Alirza Quluncu - Rooz - September 6, 2010
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| Entrance of Tabriz University |
Two days after the attack by plainclothes agents on the University of Tehran dormitories on July 9, 1999, students at Tabriz University organized a protest rally in support of the injured students from Tehran University. However, this rally faced a violent response from plainclothes agents and Basij forces in East Azerbaijan Province. On the evening of July 20, these forces stormed Tabriz University and its female dormitory, severely beating the students and injuring dozens. Eyewitnesses reported that this assault also resulted in fatalities, but no information has been released about their identities. In this context, we spoke with Nader Zamen, a former medical student at Tabriz University and one of the injured from that incident. Nader Zamen, who recently left the country, said: “The Basij forces pulled injured students off their hospital beds and arrested them.”
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Nader Zamen, a former student activist |
This interview follows.
How did the incident on July 20, 1999, at Tabriz University unfold, and who were the attacking forces?
On the night of July 19, the Islamic Association of Tabriz University invited students via the dormitory page to gather on July 20 in front of the university president's office to show solidarity with the injured students from Tehran University. I, too, upset by the repression of my peers, participated in this gathering. During the gathering, some students, disregarding the slogans being chanted from the Islamic Association’s podium, started shouting radical slogans and then attempted to exit through the western gate, which was met with resistance from the police. They then returned inside the university and rallied others to accompany them toward the main entrance. After breaking down the main gate, they flooded onto Boulevards 29 Bahman. Following the breaking of the main gate and the gathering of students in front of the university, students and security forces outside the university began throwing stones at each other. However, gradually, the police and riot forces left the area and were replaced by plainclothes agents, thus trapping the university entirely under the control of plainclothes forces. After a few hours, the plainclothes agents began firing shots into the air, which eventually escalated into direct shooting. Around six-thirty, I fell to the ground after being shot in the leg by a Kalashnikov round from the Basij forces, who had received orders to attack. After entering the university, the Basij forces beat the students and arrested many of them. They then went to Imam Khomeini Hospital, where numerous injured students were admitted, pulled the wounded students out of the operating room, and arrested them. I, having been injured, managed to escape from the university with the help of my friends and, after surgery at Shahid Hospital, returned to my hometown, Maragheh, after two days. Thirteen days after this incident, agents from the Tabriz Intelligence Office came to my father’s house with an arrest warrant and took me away, despite my leg being in a cast. I was detained for 63 days at the Tabriz Intelligence Office and then transferred to Tabriz Prison. After some time in various branches of the Tabriz Revolutionary Court and the East Azerbaijan appeals court, I was tried on charges of disturbing public order and security and for the alleged murder of the Basij provincial commander's brother, as well as for armed rebellion. After being acquitted of most charges, I was sentenced to one year in Tabriz Prison for disturbing public security.
You mentioned the charge of murder concerning the brother of the Basij provincial commander and the charge of armed rebellion. What was the basis for these charges, and how were they attributed to you?
As I said, I was shot in the leg by direct fire from the Basij on July 20 inside the university grounds. Apparently, the Basij member who shot me claimed in his report that he had seen a pistol in my hand before shooting me. This allegation was confirmed by three other assailants who attacked Tabriz University, and based on that, the Tabriz Intelligence Office accused me of possessing a weapon during the interrogation. The initial and appeal courts in East Azerbaijan acquitted me of possessing a weapon, but General Mohammad Hossein Farhangi, who was then the Basij provincial commander and is now a member of parliament from Tabriz, influenced the case and had the ruling overturned in the Supreme Court. He then opened new cases against me for the murder of his brother and for armed rebellion in the Tabriz Revolutionary Court. Ultimately, after three years regarding the armed rebellion charge, I was acquitted. The filing of these charges came at a time when, according to the Intelligence Office report, this General's brother was accidentally killed during the attack on the university by a bullet fired from another Basij member's weapon. However, these accusations kept me in a nightmare of potential execution for five years. General Farhangi knew I did not kill his brother but raised the claim of my possessing a pistol to justify the order to shoot at students. Furthermore, by asserting the issue of the intentional murder of his brother and portraying him as a martyr, he aimed to pave his way for advancement in the regime and gain favorable opinions from the hardliners to enter the parliament.
