The 348th Session of Memory Night-1

Adjusted by Leyla Rostami
Translated by Ruhollah Golmoradi

2024-3-12

The 348^th session of memory night titled “Chokan Homeini”[1] was held in Sooreh Hall of The Artistic Sect of the Islamic Republic on Thursday, August 3, 2023. In this session, Hedayatollah Navvab, Abolfazl Hajj Hasanbeigi, and Ehsan Dorostkar, fighters of Jihad Sazandegi, shared their memories. Mehdi Aghabeigi hosted this night of memory.

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The first narrator of the session, Hedayatollah Navvab, said at the beginning of his speech, “Najaf Camp was in the west, Hamza Sayyid Al Shohada Headquarters in the northwest, Karbala Headquarters in the south, Noah Headquarters in the sea, and Ramadan Headquarters was for overseas wars. Each of these camps had a member in the command council. Our task was engineering. There were several engineer battalions, each consisting of several brigades. Our mission was announced by the General Staff of the Armed Forces or the regional command headquarters.

A year after the start of the war, we took our wife and children near the region to Ahvaz. Mr. Shamayeli was commander of Karbala Headquarters. One day when we were in the Karbala camp, he said to me, “Let's go home tonight and say goodbye. They gave us a mission to go to the west.” We went home at night and left for the west in the morning. “Where are we going?” I said. He said, “Kurdistan.” We went to Marivan at night. There was a joint meeting of the AJA, IRGC, and Jihad. I said, “Where is the axis that we should act?” He said, “We have to go to Melakhor[2].” I said, “Where is Melakhor?!” He said, “You first go to Dezli[3], after Dezli you go to Melakhor. Then we will tell you what your mission is!”

We reached Melakhor at night in the snow and extreme coldness of Kurdistan. I said, “What should we do?!” “You have to build a road here and go down,” he said. I said, “Down?!” There was a terrible slope. I said, “There is no soil here. The bulldozer doesn't work; how can we build a road here?!” He said, “We want to do an operation here, this road is very useful and it must be realized.” We said, “Where is that gleam at the down?” He said, “There is Khurmal[4].” We said, “Where is that opposite side?” He said, “That is Halabja.” We said, “What about the other side?” He said, “There is Saidsadiq and Sulaymaniyah.” A road should be built in the area where there is two meters of snow.

Four or five battalions contributed. It was snowing incessantly and the coldness at night was unbearable. When the wind blows to the top of the high mountain “Melahkhor”, the bitterly cold would prostrate everybody. The road was also directly in front of the Iraqis and in their eyeshot. They shot us with every equipment they had. The mountain was only drilled by a wagon drill and a compressor, and then the road was built. The guy's hands froze after working for a quarter of an hour with the wagon drill. Mr. Mohsen [Rezaei] had also built a trench above our trench. He came every moment and asked, “How many meters did you go forward? How much did you work? What did happen for this road?” This operation was carried out from three sides; one from “Biareh” in Kermanshah, one from “Melakhor”, and one from the upper side of “Darbandi Khan” dam. Anyway, this road was built. After completing the road, one night Mr. Mohsen told the guy to go to his trench. We went to his trench. He said, “You worked hard and made this road.” He was very happy. He also gave us a gift.

The narrator then added, “The operation was carried out on March 14, 1988. From March 14th to March 19th, we were involved in cleaning operations in the areas of “Khurmal”, “Halabja”, “Saidsadiq Forked Road”, and “Tavileh.” We were able to take a bulldozer down from that steep slope and into the Zalam Groove.[5] The operation was supposed to be done in the morning. We went from Zalam to Khurmal. We passed through the city of Khurmal and went to Saidsadiq Forked Road.[6] On the other side, the guys of the 25th Division of Karbala were working. There was a groove called “Tapeh Sabz Groove.” Mr. Shamayeli, Mr. Kothari, and I were standing in that groove. Maybe 20 Iraqi tanks were in the direction of Saidsadiq. We had a bulldozer driver named Ali Arghami who was from Shiraz. We took the bulldozer to Saidsadiq Forked Road. They used to fire this road directly so that no one would cross. Believe me, we could feel the tank bullets passing over our heads.

General Komeil said, “Break up the asphalt. Don't let the tanks come in this direction. If they come, we will be cut off and we will not be able to operate in this direction anymore. We have to go back toward Halabja.” Ali Arghami jumped on top of the bulldozer. He did the first shoveling. When he did the second shoveling, the tank bullet hit next to the bulldozer's shovel. He was covered in shrapnel from the waist up, which was outside the cabin. All of his body was bleeding. You couldn't touch him anymore. In the meantime, we pulled him out of the bulldozer cabin and brought him to Tapeh Sabz Groove. He had a teen assistant. His assistant was not crying, but he looked as if he was crying. I thought he saw this scene and was scared. I said, “Don't worry, I'll go and bring back the bulldozer.” He ignored me and jumped on the cab of the bulldozer. He sat in the same sanies. The entire asphalt was upward; That is, it had a slope. If any tank came, it would have to cross the asphalt. He broke up the asphalt and blocked the tanks. Then he put the bulldozer behind the furrow in reverse gear. We bandaged Ali’s hand, leg, and waist with all the Keffiyeh we had, and returned him. There was a place near Khurmal where we used to go to sleep. Ali Arghami’s assistant was also there. I said, “You were crying. I said you go and I bring back the bulldozer; you ignored it and jumped behind the bulldozer! What was the story?!” He said, “In fact, we are fellow citizens. In our neighborhood, people say he was injured because he was sincere; But you were not sincere, so you returned safely.” His sadness and crying was because of sincerity and insincerity!

When they asked Akbar Golmohammadi, who used to put dry bread in his keffiyeh and tie it around his waist, “Why don't you eat when they bring hot food?” He said, “I didn't do anything for the people so that eat their hot bread and food.”

At the end of his speech, the narrator said, “The world fought with us and we fought with the world. Many do not believe in what conditions we fought! AJA and IRGC were not equipped. The IRGC fought against cabals of Arabs, Turkmens, etc. in villages and cities. The leaders of the army (Artesh) had fled and it was not also in order. The country and government were still dependent on foreign countries. Therefore, it was the best time to attack the Islamic Republic. The culture that made us able to stand in front of the world, its password and key is the lesson we learned from Karbala, which is “I should not be, but you must be alive.” This was taught to us by Hazrat Zaynab, the companions of Aba Abdullah Al-Hussein, and Abul Fazl Al-Abbas, peace be upon them. “Everyone wanted not to be, but Imam Hossein should be.” Because Imam Hossein was the source, basis, foundation, path, right way, and light. Our martyrs taught us that we should not be, but you should be. They died a martyr and gave their lives for us. We should follow them for all these efforts and sacrifices of our martyrs.

To be continued…