Oral History of Sacred Defense as Narrated by Ahmad Gholampour: Ahvaz Youth Are Alive

Malihe Kamaledin
Translatd by Ruhollah Golmoradi

2020-4-21

The first volume of book of oral history of Sacred Defense as narrated by Ahmad Gholampour entitled "Ahvaz Youth Are Alive", compiled by Majid Mokhtari and was published by the Sacred Defense Document and Research Center in 2019 (1398 SH).

As mentioned in the preface of the book, we know Ahmad Gholampour as commander of Karbala Headquarter, but he has been active both in the field and at the headquarter level. As he is from Ahvaz, he is also familiar with Khuzestan and its issues, and he had a lot of experience because of his participation in controlling problems of this province, which were mostly created with support of the Ba'athist regime. After that Iraq invaded Iran, he learned more command experiences by being present in Susangerd axis and accepting responsibility of the operation and then being with the main commanders of the war, as he was in charge of the headquarter commander until end of the imposed war.

The interviews in this book were conducted in form of 32 sessions, of which 15 were published in the first volume. These talks cover three periods from childhood to Islamic Revolution, after Islamic Revolution to the end of the imposed war, and invasion of the Ba'athist army until liberation of Khorramshahr. In the introduction of the book, it is stated that rest of the conversations about continuation of the war after conquest of Khorramshahr will be presented in the second volume. In some cases, because of raising challenging topics, the book's dialogues have distanced somewhat from usual method of oral history, and the interviewer has narrated some events and explained some issues.

The book begins with story of birth of Ahmad Gholampour in a large family in a poor area in the south of Ahvaz. His active presence in the mosque and studying works of thinkers such as Ayatollah Motahari, Dr. Shariati and engineer Bazargan form his attitude towards society and government. Expressing that he joined Imam's movement in Khuzestan in 1975 and 1976, he refers to his actions and those of his revolutionary friends during this period.

Gholampour then refer to membership in Khuzestan IRGC and controlling the Arab People Party (ADPF) tumult, and lists Iraq and global powers goals in attacking Iran. In this regard, giving a brief report on performance of three committees "Parasto" (consisting revolutionary forces), a committee managed by an AJA officer named Sadeghi and "Sahra" committee, he explains how to form Ahvaz IRGC with cooperation of people like Shamkhani and Majid Jafari.

The goals of Iraq and world powers in attacking Iran is subject of the third conversation in this book. He noted that Iraq had invaded our borders more than 300 times since victory of the revolution till before the official invading Iran, and noted the Ba'athist government's support for separatist groups such as the Arab people, as well as detection and espionage measures in key strategic areas of Khuzestan. And it notes that it had become certain to everyone that something unusual was on the verge of occurrence.

After that, internal situation of Khuzestan province before the war and escalating anarchy and conflict in this province on the eve of national invasion of the Ba'athist army to borders of Iran is examined. In this section, after expressing intelligence and weapons capabilities of AJA and IRGC in the pre-war period, it is pointed out that internal situation in Khuzestan in the months before the official start of the war was critical and that Iranian forces information was less than the enemy’s army forces capabilities. As a result, it was not possible to prevent the war.

Then it is stated how the war officially began in Khuzestan and that what facilities and forces Saddam had allocated for capturing Khuzestan. According to the narrator, resistance movement disrupted many Iraqi calculations during this period, and Imam Khomeini's reaction to invasion of Iraq had made serious problem for their roadmap to rapid capture of Khuzestan.

Resistance and endurance of young fighters of Khuzestan against invasion of the enemy, and expressing memories from the first days of the war is subject of the sixth conversation with this commander of the holy defense. Gholampour, who was himself an active member of the Susangerd axis, describes the resistance story in the area in more detail, followed by several failed operations of AJA during Bani-Sadr command. It then describes how the Southern Operation Headquarter or Golf Camp was formed.

Sardar Gholampour then talks about role of Bani-Sadr in non-cooperation of AJA with IRGC in the early days of the war, and attributed differences between AJA and the IRGC to their differing views, which never agreed during the war. After that, the dialogue turns to the emergence of young Pasdars (IRGC’s officers) talents at the command level after the start of the war, and then it refers to forming and developing IRGC Armored Organization in operations Tariq al-Qods, Fath ol-Mobin and Beit al-Moqaddas, and notes how the command commanders were selected in IRGC Armored Organization.

In the continuation of the book, Operation Fath al-Mobin is examined by Sardar from different angles. Afterwards, Gholampour describes Operation Beit al-Moqaddas and his role in it, and explains the differences between Beit al-Moqaddas and Fath al-Mobin operations. The last interview published in this book begins with a discussion on the extent of cooperation between AJA and IRGC forces in Quds Headquarter during Operation Beit al-Moqaddas, and then deals with liberation of Khorramshahr and the end of the war.

The name of this book is from Imam Khomeini's famous response to Ayatollah Beheshti regarding his concern for the fall of Ahvaz, who said, "unless, Ahvaz youth are dead?!". This incident is mentioned in the seventh dialogue of the book and it is stated that when Mr. Shamkhani conveyed this message to Ahvaz fighters, it revolutionized them and they had decided to go to Hamidiyeh and stop the enemy there. "Ahvaz Youth Are ALive" has been released in 386 pages with 1000 copies and a price of 35,0000 Rials.