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| Student Protest Gathering at Tabriz University |
You mentioned that students left the university. What was the public's reaction? Did others outside the university join the protests?
At two o'clock in the afternoon on July 20, we learned that the people of Tabriz were gathering in Chay Kenar (Chay Qiraghi) near the university to support the students and clashing with the Basij and security forces. I later found out that these clashes spread to the Tabriz Bazaar. I also saw many young people from Tabriz in the hospital who had broken bones from batons and many others who were shot.
Do you have any approximate statistics on the injured or detained during these events or their names?
As far as I know, among the students of Tabriz University, I, Kaveh Javidnia, Ayoub Salimi, and several others were injured by direct gunfire from the Kalashnikovs of the Basij forces. At least 40 students, including myself, Ali Mehri, Ali Biks, Khalil Alizadeh, Ali Sadeghi, Kaveh Javidnia, and Barhanou Hiva, and one student associated with the Omid Zanjan newspaper, were arrested, most of whom were released with suspended sentences. However, Ali Mehri, Ali Biks, and I, along with Iraj Taqizadeh, Younes Mashbuli, and Hasan Azarpour, from the Azerbaijani citizens, received prison sentences ranging from one to seven years. Additionally, the Basij threw one female student from the top floor of the female dormitory, and she lost her life. In total, many events of July 20 remain shrouded in ambiguity; there has never been accurate statistics published on the wounded in the university or in Tabriz city, the number of those detained, or even the number of fatalities.
What was the reason that the details and even the outlines of these events were never publicized as they should have been?
As an eyewitness to the incident, I can confidently say that the events of July 20 were, in terms of the scope of the movement and the injury to the students and people of Azerbaijan, if not greater, at least as significant as the events of July 9 in Tehran. However, due to various reasons, one being the prevailing negative perception toward issues concerning Azerbaijan, this bloody repression received little media coverage. Despite my one year of imprisonment and the constant fear of a death sentence that loomed over me due to the false accusations of armed rebellion or murder of the Basij commander's brother, none of the reformist newspapers supported me. Moreover, the lack of active and independent Azerbaijani media and newspapers during that highly security-oriented and repressive period led to an even stronger news blackout.
What differences were there between the events of July 20 at Tabriz University and those of July 9 in Tehran?
The number of individuals shot at Tabriz University and outside the university was significantly higher than at Tehran University. Moreover, the events of July 9 in Tehran received considerable attention in media, intellectual circles, and human rights forums both domestically and abroad. Regardless of the trial's outcome, at least the instigators of the Tehran university incident were held accountable. However, in the events of July 20 in Tabriz, the main perpetrators and those who ordered the direct shooting at students were never held accountable, and the dimensions of human rights violations against students and the people of Tabriz were never articulated or examined.
Some consider the protests of July 20, 1999, at Tabriz University as the last instance of collaboration among Azerbaijani students with student movements in Tehran. What is your opinion? Did the handling of these events play a role in this disengagement?
I believe there isn't a complete lack of collaboration, but in some way, the media's treatment, the capital's intellectuals, and the Persian-language news networks contributed to a sense of disillusionment among the people of Azerbaijan and students. This is because the struggles of Azerbaijanis for democracy and freedom are overlooked, resulting in these movements becoming less vibrant. After my release from prison and return to the university, I personally felt this atmosphere and did not witness a movement as widespread as that of 1999 at Tabriz University until 2007.
Does your statement imply that Azerbaijani students fell silent after that date and were inactive in universities?
No, I believe that some Azerbaijani students changed their course of activism after that date and chose a separate channel to achieve their goals, which are democracy and freedom. For example, students within the Islamic Association of Tabriz University established a group called the Identity-advocate Students.
Link to the original article in Farsi: https://rooz.hilnu.com/persian/news/newsitem/article/-a26f75c8f8/
Related:
Protests of July , 1999, at Tabriz University: Suppression and Oblivion