Memoirs of Commander Asadollah Naseh
Translated by Kianoush Borzouei
2026-4-9
Commander Asadollah Naseh, deputy commander of Operation Mersad in 1988, was the guest of the 282nd episode of the “Night of Reminiscences” program (July 2017). He had also been among the narrators on the twelfth Night of Reminiscences program in 1993. Commander Naseh related that the account he recounted in 1993 pertained to events preceding Operation Mersad. The first thing I can say, he recalled, is that I was left behind and went to the Allah‑Akbar barracks. Several senior commanders were there; they told me to proceed immediately to Kermanshah because they required me. Almost all commanders—even the commander of the Najaf headquarters, the late Nourali Shushtari—were deployed in the south. In fact, there were effectively no headquarters or Revolutionary Guard commanders in Kermanshah, a circumstance of which I was unaware because I had been absent for forty‑eight hours. When I arrived in Kermanshah, people rejoiced at my survival and urged me to go at once to a command post located at Imam Hossein Hospital, since Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani, then Deputy Commander‑in‑Chief, was present there.
In attendance at that meeting were myself, Esmaeil Ahmadi‑Moghaddam (deputy of the Hamzeh headquarters), Nasser Shabani (commander of the Fourth Corps headquarters), and Akbar Daneshyar (deputy chief of the Revolutionary Guards’ general command office). We were engaged in estimating the remaining Iraqi forces available for offensive action. There was disagreement among us: I maintained that Iraq had moved an armored division toward Kermanshah, whereas Mr.Hashemi assessed it as a brigade. Based on the forces I had observed in Gilan‑e Gharb and Sarpol‑e Zahab, I speculated that perhaps a full armored division had been redeployed to sustain its operation. We were still debating this when, at about 17:00, word came that a column was advancing from the Pataq pass. Militarily it was peculiar for an unsupported column to move up Pataq in the afternoon; we were uncertain whether they were Iraqis. At roughly 18:10 the report arrived: they were the Monafeqin (the Mujahedin) and had reached Karand.
Let’s see this narrative.
To date, 377 episodes of the Night of Reminiscences focusing on the Sacred Defense have been organized by the Center for Studies and Research on the Culture and Literature of Resistance and the Office of Resistance Literature and Art at the Artistic Sect of Islamic Republic. The next program will be held on Thursday, April 23rd, 2026.
Video
Number of Visits: 363
The latest
- Third Regiment: Memoirs of an Iraqi Prisoner of War Doctor – 35
- Rahim Afshar's Memories
- The Story of the First Sacred Defense Book Award
- Oral History and Social Resilience in Hard Times
- 100 Questions/ 34
- Third Regiment: Memoirs of an Iraqi Prisoner of War Doctor – 34
- A Review of Scientific and Operational Strategies for Overcoming the Erosion of Narrators’ Memory
- 100 Questions/ 33
Most visited
- Third Regiment: Memoirs of an Iraqi Prisoner of War Doctor – 33
- Expert Panel Session on Oral History of the Country – (Part 2)
- 100 Questions/ 33
- Memoirs of Ahmad Nabavi
- A Review of Scientific and Operational Strategies for Overcoming the Erosion of Narrators’ Memory
- Third Regiment: Memoirs of an Iraqi Prisoner of War Doctor – 34
- 100 Questions/ 34
- Oral History and Social Resilience in Hard Times
Validation: Challenges and Necessities
Where does truth stand in oral history? How can the correctness of a narrative be recognized? Does fact-checking matter? If there is exaggeration in the reporting of some accounts, how can it be detected? Is it possible to record an event accurately through the recording of a narrative? Readers and users of oral history works are often faced with these questions, and sometimes encounter doubts about some oral history works.From Revolutionary Circles to the Military Arm of the Islamic Government
In those days, it became clear that certain institutions had to be established very quickly—institutions suited to the temperament, expectations, and lingering aspirations of the younger generation; young people who had been politically active before the Revolution and, in some cases, had been directly entangled in arrests, imprisonment, ...Authenticating Oral History: From Possibility to Necessity
The use of oral history as one of the historical sources has long been one of the principal challenges facing oral historians and those who employ it in contemporary historiography. The development of international standards for oral history, as well as IRIB standards, was intended to address the criticisms raised in this regard. The relationship between Diplomatics in written records and oral history is reciprocal.100 Questions/27
What is the place of research ethics in compiling oral history?We asked several researchers and activists in the field of oral history to express their views on oral history questions. The names of each participant are listed at the beginning of their answers, and the text of all answers will be published on this portal by the end of the week.
