It's been almost two months since the MURDER of Mahsa Amini, the Iranian kurd girl who's MURDER sparked a wave of protests against the regime. I insist on the word "murder" because I feel like some non Iranians are still dubious about the cause of her death. Which is understandable, the authorities in Iran denied the accusation and are still insisting that her death, plus every other murdered protesters, aren't the regime's doing!!! These denials are widely ignored by Iranians because it's a widespread known fact that islamic republic goons only lie. No one remember the last time this regime's figures and followers or IRIB, their monopoly media corporation, spoke the truth. They are the empire of lies, to the point that if we ever watch their news programs, it's to find the truth in reverse of what they say. If they deny something, then with no doubt it has happened. If they claim something, that's definitely a lie.
I won't be able to explain how this mistrust and this circus of fabricated lies happened, there's a history behind it, but I'll give you one very painful example to see why you should never trust what IR says.
Flight PS752, Iran - Ukraine
On January 8, 2020, a plane with 167 passengers and 9 crew members aboard took off from Tehran to the destination Kyiv. Shortly after takeoff, it was shut down by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), shooting 2 missiles at it. All 176 occupants were killed within seconds.
Islamic Republic authorities immediately claimed the crash was because of a technical issue, that an engine was caught on fire, that it was the pilot's fault. Within the same day, the USA followed by Ukraine, Britain, and Canada claimed that the cause of the crash was most probably a missile strike.
At the time, there was tension between Iran's regime and the US because of the assassination of Ghasem Soleimani, the guy who was directly responsible for part of the destructions in the middle east, the guy whose family's life was full of contradictions, the guy Islamic Republic swore to take his revenge on the US, but instead, they took his revenge on innocent civilians.
For the next 72 hours, our regime lied and lied and lied and countered every accusation and proof with denial and slander. In response to every claim foreign intelligence agencies made, they said things like it's "a rumor", "lie", "American deception", "psychological war" and "false scenarios of the West" by "enemies", "adversaries" and "counter-revolutionaries" for "hostility", "marginalizing the attack on the Ain al-Assad barracks " or "Boeing's attempt to prevent the stock from falling and to cover up the technical problems of its plane"! For 72 mother fuckin hours they looked into the eye of the families of the victims and our nation and lied. Until they couldn't hide it anymore. So after 3 days they finally admitted that it was a missile strike, that they had mistaken the plane for an American cruise missile. A human error. And then they refused to give any more explanations.
Ukrainian Airlines Flight PS752 was shot down on the morning of January 8. Three days later, on January 11, Iran’s General Staff of the ...
There have been arguments around this "human error" excuse, doubt and speculations. But most important of all there has been public demand for prosecution. The families of the flight victims rightfully demanded a just trial for the responsible parties. Can you guess what did the regime do? They called it "a bitter accident", "a human error" and "an unforgivable incident". That's it. No one resigned, no one apologized and no one took responsibility. They didn't even want to pay compensation, saying "why should we pay when the plane had European insurance?!". Our beloved parliament, the parliament that's calling for the execution of protesters these days, praised IRGC for doing their duties so well! Hossein Salami, IRGC commander-in-chief, gave a speech in parliament about the incident that was salt in the wound. He lied "we were under pressure by our people to avenge Soleimani", "I wish I was in that plane", "we never wish to harm our own people" and the biggest lie of all "we were the first to announce this hypothesis of missiles hitting the plane causing the crash. If we were not the source of the formation of this hypothesis, no one could understand"!!!
It was only about 2 months after the 2019 protests in Iran in which the government shut down the internet for a week and mass murdered more than 1500 protesters in only 3 days. As was expected anger stirred up again and there was another wave of protests in the country where people chanted death to the dictator and demanded the overthrow of Khamenei. They tore Soleimani's pictures and put them on fire. Do you know any better way to say he wasn't popular among people and we didn't put anyone under pressure to avenge him?
To add a side note here, there have been protests after protests in the past couple of years. Here's a diagram of all mass protests in iran since Islamic revolution:
Protests got suppressed again. The families of the flight victims were offered bribery or threatened to keep their mouths shut. Some of them even got arrested and were put in jail temporarily. But the families didn't back down so The Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims was formed. (Website, Instagram, YouTube)
Out of 176 lost lives, 147 of them were Iranian or Iranian-Canadian and the other 29 were Canadian, Ukrainian, Afghan, and Swedish. The association represents 140 of the victims. Through this association, we learned more about the lives of the victims as the association stated that it has been established to keep the memories of the passengers alive and seek justice.
Among the passengers, there were 15 children, one infant, and one pregnant woman. Many university students and professors were on board too. You can read some of their stories on the association's website or social media.
Hamed Esmaeilion, the spokesman of the association, has one of the most tragic stories. He lost his wife, Parisa Eghbalian, and 9-year-old daughter, Reera, in this incident.
The association has been active in every anti-regime movement since its establishment. In the uprising of Mahsa Amini's murder, Esmaeilion organized global rallies in more than 150 cities all over the world. Someone described that day as Iranian New Year's Eve, not because it was a merry occasion, but because Iranians around the globe came together, united, and rallied, like a wave, from the most eastern side of the earth to the most western side, like how clock strikes 12 in every country from east to west for waiting crowds. Esmaeilion, later on, organized another big rally in Berlin, where the Berlin victory column is located. The first picture is of the said rally.
The 2019 protests and massacre happened 3 years ago these days. There's going to be protests all over Iran on November 15, 16, and 17 (24, 25, and 26 of Aban). Outside of Iran in an act of solidarity, the association has called for another global demonstration on November 19 (28 of Aban). More informations about time and location in different countries are posted on the association social media. In case you're interested to participate and meet some Iranians, everyone's welcome to join.
