Despite the propaganda of the mullahs' regime, foreign reporters put the number of participants in Tehran's march at 100,000, i.e. 0.7% of the capital's population. This is while the regime had tried as an annual routine, to forcibly bring all the military personnel, students, factory workers, government employees and the students of seminary schools to this ceremony. It also distributed free food to attract the poor to the event.
The Iranian people's refusal to participate in today's ridiculous show under the mullahs demonstrates that the regime does not enjoy any legitimacy or social base. Any investment in this regime is therefore doomed to fail and any assistance to it runs counter to the will of the people of Iran.
The ceremony was held under circumstances of absolute repression under the extensive presence of revolutionary guards and Bassij forces. Urban maneuvers by Bassij was part of the government's ten-day celebrations of the anniversary in Tehran and other cities. Fearing the activities of the Mojahedin and the popular forces of the Resistance, the mullahs' religious, terrorist dictatorship has adopted special suppressive measures.
In a message on the anniversary of the anti-monarchic revolution this morning, the leader of the Iranian Resistance, Mr. Massoud Rajavi, declared: Khomeini's heirs are entering the final phase of their bloody religious theocracy's life.
Mr. Rajavi stressed: The absolute majority of the Iranian people support the Resistance's President-elect, who heads the only viable alternative to the regime. This was proven in the nationwide social movements and in the largest gathering of Iranians abroad, and tolled the bells for the beginning of a new phase in the Resistance.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran - Paris
February 10, 1997
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