Page 91 – Nejat Society

The story of Torabi family; torn apart by the MEK

The Torabis are from a village near Gaz port in Golestan province in North of Iran. Nadeali Torabi, the oldest brother is a farmer, living in their home town looking forward to see the two sisters left of his entire family. Their parents, both died before they could be able to visit their beloved children and grandchildren.
QorbanAli one of the Torabis was influenced by the communist ideas taking over the 1970s in Iran so he joined the Mujahedin Khalq Organization. After the Iranian revolution in 1979, his two sisters Masoomeh and Maryam and his bother Mohamad Reza joined the MEK too. Eventually the Torabi’s home became a center for ani-government activities in the armed struggle that Massoud Rajavi launched against the newly stablished Iranian government during the 1980s.

The fate of two generations of the Torabis was impacted by their involvement with the MEK. The followings are brief records of what happened to these guys:
Mohammad Reza Torabi 1 (Nadeali’s brother)
QorbanAli Torabi (Nadeali’s brother)
Zahra Seraj (QorbanAli’s wife)
Mohammad Reza Torabi 2 (Son of Qorban and Zahra)
Masoomeh Torabi (Nadeali’s sister)
Maryam Torabi (Nadeali’s sister)

Mohammad Reza Torabi 1
The clashes between the MEK forces and the Iranian government turned into violence after Massoud Rajavi ordered the bloody armed struggle against the Islamic Republic, in June 1981. The MEK launched numerous acts of violence against the Iranian civilians and authorities. Consequently, a large number of MEK members were arrested, imprisoned or sentenced to death. MohammadReza was executed in Evin Prison.

GhorbanAli Torabi Qorban was tortured to death by the MEK

QorbanAli Torabi
As a mujahed partisan, he was arrested by the Iranian security guards when he was crossing the Turkish border with his family. He was imprisoned for six years. In March, 1989 Qorban left Iran to join the MEK in Iraq together with his wife, son, his two sisters, his sister’s husband. They first moved to Pakistan and then they were smuggled to Iraq.
Two years later, Massoud Rajavi’s so-called ideological revolution required members of the group to divorce their spouses. Family life became forbidden at Camp Ashraf. His son, Mohammad Reza was separated from him and transferred to the West together with eight hundred other children of the MEK members. Qorban protested the new cult-like regulations of the group. This was the start of an oppressive process against him.
In the winter of 1994, the MEK leaders imprisoned a large number of their own members including Qorban, accusing them of working for the Iranian government. Qorban was tortured to death. Twenty-one of his peers in the cell witnessed his death after his awfully injured body was brought to the cell by the MEK torturers. Former members, Alireza Mirasgari and Mohammad Razaghi were two of those witnesses who later testified about the death of Qorban due to tortures in the MEK’s prison.

Zahra Seraj
After Rajavi’s so-called ideological revolution, Zahra was coerced to divorce her husband, Qorban. She submitted her son to the MEK’s smugglers to take him to Canada. In response, she was granted higher ranks in the hierarchy of the Cult of Rajavi.
When in 2004, Nadeali traveled to Iraq to see his brothers and sisters, he ran into Zahra in the hall that all families of MEK members were waiting to visit their loved ones. Nadeali asked Zahra about his brother Qorban’s fate. “For a few seconds she stared at me and then she started shouting insults at me,” Nadeali recounts. “She was severely brainwashed.”
Zahra Seraj is still in the MEK’s camp in, Albania. According to former members, Zahra was a kind, hardworking and responsible person who was brainwashed by the Cult of Massoud and Maryam Rajavi.

Mohammad Reza Torabi

Mohammad Reza Torabi 2
He was named MohammadReza after the name of his martyred uncle. He was only one year old when he was in Iranian prison with his mother. In 1989 his parents took him to Camp Ashraf, Iraq. He was there until he was nine years old. In 1991, he was smuggled to Europe and then to Canada to live in the MEK bases or with foster parents. He was then brought back to Iraq to join the MEK’s National Liberation Army (NLA) when he was 16.
Four years ago, He could manage to leave the MEK after 18 years. He has recently begun to reveal facts on his life experience as child soldier in the MEK. “It was a terrible life there,” he says about his childhood in the Cult of Rajavi. “I was in Ashraf until I was eight or nine. In Camp Ashraf or in the MEK’s bases in the West, I was sexually abused by the MEK sympathizers and members. I was then given to a family that was very bad. I was constantly beaten by them. I was mentally abused.”

