shapour Bakhtiar, The Iranian

See also

• 1953 Iranian coup d'état
• List of people involved with the French Resistance

External links

• Website dedicated to Bakhtiar: (English), (Persian).
• Interview with Bakhtiar on Tuesday 6 March 1984 in Paris (in Persian):
  Shapour Bakhtiar, Iranian Oral History, Harvard University Center for Middle Eastern Studies:
  — Audio 1a (29 min 30 sec), Audio 2a (30 min 35 sec), Audio 1b (29 min 18 sec), Audio 2b (30 min 44 sec)
• A Leaf from the History of Iran – Dr Shapour Bakhtiar, a video documentary in two parts (in Persian):
  – Part 1 (9 min 30 sec), Part 2 (8 min 47 sec).
• Iran Chamber Society—Historic Personalities: Shapour Bakhtiar
• Persian Iran page about Bakhtiar
• A list of human rights violations committed by Iran including the assassination and assassination attempt on Bakhtiar
• Article about Bakhtiar's role in the Islamic Revolution
• Detail audio report about Dr. Bakhtiar's Murder by the Qods Force
• Payman Arabshahi, Memory lane – Chronology of events leading to the fall of the monarchy, 11 February 2001, Iranian.com
• Fariba Amini, The first moderate, 8 January 2003, Iranian.com
• Darius Kadivar, Shapour Bakhtiar the Last Democrat, 26 December 2007, The Iranian.
  Note: The literary quality of this essay is wanting; at places the text is almost incomprehensible.

Published works

• Habib Lajevardi, editor, Memoirs of Shapour Bakhtiar, in Persian (Harvard University Press, 1996). ISBN 0-932885-14-4

Political offices
Preceded by Gholam Reza Azhari	Prime Minister of Iran 1979	Succeeded by Mehdi Bazargan
Party political offices
Preceded by Ahmad Zirakzadeh	Deputy Leader of National Front 1977–1979	Succeeded by Dariush Forouhar
Preceded by New Title	Leader of National Resistance Movement 1979–1991	Succeeded by Goudarz Bakhtiar

Persondata
Name	Bakhtiar, Shapour
Alternative names	Bakthiar, Shapur
Short description	Iranian politician
Date of birth	1914 or 1915
Place of birth	Tehran, Iran
Date of death	6 August 1991
Place of death	Suresnes, France