The 361st Night of Memory -1

Compiled by: Leila Rostami
Translated by: Fazel Shirzad

2024-12-31

Note: The 361st Night of Memory program narrated by the border guards of the police force was held on September 26 of 2024 in the Soura Hall of the Islamic Revolution Art Center under the title "The Border of Persistence". In this program, Brigadier General Hojjatoleslam Seyyed Jabbar Hosseini and Serdar Ahmad Goodarzi shared their memories. The Night of Memory was led by Davud Salehi.

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The first narrator of the program was Seyyed Jabbar Hosseini, a veteran of the Sacred Defense who has been present in Kurdistan since 1980. At one time, he was the ideological and political head of the northwest of the country in the Gendarmerie and has experience in participating in many operations in the Sacred Defense.

At the beginning of his speech, he said: In August 1980, approximately 30 kilometers of West Azerbaijan, i.e. from the city of Urmia to near Kermanshah, and on the other side up to 15 kilometers of the cities of Bijar, Qorveh and Kamyaran, fell into the hands of the counter-revolution. The Mahabad and Sanandaj radio and television stations were placed at the disposal of the counter-revolutionary groups. In May 1970, by the Imam’s order and with the guidance and encouragement of Ayatollah Khamenei, who was the Imam’s representative in the Supreme Defense Council and the Friday prayer leader in Tehran at the time, the clearing [operation] of the two axes of the cities of Bijar and Hamedan began. This work took about two and a half months. In just one street in Sanandaj, from Sanandaj Airport to the Kurdistan Governorate, about 80 of the best young people were crowded. The city of Sardasht was under siege for almost a year and a half. All the roads and paths leading to it were closed. A helicopter from Saqqez was carrying supplies and troops to Sardasht. Two Cobra helicopters were used for escort and an F5 aircraft of the Air Force were also careful to ensure that Iraqi MiGs did not attack the helicopter carrying supplies or personnel on the border. Sometimes they would hang a barrel of oil under the helicopter. Finally, the Sardasht-Baneh, Sardasht-Piranshahr, and Sardasht-Mahabbad axes were liberated. I was present at the liberation of the Baneh-Sardasht Tawfiq road. I saw what love, enthusiasm, joy, and spirit the fighters had. They wanted this city and the road to be opened and they could go to the Iraqi city of Qaleh-e-Dizeh and carry out cross-border operations there. Since 1982, the gendarmerie forces, alongside the army and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, had been engaged in both the counter-revolution and the fighting with Iraq on the borders.

The narrator added: The counter-revolutionaries committed every crime, ugly deed, and inhumane behavior. They had captured a guard in one of the villages around Mahabad. They were supposed to bring a bride to this village from another village. When the bride entered the village, the counter-revolutionaries beheaded this guard in front of the bride.

Another example is that the gendarmerie soldier in Saqqez was a wireless operator. When he was captured by the counter-revolution, he swallowed the wireless code so that the operations, secrets of their base and headquarters would not be revealed; but the counter-revolution tore his body into pieces and tore his intestines so that they might get those pieces of paper. He was the martyr "Arujal Shokri". The narrator continued: Martyr Boroujerdi had called a meeting and asked me, who was in the Kurdistan Revolutionary Guard at the time, to go to Kermanshah. The condition and security of the roads were such that the land route from Sanandaj to Kermanshah was in the hands of the counter-revolution. I went to Bijar and stayed at my parents' house for the night. The next day I went to Hamedan and from there to Kermanshah. In 1980, 1981 and 1982, the roads were closed at 2 pm. In the hours after the cities and roads were cleared, a gendarmerie soldier would sometimes stand for 12 hours to secure the road. We encountered a soldier who was as dry as wood due to the cold below 20 degrees and had joined God. He continued: When the Baneh-Sardasht axis was to be liberated and we were listening to Radio Democrat, it said: Abdolrahman Ghasemlou, the leader of the Democratic Party, said: "If the Islamic regime wants to liberate these roads from Sardasht to Piranshahr, Piranshahr to Sardasht, Mahabad to Sardasht, we will lay down our weapons and divorce our women." But by the grace of God, these axes were liberated in part of Kermanshah, Kurdistan, and West Azerbaijan due to these sacrifices, and the march to the border and cross-border operations began.

It was a strange situation; I was the political ideological officer of the northwest, 21 years old and a young, inexperienced student. When we went to the Sardasht border, we saw that some had not been on leave for 6 months, some even a year; whether soldiers, officers or non-commissioned officers. Martyr Ranjbar, the commander of the Sardasht Guard, was martyred in that operation. They put his body in a helicopter. The governor of Kurdistan and I were supposed to go with the body. His honorable wife and two children also boarded the helicopter with the body. His devoted wife, who got into the helicopter, said to me: “I never thought I would come to Sardasht with Ranjbar, be with him during the siege and the problems of the city, and now return and take my wife’s body with me!”

He said about the sacrifices of the families: There were fighters from the northern cities of Isfahan and Shiraz, and their families accompanied their wives and children in Saqqez, Sardasht, Piranshahr and Mahabad in 1991 and 1992, and we did not see a shred of fear, terror or panic in these brave and courageous women.