Masoomeh Torabi
Masoomeh was pregnant when she crossed the Iranian border to Pakistan together with her family. She gave birth to her daughter, Anahita, in Pakistan. Then they joined the MEK in Camp Ashraf, Iraq.
She admitted Rajavi’s order to divorce her husband, Hamid. A year later, the MEK smugglers took her two-year-old daughter to Canada.
However, when his brother Nadeali went to camp Ashraf to visit the, she hugged him and cried. Asked about the death of Qorban, Masoomeh told Nadeali that he had died of a heart attack!
Masoomeh is still taken as a hostage in the MEK cult-like group. Former members say that when Masoomeh finally called her daughter Anahita after 20 years, she did not know her at all. No information was found about the current situation of Hamid and Anahita Emami, the husband and daughter of Masoomeh.

Maryam Banoo Torabi
The youngest sibling has spent the most part of her life in the MEK. In 1994, she was also accused of being an agent of the Iranian intelligence. She was interrogated and imprisoned. She was under too much pressure by the commanders. The death of her brother, Qorban was also a trauma that led her to psychotic disorders.
In that only one meeting with Nadeali in 2004, Maryam told him that she wanted to leave the group but she was scared. “My little sister, Maryam was crying saying that she did not want to stay there but she was forced to stay,” Nadeali says. “I asked her to come with me but she said that if the MEK agents realized that she wanted to escape, they would kill her.”
Maryam is still in the MEK’s camp in Albania, just the same as other radicalized female members of the group.

January 3, 2022 0 comments

The cult of Rajavi

Testimonies of the MEK’s Child Soldiers

Former child soldiers of the Mujahedin Khalq (MEK) spoke in Club House, on December 11th and 18th, 2021. Dozens of participants of the rooms were former members of the MEK including former militia forces of the MEK who are considered as child soldiers because they were recruited by the group commanders when they were teenagers. They gave testimonies on their experiences of working and receiving military trainings in the MEK’s bases.
A lot of speakers talked in the two five-hour-long club house rooms. Although former child soldiers knew that they would be again labeled as agents of the Iranian government or “mercenary” by the MEK propaganda, they revealed more facts on their life in the Cult of Rajavi. The followings were extracted from some of their testimonies:

Alireza Naghash
As the son of a Mujahed mother, he was taken to Iraq when he was 11 years old. In 1991 he was smuggled to Europe together with other children of the MEK. He was then transferred to Camp Ashraf again to join the MEK’s so-called National Liberation Army (NLA). He says:
“I went to the MEK when I was 11 and I left it when I was 30, in 2004. I started talking against the group as soon as I left camp Ashraf and entered the American Camp (TIPF). If you wanted to leave the MEK you had to admit any accusation. They would label you as a mercenary or as an immoral person. In my idea, those who were braver, soon accepted one or both of these accusations and left the group…
“If the MEK calls us mercenary, they should prove it. The MEK wanted us to stay in the group to get killed and then they would use our names as their martyrs… I am proud of myself even if the MEK calls me mercenary. I am happy that I could inform other people about the danger of the MEK.”

Ali Meyari
He was only thirteen years old when the MEK transferred him to Iraq to join the NLA in 1998. He says:
“Marzieh Aliahmadi told me, ‘You have no other way. Your parents were mujaheds and you have to become a mujahed too’. I was forced to take arms. They told me, a 13-year-old son, to write about the crimes of the regime on a paper! I have no photos of my teen years. There are only some pictures of me wearing military uniform and having a gun in my hands. The MEK wanted to delete us.
“Today, I am in Germany. The MEK has no base in the Iranian population here. If you tell the Iranians that you come from the MEK, they will beat you or insult you… I came to Germany four years ago and since then I tried to contact my mother [who is still in the MEK] but I was not allowed to talk to her…
“When I was in Camp Ashraf, one of the commanders touched my hip. This was repeated every night. When I reported to the superior ranks, they told me that it was my own fault…People in the MEK had sexual problems. Sexual relationships were forbidden. This is against the nature of human beings.
“The MEK seized my passport. When I wanted to leave the MEK in Albania they even took my necklace, they left me money less in the streets of Albania. In Germany, I had to prove that I am Iranian!”

