The headquarters of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO/ MEK/ PMOI/ Cult of Rajavi) is called Camp Ashraf 3. The thought-provoking point about the newly-built camp is that it is very similar to the group’s headquarters in Iraq, Camp Ashraf, which was located in Diyala Province, about 120 kilometers west of the Iranian border and 60 kilometers north of Baghdad. As the group’s new base in the heart of Europe, in north of Tirana, Camp Ashraf 3 is still under construction.
However, the headquarters of the MEK in Albania is much smaller than the notorious Camp Ashraf in Iraq, which covered an area of about 50 km from the Diyala deserts in Iraqi territory. But Camp Ashraf 3 is built precisely by copying the buildings and monuments of Camp Ashraf.
The organization’s instructions to build the new camp parallel to Camp Ashraf must be based on two reasons. Firstly, it connotes the same atmosphere to members of the group and may be able to stop the impressions of failure and frustration from expulsion from Iraq. Secondly, it may create this mental orientation for disappointed and dissident members –whose number is increasingly on the rise—- that nothing has changed and they should remain at service of the group and its cause. Actually, according to the leaders, members should not expect any change!
A member of Mujahedin-e Khalgh walks in a street at the Ashraf-3 camp. Photo:Gent shkullaku/AFP
According to members who managed to escape from the MEK’s camp in Albania, the buildings of the camp are apparently interior and exterior like what it was in Camp Ashraf, Iraq. The names of the streets, the number of the rooms and the way they use the rooms and buildings, exactly the same way they were used in Camp Ashraf, Iraq.
The shut down of Camp Ashraf and the eventual expulsion of the MEK from Iraq is considered to be the most disappointing blow in the history of the Cult of Rajavi, following the long years of promising to overthrow the government in Tehran. The closure of Camp Ashraf marks the failure of the Rajavis to meet their promises and more importantly annihilation of lives of thousands of their members.