When in 1986 Massoud Rajavi ,leader of Mujahedin Khalq Organization went to Iraq with a lot of fanfare and hype, his flight from France to Iraq was called as heroic and was considered as a great victory for their so-called struggle against the Islamic Republic.
The propaganda system of the organization failed to note that Rajavi actually fled to Iraq since the French government had ordered him to leave France due to the request made by Islamic Republic.
However, the move was titled as strategic because Iran was in war with Iraq at that time so the leaders of MKO had to spend a lot of time presenting reasoning for their supporters who were shocked by the organization sheltering before the enemy that had invaded their nation.
It was too difficult to justifythe treason MKO committed against its compatriots during the eight years of war between Iran and Iraq. When MKO succeeded to launch some operations against Islamic Republic buildings and authorities (in which a lot of innocent civilians were also killed) some other supporters could diminish their doubts and leave their homes in different parts of the world to join the group.
There were also a lot of other unfortunate recruits who were recruited by deceitful methods of MKO after they could not get refugee status in other countries and joined MKO as the last resort.
In 1986 when Islamic Republic accepted the UN ceasefire resolution 598 which consequently meant that Iraq could no longer be used as a place to launch operations , MKO started declining. The process lasted until the fall of Saddam Hussein. It was the worst incident that could happen to MKO since it was very clear that the ones who would achieve power in Iraq are those who opposed Saddam Hussein and his Baath Party and also his accomplice, Mujahedin Khalq who cooperated with him in the suppressive operations against Kurds and Shiites of Iraq. Thus, the situation got the worst.
MKO leaving Iraq means accepting a huge strategic mistake that the ideological leader made 30 years ago. And that’s what Massoud Rajavi has done in his latest message on the occasion of Aban 13th( the anniversary of the US embassy takeover in Tehran in 1979) he declared that MKO is ready to leave Iraq and of course he asked for 200 million dollars as blackmail.
As Camp Ashraf is the symbol of MKO’s existence and so –called ideology, losing Ashraf equals the loss of everything for the leaders. The members have always been told to defend Ashraf in any circumstances. They were ordered to lay down in front of vehicles driven by Iraqi Police when they raided Camp Ashraf on July 28th. They were told to sacrifice themselves to keep the Camp.
Now Rajavi’s new message has left the members in a new contradiction. Since to MKO members Rajavi is an infallible saint leader who never makes mistake; they are not allowed to think of the possibility of his fault.
The leader of the cult never cares about what will happen to Ashraf residents, who have to pay the price of their leaders’ ambitions. Once their opportunist leader sheltered near the notorious Saddam Hussein, they were convinced to go to Iraq too as a heroic, strategic move. Today, designated as a terrorist organization it is hard to make third government accept them!
By Mazda Parsi