Amir Pakbaz
As the son of Mujahed parents, Amir and his brothers spent their adolescence in the MEK’s cult-like structure. He was 17 when he was taken from Denmark to Belgium and Netherlands and finally to Iraq. He left the MEK in Albania in 2015. He recounts:
“I want to speak of the truth. I waisted 19 years of best part of my life to fight for the Iranian people but unfortunately, I was in a structure in which I did not fight for the freedom of Iranians even for one day. In the MEK the fight was between the lower ranks and the higher ranks.”

Parvin
She was a little girl when she was separated from her Mujahed parents and she was smuggled to Europe in 1991. She did not see her mother until 2015. She says:
“I am sad and moved by your stories. I went to Albania 6 years ago. I met my mom after 25 years, there [in the MEK’s camp]. I feel that my mom would leave the MEK if she was able to choose. She does not know anything about the outside world. She is scared to come out.”

Amin Golmaryami
He might be the most famous child soldier of the MEK due to the famous interview he had with the German newspaper Die Zeit. He recounted his story as a child soldier in the MEK and he was soon labeled as mercenary of the Iranian government by the MEK propaganda. Amin was a main speaker in the rooms. The followings are just a short part of his words:
“I never vote for the MEK in the future of Iran. This group will not bring democracy for Iranians. As a free man, I live in Germany. I recounted my life experience for the German journalist Hommerch and the MEK simply accused me of being a liar! No body can say that I me telling lie. I received military trainings in the MEK. My mother did gave me the arm! Every morning we had to declare that we are fighters of the National Liberation Army… In the MEK ‘family’ make no sense. My parents did not know anything about me in the MEK. Leadership of the group had the central role and nothing else was important.”

January 2, 2022 0 comments

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest

Iran Interlink Weekly Digest – 306

++ Saudi media outlet Iran International reported on a speech by Mohammad Eslami, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, to academics and scientists. Eslami advised that Iran’s nuclear programme is important for developing talented young people in this and other fields. He also stressed that Iran plans to build two more reactors with Russian help in order to reduce the use of fossil fuels. Iran International added that the original nuclear programme started in 1950 with US help, but in 2002 the MEK ‘exposed’ secret facilities, including Natanz, which led to the 2015 JCPOA agreement to curb all Iran’s nuclear activities. The piece framed this as an economic setback for Iran without mentioning that the US has imposed extreme punishing sanctions on the country. Interestingly, the Saudi outlet “Iran International” referred to the MEK as ‘the opposition’, in a way that suggests they want to use the MEK but not be seen to support them. On the other hand, Iran International also ran a piece on Mohammad Marandi, who is acting as an unofficial PR interpreter for the JCPOA talks in Vienna. The piece is an attempt to cast doubt on Marandi’s past and present motives and legitimacy as a member of the establishment. Farsi commentators have said this looks more like hysteria over the possible success of the JCPOA talks.

++ The anniversary of the assassination of generals Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes in Iraq by the Trump administration has prompted speeches and commemoration ceremonies not only in Iran but in other countries. It was and remains an event which uniquely united the people of Iran against foreign interference and the malicious anti-Iran coalition which includes the MEK. Both Iranians and Iraqis have continued their claims for justice. In 2019 Maryam Rajavi said this: “From December 2017 to November 2019, and throughout the past year, it became crystal clear that the strategy of ‘uprising and overthrow’ devised by the commander of the Liberation Army is going to be victorious. And it will successfully lead all anti-regime fighting forces towards their great destination.” After Soleiman’s assassination Massoud Khodabandeh wrote that his death guaranteed that there will be no regime change in Tehran. Maryam Rajavi will need to re-visit her predictions in 2022.

++ Albanian journalist Gjergji Thanasi wrote in Gazeta Impakt that the US and its allies must control MEK crimes in Albania. The piece follows the arrest of two leading members of MEK on charges of human and drug trafficking. It appears that the US embassy intervened and arranged a media blackout of the arrests and the alleged crimes committed by MEK members. Thanasi gives an example of a MEK member now living illegally in Vienna. Thanasi asks as an Albanian journalist and patriot that the Americans keep the criminal activity of MEK under control and the members on a tight leash.

