Word: coupes
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...gigantic man hunt for fugitives accused of involvement in a military plot to overthrow the regime of Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini. The vengeance even spread abroad as a hit squad in Paris tried to assassinate former Prime Minister Shapour Bakhtiar, the man many Iranians believed had masterminded the July 9 coup attempt...
After frustrating the coup attempt, officials hastily formed a Headquarters for Coordinating the Neutralization of the Conspiracy and launched a nationwide man hunt. The government's actions were accompanied by popular frenzy. Mobs jammed the streets to denounce the conspiracy and mourn their latest martyr: Sergeant Mohammed Esmail Ghorbani, killed by one of the accused plotters, whom he was seeking to arrest...
Even before his narrow escape from assassination, Bakhtiar vigorously denied charges that he had masterminded the aborted coup. He nonetheless professed full sympathy for its aims. "It is the natural right of a people, when they are deprived of freedom, of human rights, to rebel," he said. "It was an insurrection. It was not a plot. It is Khomeini himself who is pushing people to revolt." Bakhtiar, who has been an active leader of the anti-Khomeini forces among Iranian exiles in Europe, had no choice but to deny involvement. To do otherwise might jeopardize the political asylum that...
...aborted coup further intensified the factional rivalry that still threatens to destroy the Khomeini government from within. Banisadr's clerical opponents seized the chance to press demands for a ruthless purge of the armed forces-a convenient means of gaining control over the military at the expense of the President, who is commander in chief of the armed forces. Denouncing what he called the mullahs' "opportunistic gestures," Banisadr pointed out that loyal military personnel had discovered the conspiracy in their own midst and had played the most important role in thwarting...
...armed forces-considered the best in the Arab world-to cope with the complex U.S. weaponry that will replace the country's aging Soviet guns and tanks. Some U.S. diplomats worry about how the alliance would hold up if Sadat were to be toppled in a coup, or to die without a clearly defined successor...