Members of the MEK in Albania

The Rajavi Cult, known in Albania as the ‘Iranians of Manzës’, has recently been experiencing a series of troubles. There are clear signs that the absurd privileges that were accorded to the cult by collaborationist sections of Albanian politics and the administration are coming to an end. The cult until yesterday, apparently abusing the support of a couple of foreign embassies in Tirana, claimed and often succeeded in having similar privileges to the Europeans in the Ottoman Empire in accordance with the Capitulations signed by the Sultan.

The cult commanders treated the Albanian police, at least to the rank of chief commissioner, with arrogance and disregard. Typical in this respect is the arrogance and aggression which was revealed in August 2018 with the poor police officers of Commissariat no. 4 in Tirana (the incident with Mr Mohammadi, Somayeh’s father). Rajavi, but also other commanders, used the VIP Hall at the Mother Teresa Airport (and the privileges granted to this hall), as if they were high-ranking personalities, when in fact in Albania they are simply people given refuge for humanitarian reasons and so! Ignoring local government and every entity of the Albanian central government was something constant in the cult’s behaviour in Albania. Albanian VIPs (mayors, MPs, former ministers and even some ministers), when invited to the cult events in Camp Ashraf 3 (Manzës), often underwent degrading treatment due to “anti-terror measures” (body search and control with metal detectors, getting out of the car and being obliged to walk 200 or so meters in peak heat, etc.).

Typical was the cult’s behaviour in the period of Lockdown when the cult’s cars freely roamed Albania and no police or army checkpoints stopped them!

Thankfully ‘the good old days’ are coming to an end. Albanian institutions and politics are pulling some ‘feathers’ from the tail of Rajavi & Co. and I am offering some examples. At the last hearing of my trial against defendant Behzad Safari, the competent judge rejected three absurd key requests by the defendant’s lawyer. Such a thing had not happened with either of the two judges who had previously had this court file. Public utilities for the supply of water, electricity, etc. are less and less making absurd concessions to the Cult in terms of payment, in terms of the deadline for electricity, water, etc. bills. The people of Manzës are no longer under pressure from the Rilindjes government to sell their lands to the Rajavi cult. Of necessity, MEK is not buying, but renting land and buildings near the camp, due to security measures to ‘protect’ itself from Tehran terrorists. Albanian police officers are less and less ready to stand ready for every whim of Rajavi. Tales of Iranian spies and terrorists are no longer swallowed as easily as a year ago, when the Director General of the State Police himself read the official press release, replete with “Iranian agents”, written and translated into Albanian in Camp Ashraf 3. The leader of the Rajavi Cult has lost a lot of credit since she returned from Rinas Airport with her tail between her legs because the border police of an EU country had turned her back, ignoring her identification document (Titre de Voyage).

In the ranks of the cult, the disbanding is evident, so much so that the perimeter fence of the camp in Manzës, rather than a protective measure to prevent the spies of the mullahs from entering the camp serves to keep the members of the Cult inside, who increasingly, instead of revolution ala Rajavi, prefer to lead a normal life in Albania, or for older people, to return to Iran to be with their sons and daughters, with their grandchildren.

While walking in Tirana recently I saw an old man about 70 years old, who looked like a familiar face. Age had taken its toll and I hardly recognized him, that he was a veteran member of the cult (over 40 years). He was exactly the person named “Cascavel Man”, because in the propaganda photos and videos of MEK he posed proudly on top of a “Cascavel”. This poor old man had already left Camp Ashraf 3 and abandoned the high ideal of “regime change” to spend his remaining days in peace and tranquillity in Tirana. I do not know if he lives on money that his relatives send from outside Albania, or if he lives on the handouts of about 300 USD per month by Rajavi, but I am sure that dark days await the Rajavi Cult when it is abandoned by people such.

Who is “Cascavel Man”?!

The poor old man was the commander of a wheeled tank called the Cascavel. Like thousands of other of Saddam Hussein’s mercenary MEKs, he attacked his homeland Iran in the last days of the Iran-Iraq war (Operation Mersad). Luckily, unlike thousands of other MEKs, he escaped alive from Iran and returned to Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. In 1991, as a mercenary and Saddam’s hunting dog, he flattened dozens of homes, shops, schools and medical centres of the anti-Saddam Kurdish rebels with 90 mm Cascavel artillery after President Bush’s appeal. Dozens of Kurds are believed to have been killed by his Cascavel. Of course, most of them were women and children, old men and women.

As a mercenary of the dictator Saddam, it is believed that dozens of Iraqis in the swamps around Basra called “Shroog” were crushed by the Cascavel’s wheels or killed by 50 calibre machine gun bullets by this miserable MEK member. In short, when such a man with blood-stained hands up to the elbow leaves the Rajavi Cult, one can easily guess what the real situation is like in the camp, among other MEKs. When such a veteran shakes the Rajavi Cult, what about the others?!?!?! I am leaving the price for the reader to appreciate, whether it is a danger for Albania, that such a veteran walks the streets of Tirana, or not!

Why the Cult is dying in Albania

What is happening with the Rajavi Cult in Albania, is more or less what happens to any ordinary swindler when gradually their lies and deceptions start to fade. Some examples: Speculating in the presence in the Cult rallies and meetings of some dozen VIPs and former VIPs of American politics, judiciary and administration, Maryam Rajavi, the head of the Cult began to make false promises to Albanian politicians. By the way, a mayor promised to remove her name from the State Department list of persons who are not granted an entry visa to America. In fact, not only did he not remove her name from the “List of Voices”, but thanks to the lobbying of Lali Fik of Tirana, the measure was applied to the poor mayor: “Name and Shame”, ie: Fik put the mayor’s name out, making public the fact that his family was on this American blacklist! A former president of Albania was promised that the cult would lobby for his son and his girlfriend to be removed from the Black List of persons, who are banned from obtaining American visas. Result: From May 2019 until today, October 2020, the son of the former president has not yet received a US visa (SIC!). With extreme shamelessness Ilir Meta, the President of the Republic of Albania, promised the cult that he would lobby the offices of “Foggy Bottoms”, to neutralize the anti-president attitude of the “tenants” of the “Rilindja Ridge” Compound. Although the President of the country went to Camp Ashraf 3 as Emperor Barbarossa in Canossa, the embassy of Madame ‘Ambassador Kim’ still continues to be virulent against the President of the Republic. The thugs of the Rajavi Cult have started to harvest in Albania, what they sowed! I am very confident that this winter will be a winter of great solitude for the Rajavi Cult in Albania. Unfortunately, my homeland Albania will continue to function as a garbage can for MEK members, who are expelled (leave voluntarily) from EU countries such as France or Germany, where the cult offices have been emptied for many a day!

Exclusive for Ashraf News by Gjergji Thanasi – Translated by Iran Interlink