++ Iran Interlink commented on recent events which exposed Maryam Rajavi’s increasingly tenuous situation. Rajavi’s appearance in a church in Paris was promoted by MEK sites as a great example of her embrace by the west. In fact it reminded everyone that Maryam Rajavi has been expelled from the EU and her appearance was engineered, probably by Israel of its allies, to poke Iran in the eye. Thus revealing not only how desperate Rajavi is for publicity, but how empty the anti-Iran tool box is for the west. A second example of push back against the Rajavi regime came with the reappearance of the media article about the arrest of two leading MEK members. Iran Interlink concluded “it appears that this message has got through to the right people in the country. The EXIT article has been restored. Some honest, patriotic elements in the Albanian establishment have gained control and the MEK and its mafia collaborators are being pushed further and further back.”

Dec 31, 2021

January 2, 2022 0 comments

Albania

US Allies Must Control MEK Crimes in Albania

All the US ambassadors to Tirana since the late Ambassador Limpreht in 2001 have raised concerns about human trafficking in Albania and the frequent link between this crime figure and transnational crime. Our American allies have helped us a lot by donating vehicles, computers and various equipment to Albanian law enforcement agencies and conducting training, etc.

All this in the service of the fight against human trafficking. Unfortunately, in the last 3-4 years, a new actor has entered the field of this type of trafficking: the former terrorist organization MEK (the People’s Mojahedin of Iran). Individually, in my writing, I have addressed some cases (by name and surname) of the human trafficking committed by this former terrorist organization. Unfortunately, an almost total black out by the Albanian media of these trafficking cases has encouraged this malicious activity by the Mojahedin who are located as uninvited guests in Camp Ashraf 3 in Manez.

In the only case when Albanian police arrested two senior commanders of the MEK for involvement in drug trafficking and human trafficking, American diplomats strongly intervened with the Albanian prosecution to close this story down so that …… Such an intervention by our allies amongst the best Albanian law enforcement agencies, emboldened the former MEK terrorists to continue to trafficking Iranians and not only from Albania to EU countries, also to England and neutral countries such as Finland or Sweden.

The case of Farid Shahkarami

Until April 2021, the Iranian Farid Shahkarami (with identification number / personal number: L623030041) was employed in Tirana in the Company “Market Info sh.pk” with the address: Rruga Reshit Petrela, TIRANA Train Station. According to secret personal data which was leaked to the Albanian media a few days ago, Faridi worked in this company as a computer operator and was paid 2.72700 ALL per month.

Now it turns out, Farid Shahkarami is no longer in Albania. From an exchange of information with my Austrian colleagues it turns out that this Farid is in Vienna, where he is living illegally. I honestly do not know why Austrian journalists are so extremely interested in learning as much detail as possible about an Iranian computer specialist and former terrorist, who lives illegally in Vienna! Farid Shahkarian came to Albania together with several thousand members of the former MEK terrorist organization. The agreement governing the arrival of these Iranians in Albania is kept secret, but our NATO allies are now seeing the problem with these Iranians in the MEK is as the perpetrators of several criminal offenses, such as human trafficking, international drug trafficking, etc. As an Albanian journalist and patriot, I hope that the American diplomats in Tirana will help the Albanian law enforcement bodies keep the criminal activity of these Iranian Mojahedin living in Albania under control and on a tight leash.

Gjergji Thanasi

December 29, 2021 0 comments

Maryam Rajavi

Push Back Against Maryam Rajavi Succeeding

America’s failure to bully Iran into submission in Vienna during the JCPOA talks has enraged the Israeli government, which is now threatening some kind of biblical annihilation in revenge. A futile threat. Instead, small grubby gesture politics has had to suffice. One of the anti-Iran coalition’s more irrational beliefs is that if it shakes the stick labelled ‘the MEK’ at Iran, the Iranian leaders will lose their minds and cave in to all kinds of demands. Thus we discover that the MEK’s de facto leader, Maryam Rajavi, was chosen as the face of this gesture politics when she was sent to Paris last week to visit a church – the kind of move which appears inspired by the need to annoy Iran. Rajavi, of course, was deported from the EU in 2018 and has not been allowed back in until now. And now, the anti-Iran coalition has presumably put enough pressure on the French government to partake in a charade that suits the Israelis’ and Rajavi’s agendas.

