++ To mark ‘Tree Planting Day’ in Albania, ASILA Association coordinated an activity in which several former MEK members got together with local people to plant trees. The event was warmly welcomed by the people.
++ Albanians have reacted to news that the US State Department Country Reports on Terrorism 2020: Albania, goes full out in support for the MEK “opposition group” against “Iran’s state-sponsored activity directed primarily” against the MEK, and that “On July 23 a suspected agent sponsored by Iranian authorities was declared ‘unwanted’ by the Government of Albania and subsequently expelled from the country”. Commentary points out that although in Albania, where members of the political class, judiciary, security services and media are openly for sale, this type of unfounded bias is to be expected, coming from the US the assessment has either been pushed by Israel or paid for by Saudi Arabia.
US Assessment Paid or Pushed
US Dept of State in its latest report on Albania defends the Iranian terrorist cult Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, an ex-terrorist cult which is involved in terrorism, drug and human trafficking, abductions. How can the @USStateDepartm1 expect to be taken seriously?https://t.co/KXfaL3sbdH
— Olsi Jazexhi (@OlsiJ) December 17, 2021
If the above declaration is true it means that @USEmbassyTirana is directly supporting Narges Abrishamchi & Hassan Nayeb-Agha who were caught by Albanian police trafficking drugs to Italy! @GiulioTerzi does #FreeIran mafia works with you in these smuggling operations?
— Olsi Jazexhi (@OlsiJ) December 8, 2021
++ Albanian journalist Gjergji Thanasi wrote about a romance between two former MEK members who recently married in Tirana. Thanasi says that love is a great antidote to the effects of cult membership. He likens the couple to Romeo and Juliet with Maryam Rajavi as the wicked enemy of love. But this time there is a happy ending. Thanasi reports that the Albanian police – immigration directorate – will be issuing ID cards to Iranian former MEK members who live in Albania in December. The ASILA Association, which protects the interests of these Iranians, has undertaken to help the couple with their rights.
In English:
++ Nejat Society reports that a book by Hanif Azizi, one of the evacuated children from Iraq, has been well received by Swedish readers. The book is reviewed on Good Reads where several people comment on it as ‘important’, ‘both tragic and inspiring’. Azizi was taken to Sweden as a child and was fortunate to have been placed with a non-Iranian, non-MEK foster family. This allowed him to develop as a normal citizen – although at one point in his youth he meets his mother in Iraq and is almost persuaded to join MEK. After returning to Sweden, he finds his direction and becomes a police officer. His book describes these experiences, which for the readers who review the book, is an ‘amazing story’.
++ Nejat Society comments on the MEK response to recent revelations by some of the evacuated children from Iraq, some of whom became child soldiers, and who, as adults, are beginning to speak out about their experiences. MEK typically denies their testimonies and says it is Iranian propaganda. However, in a Club House room with the topic ‘Accounts by former child soldiers of the MEK’, several of these former child soldiers met and revealed and confirmed accounts of abuse and mistreatment at the hands of MEK, including sexual abuse.
Dec 17, 2021