The 347th Session of Memory Night-1

Like Chamran

Adjusted by Leyla Rostami
Translated by Ruhollah Golmoradi

2024-2-8

The 347^th session of memory night titled “Like Chamran” was held in the hall of the educational vice-chancellor of the art field (Hozeh Honari) organization of Islamic Revolution on Thursday, June 22, 2022. As well as, Martyr Chamran Educational Hall was also opened after the session. 5 narrators of martyr Chamran's comrades were in this program: Fereydoun Ganjour, Mohammad Nokhostin, two brothers Hassan and Ismail Shahhosseini, and Sayyid Abbas Heidar Rabouki. Davoud Salehi hosted this memory night.

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On behalf of education center of Hozeh Honari, Dr. Majid Shahhosseini welcomed the guests and said, “Today, the education bureau has the opportunity to open a new department with the blessed name of Martyr Chamran. God willing, the art students will make this example of piety, jihad and art that Imam (RA) emphasized on all these matters of the noble martyr, as their model. In a period when the traces of noble art have faded, it is obligatory for everyone to resort to a great man who guaranteed the art of a man and in the words of Imam (RA) Sharaf (dignity).

At the beginning of the session, the host said, “Exactly 42 years ago, i.e. June 22, 1981, and one day after martyrdom of Mostafa Chamran, Imam (RA) said a sentence about the martyr Chamran in Hosseinieh Jamaran, “You will not be in the world for a few more years. Neither is Chamran. Chamran sacrificed his life with honor, grandeur, and commitment to Islam, and guaranteed honor in this world and God's mercy in the next. You and I will go, die like Chamran.”[1]

The first narrator of this memory night was Fereydoun Ganjour who is an experienced photographer and filmmaker who was present from the first hours of Iraq's imposed war against Iran and all the eight years. He has also worked in the field of news agency and photography in all corners of the world including USA, Europe, and Afghanistan. He has several books in German, and several articles and books in English; but according to him, the moment he entered the front line and war is the turning and progress point of his life.

The narrator said, “those days, people gathered and talked from Enghelab Square to the front of the university [Tehran]. I didn't know anyone. Sometimes I heard Chamran's name. When I went to Lebanon, everywhere I went and they knew I was Iranian, the first question they asked me was, “Do you know Mostafa Chamran or Mostafa Pamran [or correctly in Arabic Tschamran?” To which I said: “No! I don't know.” The Lebanese loved the Iranians as well as Imam Musa Sadr very much; Also. When I went to a barbery, they didn't get money from me. There were barrels that they put on their shoulders and sell drinks. When they sold me a drink, they didn't get the money.

On June 27, when there was a conflict in Allah Akbar and Dehlavieh hills, Sayyid Ahmad called the Irregular Wars headquarters. Major Fartash, who was all-rounder of the staff after Mr. Doctor, informed the doctor that you have been summoned to Tehran immediately. He also handed over the telephone to Mr. Iraj Rostami[2] and returned to Tehran in the evening with Warcraft that only came once a day. Two days later, they called the Irregular Wars headquarters again and Mr. Fartash said he came to Tehran two days ago. Here it is necessary to mention a part of the book written by Mr. Dr. Yazdi under the name of Mostafa Chamran[3]: “Dr. Chamran went to Tehran many times to see Imam and giving a report, but he was rejected.” This time it was when Imam had dismissed Bani Sadr and he definitely would assign the command-in-chief to Mr. Doctor. On the third day, he waited again and returned.

In the diary of his wife, Mrs. Ghada [Jaber], it is written that in the midnight, his wife would say, “How did you come?” “By private airplane” he says. I came to ask your permission to die a martyr tomorrow.” There are also Dr. Chamran's last notes written in the car on the way from Ahvaz to Susangerd, “My legs, you were agile. You have served me all my life. Wait another half hour and you will be relieved forever...”

The narrator continued, “Doctor came. That night we had a very hard fight. The Iraqis attacked. We had just built an embankment in Dehlavieh. Mr. Rostami called Artesh (AJA) so that the artillery fires. They said Mr. Bani Sadr ordered us not to do this. I was beside them. They called Mr. Nokhostin. They said how many mortars do you have? He also announced the number of 60, 80 and 120 model mortars. The Iraqis even reached 90 meters away from us. The mortar flare shells fired by Iraq lit up the area in front of us. One of our RPG-shooters was martyr Sirous Badpa, and the other was Ismail Dehnad, who is still alive. However, they hit some of their tanks and they retreated. Half an hour later, they fired us heavily.

