When the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (the MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ Cult of Rajavi) was first relocated in Albanian territory in 2013, public opinion was instigated about the group. Rajavi’s cult was perhaps the first organization that had entered the country as a refugee, and was able to take up a place for the deployment of its members, from the very beginning. They had some special issues unrelated to normal refugees such as restrictions on cross-party visits to the city, restrictions on contacts with people outside their camps, uniformed clothing, the absence of any children among 2,000 men and women and etc…
By passing time, a number of members of the group left the group. The number of defectors has mounted to over 500 to this date. The disclosures on the human rights abuses inside the MEK that were made by former members and the fact that the group was listed as a terrorist organization by the European Union and the US Department of State, were was the reasons of the Albanian people’s cautiousness towards the Cult of Rajavi.
Besides, Americans’ support for the relocation of MEK members and the pressure on the Albanian government to receive members of the group, ultimately raised questions for the people of the country. Questions that were drawn to reports in Albanian newspapers and Internet websites, such as why these people were expelled from Iraq? Why does America act as a supporter of this group to resettle them? And if this group claims to fight against the Iranian regime, why they will not continue this fight in their country or around the Iranian borders?
The clashes of members of the MEK with defectors in the streets and daily news of the death of members of the group in the so-called Camp Ashraf three, increased the sense of danger regarding the group’s presence for the people Albania.
With the rise in the demands and questions by the people, which pushed the Albanian government to respond especially to the media, the group’s leaders began to take actions to reduce the concerns. These actions began with news and articles published in some Albanian media. Also, the group’s plans for communicating with Albanian people included the invitation of journalists and groups to have limited and controlled visit of their camp, free medical services to neighbors of the camp in Manez and providing a small financial assistance for certain people. This, of-course added other questions to the previous questions: What such refugee groups have such facilities or why and how do they provide such services?!
Under the orders of the leaders of the MEK, there were other activities to reduce the complication of the agenda, including the teaching of Albanian language to some members of the group in order to connect with people in the society as a direct advertising space to show off the group as an innocent entity to Albanian people.
However, with all the efforts of the MEK –which was like an operation for the group in Albania– a sense of distrust and danger was left for the people of this country about the presence of this formerly designated terrorist group with a dark background of terrorist acts and cult-like violence cult. They began to express concern at the stage of political demands to the Albanian government. In fact, today, the request for the expulsion of the members of the Cult of Rajavi from the country, along with demands such as political, economic and social problems of the people, are demanded from the government and the parliament of Albania.
In another words, the same fate that a decade after the collapse of Saddam Hussein happened to the MEK in Iraq, is waiting the group in Albania. The experience has shown that the awareness of people and then their demands to expel this intruder from their soil, as it happened in Iraq, will leave no other way for the Albanian government than the expulsion of the MEK
But this time, if the leaders of the organization are forced to relocate, it can be said with certainty that they will sign the decree of the complete collapse of their organization, because the experience of the other members will not allow them to once again decipher, deceive and resort to another grouping. This time we have to wait for the defection of the majority of the rank and file of the group in Albania, which means the loss of about two thousand forces of the cult of Rajavi.
Nejat Bloggers