Rajavi has her own reasons to partake in this show. Always ready to prostrate herself in the service of empty gestures and symbolic acts if it gives her the kind of publicity that proves to the MEK members that she has the support of the west, Rajavi would have no hesitation in paying a smirking visit to a church at Christmas. Since her deportation Rajavi has been desperate to find a way to get back into the EU. What she doesn’t understand is that smirking in a church does not equate to political leadership or an actual policy move.
At the start of December, we revealed that Maryam Rajavi had pretended to her Farsi speaking audience – such as it is – that she had visited the French Senate to make a speech. This was a lie. She tried to pretend in her Farsi sites that she had actually been there, but the English sites could not disguise the fact that she had addressed the rally from Albania.

This time Rajavi was allowed into France only to visit the church (not Paris), and then return to Albania. It doesn’t matter, however, that she shows her face. What is important is that she is not allowed to remain or work in the EU. She cannot undertake any activity there which might be construed as political. Her appearance in a church in Paris is a purely face-saving exercise. A show of weakness not of strength.

Another example of the push back against the MEK is the sudden reappearance of a damning article in the Albanian media outlet EXIT. On 4th December, the article reported that two high ranking MEK members had been arrested in Albania on charges of human and drug trafficking. However, the article was quickly removed from the site giving an Error 404 notice. Apparently the MEK don’t like having their crimes exposed. At that time, Iran-Interlink wrote that the MEK’s mafia like behaviour in Albania dates back to its arrival in that country. Intimidation and bribery of media owners and editors was not new. Indeed, the MEK have a pattern of criminality that encompasses not only the media but includes the police, security services, judiciary and politicians from all parties.

However, it appears that this message has got through to the right people in the country. The EXIT article has been restored. Some honest, patriotic elements in the Albanian establishment have gained control and the MEK and its mafia collaborators are being pushed further and further back. Perhaps it’s only a matter of months until the organisation finally collapses like a hollow chocolate Christmas confection.

December 29, 2021 0 comments

Human Rights Abuse in the MEK

The threat of suicide by hostages of the MEK

A combination of situations could lead someone to think of suicide. Some risk factors increase the possibility of suicide. Mental illness, such as depressions, social isolation, criminal problems, financial problems, impulsive or aggressive tendencies, job problems or loss, legal problems etc. may push people to commit suicide. Now, consider the Mujahedin Khalq Organization as a cult-like group in which members are deprived from their most basic human rights. The MEK provides its members with the combination of situations that can lead them to consider suicide as the last resort.

In the early days of December, 2021, the Albanian news media, Gazeta Impact reported of a suicide attempt by a young man named Shahpour Danafar in the MEK’s camp in Manez, in north of Tirana. The report called the case as “the Danafar family tragedy”. Shahpour whose real name is Nikfarjam is the son of Behrouz Danafar a longtime member of the MEK.

According to Gazeta Impact, “The Danafar family tragedy occurred in late November when the Danafar family decided to leave the Rajavi Cult. The father of the family and his two sons, Navid Danafar and Shahpour Danafar, asked their Rajavi Cult superiors to allow them to leave the Manez camp and live in the city of Tirana like many other former members of the cult. The commanders of the camp on the direct order of Maryam Rajavi, the cult leader, refused to allow the family in question to leave the camp in Manez and settle in Tirana. One of the sons, Shahpour Danafar attempted suicide by cutting the veins of his wrist. Shahpour was hospitalized in QSUT Hospital (University Hospital Center “Mother Teresa”). Albanian state bodies are keeping a dirty silence over this case of attempted suicide.”

Banning member’s departure is the old tactic that the leaders of the Cult of Rajavi have always used to maintain their cult of personality. However, a large number of the group members –about fifty percent of the population– have left it during the two past decades.

Based on the report by RAND institute on the Mujahedin Khalq sponsored by the of the office of the US Secretary of Defense, “Rajavi instituted what he termed an “ideological revolution” in 1985, which, over time, imbued the MEK with many of the typical characteristics of a cult, such as authoritarian control, confiscation of assets, sexual control (including mandatory divorce and celibacy), emotional isolation, forced labor, sleep deprivation, physical abuse, and limited exit options.”
Thus, Massoud Rajavi created many of risk factors that increase the possibility of suicide for his own members –better said hostages. The case of Shahpour (Nikfarjam) is not the first one in the MEK. Some names are repeatedly referred to when former members want to testify about suicide in the MEK: Yaser Akbarinasab, Alan Mohammadi and Marjan Akbari.

