Maryam Rajavi Speech in Berlin: Iran Uprising & Path to Freedom

Maryam Rajavi: Iran’s Uprising, the Countdown to Overthrow Has Begun

Compatriots,
Rebellious comrades, and all those rising up across our homeland,
We have gathered to mark the anniversary of the anti-monarchical revolution against the Shah’s dictatorship. But let us begin with the January uprising.
An uprising that turned crimson, but with the blood of a galaxy of martyrs and thousands of devoted souls and with the fury of a heroic nation, it shook Iran and the world.
We applaud in memory of the brave martyrs of the uprising.
Today, no one in the world doubts the certainty of the clerical regime’s overthrow. For years and years, we said: overthrow, overthrow. And now, everyone sees it is approaching with their own eyes and hears its footsteps.
The courage of Iran’s rebels shone and became global. And the spell of appeasement toward the IRGC in Europe has been shattered.
Now is the time to recognize the 44-year resistance of the Iranian people to overthrow the regime.
Yes, it is time to recognize the struggle of the Resistance Units and the National Liberation Army of Iran, which stands at the threshold of its 40th anniversary.

The Countdown to the Clerical Regime’s Overthrow Has Begun

And you, bereaved mothers and fathers, who, instead of mourning and grief, call for the continuation of the uprising with raised hands and beating feet. You forge victory out of the depth of sorrow. Like Aziz, the mother of the martyred Rezaei brothers and sisters, who, after her children were executed by both the Shah and by Khomeini, said: The struggle continues.
Yes, yes, the struggle continues, and that valiant nation, with its pioneering rebels, will rise anew. They will return more numerous and more organized, to reduce the clerical regime to dust and ashes.
Ashraf Rajavi, whose martyrdom anniversary is tomorrow, February 8, once said: The world was not made aware of what befell the Iranian people.
She was speaking of the torture, the massacres, and the oppression by the religious dictatorship, of the days when pregnant PMOI women were mercilessly executed by firing squads.
Ah, if Ashraf were here today and could see what our people have endured over these 44 years. Especially how 14- and 15-year-old girls continue to be gunned down in the streets.
And Moussa Khiabani who roared: “We have the right to be hopeful, and we will not be afraid of dangers and hardships. So be certain: the future belongs to you. The decaying forces will be swept from the stage of history.”
Indeed, after the January uprising, the countdown to downfall has begun, and the moment has arrived to cast aside the decaying and tyrannical forces from the path of Iran’s history.
Yes! Yes, this is the countdown to the overthrow of the clerical regime.

The Uprising of the People of Iran Cannot Be Hijacked

Compatriots,
The January uprising, overall, had three sides: On one side stood the rebels, those who held the battlefield and sacrificed their lives for freedom. On the opposing side stood the ruling clerics, spilling blood without restraint.
And on the third side stood the remnants of the Shah and his son, who sought to hijack the fruits of this sacrifice, with the ultra-reactionary slogan “Long Live the Shah,” which only gave the clerical regime freer hand to massacre the protesters. A slogan that became a symbol of division, serving Khamenei, empowering the suppressive forces, and obstructing the path of uprising.
However, we are now in the third decade of the 21st century. And, in the words of Massoud (Rajavi): “Anyone who imagines they can hijack Iran’s new democratic revolution, just as the Constitutional and the anti-monarchical revolutions were usurped and drowned in blood, they are gravely mistaken.”
We are speaking about a resistance that has fought unceasingly for 60 years against two dictatorships, the Shah and the mullahs, with more than a hundred thousand blood stained stars, radiant and night piercing, guiding the way.
Now everyone can clearly see the momentum and breakthroughs of the Resistance Units and their spread among the youth of the nation—and the enemy acknowledges it in a hundred different ways. In the January uprising, all witnessed how the culture of struggle and revolution advanced through Iran’s alleys, streets, and cities, forging the force of overthrow.
Salutations to the architect of this path and tradition!
Salutations to Massoud Rajavi, who, standing face-to-face with the inhuman clerical regime, founded the National Liberation Army, formed a democratic alternative, and opened the path of Iran’s democratic revolution toward freedom and victory.