Our distance from Dehlavieh was 350 meters in the front and approximately 50-60 meter from side of the canal. The Iraqis had a very precise grad, and if the embankment we had built on the road fell, they could return and capture Susangerd. Anyway, the second time that they fired very heavily, I suddenly heard voice of Sirous who said, “Wow, the sir is gone.” He meant Iraj Rostami. Iraj Rostami had died a martyr. Anyway, I mounted an automatic Cadillac ambulance when I brought it. The next day, the guys said we were ten that tried hard! How did you get this car?! I picked two or three of the wounded up and went to Susangerd.

There, Mr. Ali Darbannejad was in charge of telecommunications. He came in front of me and said, “Is Rostami alive?! what has happened?!” I said, “He is alive.” He said, “No! I am in charge of communications. You’re full of shit; he hasn’t said nothing for half an hour.” Anyway, he handed me one person over so that we took these injured people to the hospital. When I came back, about twenty or thirty young soldiers, whose average age was maybe 17 years old, were forced to get in the car with their equipment. Because we weren’t more than 40 to 50 people in the front line with the right wing of the canal, whose commander was Mohammad Qanad, who stayed in IRGC for 4 to 5 years and then died a martyr.

Anyway, I picked these young guys up and I was looking out the window to see the road. There were four or five of us sitting in front. As we were approaching the front line, there were shots and explosions. I felt the young man who was next to me was very scared. He said to me what is your name? I said, Ganjour. He stood and said say a Salawat in honor of Mr. Jangjoo [in Persian it means the warrior]. I also talked to them. I said, the guys, don't be afraid, wherever I stop, you run and go behind the embankment. And so it happened. It was around 04:00 to 04: 30 in the morning when the conflict ended. The Iraqis could not capture the embankment and I remember the most beautiful Adhan I heard in my life was the loud Adhan of Ismail Dehnad.

I had found a Korean sleeping bag which was for cold regions. I would sleep in it for fear of scorpion stings and wake up from heat of the sun. I think at 7: 30 or 8 a.m. when I was splashing water on my face, I heard a voice from the canal, “Sir, bring the ambulance. I also got into the trunk of Ahoo (it is the name for Jeep Wagoneer in Iran, Ahoo means gazelle). They put the stretcher. I said, who is he? They said, Doctor. There was a boy in the hospital and we called him doctor. When I arrived at the road, I saw he was Dr. Chamran, and I thought that boy had been injured.

My equipment were ten meters away. I said to the driver, look! I won't take the key, wait until I will take my equipment. This ignorant gunned and left. I don't know how much I cursed him. I was also left with my belongings. Two to three hundred meters ahead, the car stopped. It seemed they wanted to set up the IV drip to Doctor and had had to stop. I ran very fast with the filming bag until I arrived. I remember the car was moving when I threw my belongings and I was dragged a few meters on the ground so that I could get into the car breathing heavily. I waited for a while to catch my breath, then I started filming. Its movie is available.

We arrived at Susangerd clinic. The Susangerd clinic was newly established. The doctor had no breathing problems. The person in charge was a doctor. In the movie, you can see that he put a plastic in the doctor's mouth and then inserted a tube into the doctor's mouth. The doctor, who was lying on the stretcher, got up and sat down; But he fell on his back and the bleeding started. I stopped filming and said to that doctor, are you a doctor?! He understood and was pale. He said: No, I am a technician in the operating room. Of course, I will say that I do not blame him at all. Because Doctor himself wanted to die a martyr. When we reached the clinic, Dr. Chamran died a martyr there due to bleeding. All these images are recorded.

The narrator added, “Before I came to our own front, I met Ahmad Shah Massoud in Panjshir Valley of Afghanistan. My main work was in Afghanistan. From the day the Soviets came to the day they left. We had a magnificent photo exhibition in the Geneva mosque. The week after that, a military professor at Saint-Cyr Military Academy, which is the largest military academy in France, had given us a card to contact him. Anyway, we met. Because the photos were from Afghanistan, he thought I was Afghan. After a few hours of talking about Ahmad Shah Massoud's guerilla tactics, when he found out that I am Iranian and have been in the front, he said, “Please tell me a lot, everything you know. Because in the academy, we teach Field Marshall's field warfare methods, which is known as the desert fox, and he fought with the Allies in a ratio of six to one; then we teach the war techniques of Moshe Dayan, who fought against the Arabs thirteen to one. But we know very little about Dr. Chamran, maybe thirty to one. I said, “No, one hundred to one! And I said about the initiative of Martyr Chamran, who built water embankments and later opened this water in front of the Iraqi tanks and caused the tanks to get stuck, and that the doctor even went to the middle of the enemy.

Referring to the book “Man and God”, one of the lasting works and writings of Martyr Chamran, Fereydoun Ganjour said, “We had many people who were great in one or two dimensions, but Chamran was great in all dimensions. Especially the mystical dimension and caring orphan.

To be continued…