Ali Gezersiz

Translated by Ruhollah Golmoradi

2024-8-5

I had many active friends who were opponents of the Pahlavi regime. For example, I had a friend named Muhammad Afchehi, who was from Pamenar, Tehran, and he had made a friendship with my father and became our family friend. His father was in the shrine of Imam Reza (AS), and from then on, whenever they came to Mashhad, they came to visit us too and in this way I became friends with the boys of the family. During his military days, Muhammad Afchehi spent his military service in Sepah-e Danesh (the Literacy Corps) and served in Quchan. When he came to Mashhad from Tehran, he would visit us and then go to his workplace in Quchan. He and I had two other mutual friends; Ali Gezersiz and Ali Etedali. These two also sometimes came to our house with Muhammad Afchehi. About a month and a half after the second arrest, one day I was in my cell the army’s barracks when I suddenly realized from the noises that someone had been brought again. When they brought someone, I was very alert to see if they were my friends, acquaintances, and colleagues. That's why I peeped from the cell and saw him. He was Ali Gezersiz.

But how did I know that someone had been brought? My most important tool was the voice. Because I was in prison for a long time, I could tell from the voice what was happening outside. For example, they would ring a bell at seven in the morning and I would know that the guard officer was changing. Or at six o'clock in the afternoon, there would be other noises and I would understand that the guards of the next shift arrived and were changing. When they brought an accused, they would pull on the sliding door of the first hall or the administrative department, and because of this sound I would know that an accused was brought. Fortunately, because the first and second halls were next to each other, the sounds of the first hall reached us. I used to it and when I heard the sound of the sliding door being pulled up and down, I gathered my attention to see if someone was brought. If someone was brought, I would peep through the cell door and identify him in any way, or I would wait for him to go to the toilet to see who he was, whether I knew him or not.

The same thing happened to Ali Gezersiz, and as soon as I saw him, I said to myself, “Oh! Ali Gezersiz, why him?!” Because he was not very much engaged in the line of [political] struggle. Since his arrival, I have been looking for an opportunity to come out and get information from him. Ali was taken to his cell and after the officer and the guards left, fortunately, the situation I was waiting for came. From this cell to that cell, I shouted loudly, “Ali, come out!” “How?” he asked. I said, “Knock on the door and tell toilet.” He knocked on the door and he was going to the toilet when I said from my cell while leaning on the wall behind the door of my cell, “go to the toilet and come back near to the heater.” I meant the heater that was in front of my cell. He went and came back and stood in front of the heater. I asked, “Why were you captured Ali?” He said, “I don't know.” I asked, “Muhammad was arrested?” “Yes,” he said. I asked, “Who else did they capture?” He said, “I don't know.” I asked, “Didn't you say why they captured you?” He said, “I don't know. I went from Tehran to Quchan, they arrested me in Quchan and brought me here. Later, I found out that Muhammad Afchehi was also captured before me.”

I was very surprised by the arrest of Muhammad Afchehi. Muhammad Afchehi was my friend and this did not mean well. But here again God graced me and before they took me for interrogation, I understood what they were going to interrogate me for. In fact, I realized again from which way and through whom I was exposed and how I should answer the interrogators. This awareness was very important for us, because we were suddenly taken for the interrogation and we really did not know what they wanted to ask and what we should talk about. I had maybe a thousand friends and I had done a lot of actions outside there, and when I was interrogated, all of them would come before my eyes; that's why it was difficult for me to face the interrogators.

Of course, because I was inside the prison, I did not understand how Muhammad Afchehi was arrested. He was spending his military service in Sepah-e Danesh and his area of mission was Quchan. Later, I found out that Muhammad Afchehi had distributed the Imam's leaflets, and in the inn or house where he rested in Quchan, some had noticed his activities and reported him, and he had been arrested. Of course, they interrogated me about Muhammad Afchehi very easily. He was a clever person. He didn't talk about the past, neither did I. In fact, we had forgotten our past. Whenever the interrogators asked, “What is your connection?” I said, “We are friends. My father is friends with Muhammad Afchehi's father, and I became friends with him accordingly. When he wanted to go to Quchan, he would come to Mashhad and pay us a visit and have lunch or dinner with us and we would chat and then leave. We were two normal friends, that's all.

They asked, “Do you know what Muhammad Afchehi did?” “No,” I said. They said, “Muhammad Afchehi assassinated someone.” When he said that he assassinated someone, I said, “Shame on Muhammad Afchehi!” The interrogator was taken aback. I completely turned what was in my heart upside down and said, “if Muhammad Afchehi will work until the end of his life, he can’t earn 7 million to pay that man’s blood money!” When I said this sentence, I understood from the faces of that interrogator and his colleagues that their opinion about me changed. They didn't even think that I was going to fight with them armored. They said to themselves that this is one of those sanctimonious and pure traditional and they didn't no longer interrogate me about Muhammad Afchehi.

Fortunately, this time too, before going to the interrogation, I learned about arresting of my friends, and this information was the greatest advantage that a prisoner could have. According to its policies, SAVAK takes prisoners to solitary confinement, but why? Precisely because the prisoner does not have contact with anyone and remains unconnected and cannot get information; but contrary to what they thought, I got my biggest information before the interrogation.

Source: Karimi Zarif, Navid (2020). Oral Memories of Muhammad Reza Sherkat Totunchi, Tehran, Rahyar, Pp. 106-109.