A Democratic Republic Following the Path of Mossadegh

They ask: Is it even possible to overthrow this tyranny, which is armed to the teeth?
The January uprising answers: Yes. And with its lightning assault, it showed the way, the path of the Uprising Army, the great army of the Iranian people’s freedom.
They ask: After the regime’s overthrow, how can one prevent chaos?
We say: this regime itself is the source of insecurity and chaos. And a people who overthrow it, relying on a democratic alternative and the unity of all forces within the people’s front, can also prevent disorder and instability.
The future Iran will be a democratic republic, following the path of Mohammad Mossadegh, with the separation of religion and state, the autonomy of nationalities, and a non-nuclear Iran at peace with the entire world.

An Alternative with the Guiding Light of “No to Shah, No to the Mullahs”

They ask: Is there an alternative? Yes, there is. One must only open their eyes to see it. For 44 years, it has endured through fire and blood with the guiding light of ‘No to the Shah, no to the mullahs.’ This guiding light means rejecting dictatorship and dependency, and affirming freedom and independence.
According to the program of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the constitution of future Iran will be drafted by a Constituent Assembly, elected no later than six months after the regime’s overthrow.
The spirit and constant refrain of what our people demand is: freedom, freedom, and freedom. It is the active and equal participation of women in leadership, and justice for all; the equal participation of all, especially Iran’s ethnic nationalities, in rights and governance, including Kurds, Baluchi, Turkmens, and Arabs.

The National Solidarity Front

The message of the Iranian people and their Resistance has been and remains this: No appeasement and no war. Regime change and sovereignty of the republic of the people, by the people and their organized Resistance.
Since 2002, the NCRI has called through a formal resolution, for a National Solidarity Front to overthrow religious dictatorship. A front composed of republicans who support the separation of religion and state and who reject the regime of velayat-e faqih in its entirety.
That is, despite all political and ideological differences within the people’s front, we have long believed that we can, and must, come together in a national solidarity front in the name of Iran, under the flag of Iran, and for the highest interests of the Iranian people.

A Call to World Leaders

From here, I call on the leaders of the world to listen to the cry for freedom of the Iranian people, demands that we have repeated many times for over three decades:
1. Recognizing the Iranian people’s struggle to overthrow the regime, and of the battle of youth and Resistance Units against Khamenei’s henchmen and suppressive forces.
2. Taking immediate action by the UN Security Council to stop the execution of the uprising detainees and of political prisoners, and support for the nationwide campaign ’No to executions.’
3. Providing facilities that enable the Iranian people access to free and open internet.
4. Referring Khamenei and other regime leaders to the UN Security Council for prosecution in an international tribunal on charges of crimes against humanity and genocide and simultaneously initiating legal proceedings in national courts under the principle of universal jurisdiction.
5. Closing the regime’s embassies and expelling its diplomats and agents of the IRGC and the Intelligence Ministry.
6. Completely cutting off the financial lifelines of the clerical regime.
Today, we have gathered on the anniversary of a revolution that was stolen in 1979.
In those suffocating nights of the Shah and SAVAK’s oppression, the leaders and forerunners of that revolution, the Fedayeen and the PMOI/MEK, paved the way for overthrow of the Shah’s dictatorship and propelled Iranian society toward uprising and revolution; from Father Taleghani to Mohammad Hanifnejad, Saeed Mohsen, and Ali-Asghar Badizadegan; from Bijan Jazani and Massoud Ahmadzadeh to Amir Parviz Pouyan, Shokrollah Paknejad, and the architects of the Siahkal epic.
Endless salutations to those heroes and martyrs who, in the 1980s, in the 1988 massacre, and in successive uprisings under the clerical regime, kept alive the fire of resistance of a captive nation.
My compatriots,
The anti-monarchical revolution proved that a rising nation could overcome the mightiest machinery of repression and slaughter. And today, at a higher stage, Iran’s democratic revolution surges forward. A revolution a hundred times deeper and stronger, more alert and more aware, and one that will undoubtedly triumph.
Be certain that this revolution will prevail.
Salute to the uprising of Iran.
Salute to the martyrs.
Victory to the democratic revolution of the people of Iran.