Yaser Akbarinasab was 17 when he was taken from Europe to Iraq to join the MEK’s National Liberation Army (NLA) together with his 14-year-old brother, Musa. Yaser had almost no sympathy for the MEK and so he began to protest against the MEK’s cult-like attitudes. He wanted to leave the group but he was not allowed by the group leaders and so he was put under severe pressure by the commanders. Finally, on a summer day, after lunch time, Yasser’s friends in the cult saw smoke from behind the base number seven, at Camp Ashraf. Commanders did not let his friends see the body of Yasser. Yasser had set himself on fire.

Marjan Akbari (nicknamed Faezeh) was a child soldier too. She had been separated from her Mujahed parents in 1991 and then she had been brought back to join the NLA as a teenager in the late 90s. A few years later, Marjan asked to leave the group but she was not permitted. Just like Yaser, her request was faced with commanders’ anger. In 2004, Marjan stole the cyanide capsule of her commander and swallowing the capsule she committed suicide.

Alan was only 13 years old when she was brought from Germany to Camp Ashraf to receive military trainings as a soldier of the NLA. She requested to return to Europe, but she was faced with what is usual in the MEK. Mental and physical tortures that were imposed on Alan by the MEK authorities finally resulted in her mental breakdown. She was 15 years old when she committed suicide and put an end to her life. She shot herself when she was on her guarding post at Camp Ashraf.

Today, the MEK propaganda boasts with the names and pictures of Yasser, Marjan, Alan and many other of its victims as martyrs of the struggle against the Iranian government. However, the naked truth about what really goes on in the MEK is increasingly being exposed to the world. The more the MEK propaganda tries to silence the defectors, the less it can mange to cover the truth. As Gazeta Impact also puts, concerns over the fate of two thousand hostages in the MEK’s base in Albania should not be neglected by the Albanian authorities and the international human rights bodies.

Mazda Parsi

December 27, 2021 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Two other MEK members defected the group in Albania

Hassan Heirani announced the separation of Mehdi Mazloumi and Ali Asghar Kalateh Seifari from the Mujahedin-e Khalq in Albania.

In a video link with some of Nejat society families of Zanjan, the head of ASILA, Hassan Heyrani, reported these two members’ defection from the group. The online meeting held on Saturday,Dec.25.
The newly established ASILA has the duty to support the Iranians who defect the Cult of Rajavi and the families of those who are still taken as hostages in the group’s camp Ashraf 3, in the region of Durres in North of Tirana, Albania.

The families efforts to free the MEK cult hostages along with the ASILA activities provide more incentive for the cult hostages to liberate themselves.

December 26, 2021 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization members' families

The birthday boy in the MEK; Mother blows out the candles in Tehran

Soraya Abdollahi blew out the candles on the birthday cake of her son, Amir Aslan who has been taken as a hostage by the Mujahedin Khalq (the MEK/ the Cult of Rajavi) for 20 years.
Amir Aslan was born on Yalda Night which marks the winter solstice in the Persian calendar. Since 2002, every year at Yalda Night, Soraya blows out the candles and cuts the birthday cake of Amir Aslan in his absence.
Amir Aslan Hassanzadeh was only 19 when he fell in the trap of the MEK recruiters in Turkey. During the 20 years that he has been behind the bars of the Cult of Rajavi, his mother has been endeavoring to find a way to contact Amir Aslan.

Soraya Abdollahi

“My dear Amir Aslan! I blew out the candles of your 39th birthday as every year in these past twenty years,” Soraya said addressing her beloved son. “I am still hopeful that you will be with me next year.”
Weeping tears while cutting the cake, Soraya talks to her radicalized son in the MEK’s camp in Albania. “I hope that you will be able to make a decision to find your way to freedom,” she tells Amir Aslan.

In order to visit her son, Soraya Abdollahi has taken various actions but she has not been successful yet. She traveled to Iraq several times when the MEK was located there. She picketed in front of the gates of MEK’s camps in Iraq but the group authorities never allowed AmirAslan to visit his mother. Soraya also traveled to the UN’s office in Geneva to appeal to the UN special rapporteur on human rights. She has written so many letters to the international community and the Albanian authorities. She is now the head of an association for mothers of MEK hostages.

December 25, 2021 0 comments

Former members of the MEK

Iranians outside MEK’s camp celebrate Yalda Night in Albania

Former members of the Mujahedin Khalq (MEK) celebrated Yalda Night in Albania.

