Word: khomeini
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...only force restraining that revolt seems to be its leader, the mild and benevolent Ayatullah Kazem Sharietmadari, 81, once the mentor of Khomeini and widely regarded as his spiritual equal, if not superior...
...said of the Azerbaijanis, the rugged mountain people who flourish in the northwestern tip of Iran, that they are like a camel-hard to rouse and get up onto their feet, but once up, hard to stop. So it is that their opposition to the Ayatullah Khomeini began as a protest, turned into a demonstration, then a revolt, and now a challenge to the theocratic regime that Khomeini has just imposed on the nation...
...dominate the bazaars of Tehran. They dominate the army, providing about two-thirds of its officers. They provide many of the nation's intellectuals, writers and teachers. That is why the revolt of Azerbaijan is not just a provincial squabble but a potential threat to the survival of Khomeini's regime...
Sharietmadari abhors violence and avoids confrontations, and he uttered only a soft-spoken complaint two weeks ago against the constitution that grants all power to Khomeini, but that was enough to inspire a threatening Khomeini mob to surround his house and kill one of his guards. So the battle began, and within a short time Khomeini's officials had been driven from Tabriz. Khomeini has been uncertain how to fight back. At first, he tried words. In a rhetorical broadside, he castigated the rebels as "mere heathens, foreign-led agents whose dossiers are in our hands." He tried...
When that failed to quell the uprising, Khomeini tried force. The government sent a planeload of revolutionary guards to reassert Tehran's authority in Tabriz. Their first goal was to oust the rebels from the local radio and TV station, where a large portrait of Sharietmadari flapped from the antenna. Backed by crowds shouting pro-Khomeini slogans, the guards chased the rebels out of the bungalow-style building. The Sharietmadari supporters then tried to seize the station again, but the guards drove them off with automatic weapons, killing three and wounding more than...