Women from all over the country brought provisions, clothes and blankets, and when they went to the trenches, they loved and cheered up their children, Basijis, soldiers and fighters like mothers. Sometimes they would say: “We women also want to go to the front line and take up arms and fight.”

The narrator continued: It was the Supreme Leader and the President who came to Kurdistan. We told them: “Sir, there is a Sunni family in Baneh who have lost 7 martyrs in the battle against the Iraqi counter-revolution.” The gentleman said: “Let’s go and see!” They went to the family’s house. The next day or the day after that meeting, they returned to Tehran and announced during Friday prayers: “This system, this revolution will never be defeated, this path will never be lost. I went to the city of Baneh, I have seen the families of 7 Sunni martyrs.”

I myself witnessed the counter-revolutionaries storming the house of a Sunni cleric and, for the crime of defending the Islamic Republic, placing the Quran and his books on his chest and setting him on fire. The Peshmerga were Muslims who believed in the revolution and gave their lives for the Islamic system. They themselves made sacrifices in the IRGC and in the Peshmerga organization, but the counter-revolutionaries took their wives and children.

I was in the IRGC in Divandareh for five or six months. The clashes continued from six in the evening to five in the morning. The counter-revolutionaries hid in people’s homes, but the commanders, fighters, and soldiers had so much humanity, morality, and human dignity that they did not fire mortars at people’s homes. In the morning, we would ask: “Why did you let the counter-revolutionaries into your home?” And they would say: “What should we do? They threatened us, they put guns to our heads, and we let them in because they were shooting at the army and the IRGC.”

The great martyr Sayyad Shirazi used to tell me: “I enjoy the gendarmerie standing guard on the hills and mountains like a lion.”

The counter-revolutionaries attacked to capture the city of Baneh. We went to Sanandaj and took a group of forces to the Surkuh heights. We were talking to the commander of the Kurdistan Gendarmerie about the situation of Surkuh heights 2 and 3, how to take these heights back from the Iraqi Baathists. As we were talking, the radio announced Resolution 598 and the acceptance of the ceasefire with Iraq. This brave commander said: “This is my colt. Shoot me in the brain so that I don’t see peace with Iraq. The Imam was not a peacemaker!” I said: “Colonel! There must be wisdom, there must be a plan, the Imam is a great man. The whole world is on one side, the Imam is on the other. He is not a compromiser or a surrenderer.” The Iraqis attacked the Schiller Valley again. We were heading towards the Schiller Valley when the radio announced: “The hypocrites have captured the city of Islamabad.” Although I had been at the front for eight years, when I heard this news, my legs trembled. I said: “Oh my God! Islamabad has fallen to the hypocrites!” A strange feeling had come over me. That dear commander said: “Don’t worry, the hypocrites are not a number.” And we saw what sacrifices the fighters made in Operation Mersad.

The commander of the gendarmerie in Baneh told me: “We have no differences with the IRGC, we are together.” A few days later, they called me from Baneh. The commander at the time said: “The commander of the gendarmerie and the IRGC were martyred side by side, at the same time. Both of their blood was shed in one place.” This was the unity and solidarity of our armed forces.

The late martyr Abshenasan was the commander of the Special Forces. A brave and very noble officer. Whenever he came to me, he would say: “Sayyid! I will sacrifice my life for you.” Operation Qadir was in Piranshahr. He had gone and clashed with Iraqi forces and had captured a number of people. I was in the service of martyr Sayyad Shirazi, Agha Mohsen Rezaei, and a number of commanders. Abshenasan reported and he was so authoritative and awe-inspiring that one could take courage from this look. His face was dusty and dusty, but there was not a trace of fatigue in him.

The narrator continued: The Supreme Leader of the Revolution came to Marivan in 1970. He was not yet the president. He was a representative of Tehran. A gendarmerie officer had prepared for Mr. Khamenei to visit the gendarmerie base after visiting the IRGC base. It was getting dark and the gentleman’s bodyguards said we should return to the city. This officer had conveyed to the gentleman: “Sir, you came here, you saw the IRGC children, you didn’t see the gendarmerie children!” The gentleman said: “I am going to Tehran, it is Wednesday now, I will pray Friday prayers in Tehran on Friday, and I will return to Marivan on Saturday.” They did the same. They said: “I am returning in honor of this gendarmerie officer.” The officer was very cheerful and enthusiastic.

When the Supreme Leader of the Revolution returned to Marivan, he received a fan from the commander of Kurdistan. In 1988, after a few years, they traveled to Kurdistan again, and they told the commander: “I still have the fan-shaped belt you gave me tied around my waist.”

The narrator concluded his speech by saying: The late Ayatollah Meshkini had come to Kurdistan during the Hajj and said: “The best Hajj and the best Mecca are to see these warriors.” The same commander said to Ayatollah Meshkini: “Why has Mr. Khamenei been going to the south for several years, but he doesn’t come to Kurdistan?” Ayatollah Meshkini replied: “We were serving the Imam, Mr. Khamenei was also present, the Imam said to him; Mr. Khamenei! Why do you travel so much?! Take care of yourself, you should not travel again. The master said, dear Imam! I am obedient to you, whatever you command.”

To be continued...