The Iranian residents of Albania, who have defected the MEK’s cult-like group, celebrated the winter solstice, known as Yalda in Persian culture, in Tirana, on December 21.

At Yalda Night, Iranians celebrate the arrival of winter, the renewal of the sun and the victory of light over darkness. Families gather together, stay up all night, eat red fruits, nuts and special dishes. They tell stories, read the poetries of Iranian poets like Hafez and speak of the good that can overcome evil. However, all these family activities are forbidden in the MEK as a so-called Iranian group.

A few of former members of the MEK who got married after their defection from the group, attended the celebration together with their families. Other defectors of the MEK who have not married yet or are far from their families in Iran, try to keep in touch with their friends through such occasions.

MEK defectors celebrated Yalda in Albania

These free Iranians living in Albania who have recently established the Association for the Support of Iranians Living in Albania (ASILA) gathered together to keep the ceremonies of Yalda alive in Albania. As one of the missions of ASILA is developing cultural interactions between Iranians and Albanians, some Albanian friends of ASILA members attended the party.
The event indicates the determination of MEK defectors to live a normal life maintaining all traditions that link them to their homeland and family, despite years of being deprived from a normal family life in the MEK camps.

December 25, 2021 0 comments

Mujahedin Khalq Organization members' families

Good News From Albania – Family Visits May Go Ahead

In a summit held on December 20-21, hosted by Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama in the Albanian capital Tirana with his counterpart from North Macedonia, Zoran Zaev, and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, a raft of deals were signed that will lead the way to further links between the countries. Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia launched the Open Balkan initiative in October 2019 to promote ties with the aim to establish a single market to pave the way for EU membership.

“Our goal is that the Balkans have no more borders for people, for the movement of goods, capital, and services — four European Union principles,” Albania’s prime minister said.

This is good news for ASILA, the association registered with the Albanian Judiciary whose aim is to support Iranians living in Albania. ASILA not only helps defectors from the Rajavi cult with their rights and living arrangements, it also hopes to reunite families estranged by the MEK’s anti-family policy. In a video link with some of these families gathered in Tehran, the head of ASILA, Hassan Heyrani, explained that the Open Balkan initiative would open the way to facilitate these visits.

“The good news is that the president of Albania Edi Rama and the president of Kosovo signed an agreement, the day before yesterday, based on which the border between the two countries will be opened.” Hassan Heyrani told families of MEK members in an online meeting.
“Therefore, families will be able to take a flight from Iran to Belgrade, Serbia and from there they could come to Krishna which is 250 kilometers from Tirana so we can go there to visit them.”

Heyrani added that the ASILA Association also has the power to establish a travel agency in order to provide visitor visas for the Iranian families willing to visit their loved ones in Albania.

summit held on December 20-21, hosted by Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama in the Albanian capital Tirana with his counterpart from North Macedonia, Zoran Zaev

Sources:

1- Albania, North Macedonia, Serbia Deepen Ties At ‘Open Balkan’ Summit
Radio Free Europe

TIRANA — Albania, North Macedonia, and Serbia have signed a raft of deals and agreed to further their Open Balkan initiative to promote ties as the three countries’ leaders held two days of talks in Tirana.
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama hosted the December 20-21 summit in the Albanian capital with his counterpart from North Macedonia, Zoran Zaev, and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.
The sides inked six agreements on the labor market, electronic identification, and the lifting of nontariff barriers for businesses, among other things.

They had previously decided to abolish customs controls from January 1, 2023.
Rama said the Open Balkan initiative’s goal is to establish a single market among its members and pave the way for EU membership.
“Our goal is that the Balkans have no more borders for people, for the movement of goods, capital, and services — four European Union principles,” Albania’s prime minister said.
The Open Balkan initiative, launched in October 2019, “is one of the biggest ideas in today’s Europe,” according to Vucic.
“The most important goal is to unite people who have been focusing more on the past rather than the future. It is important to connect people and their businesses,” the Serbian leader said.

According to Zaev, “Open Balkan is our way forward on the road to the European Union.”
The three Western Balkan countries are at different stages on the path to EU membership.
While Serbia has launched full membership negotiations, accession talks with North Macedonia and Albania have been delayed.
“We agreed that our three countries would not be held hostage to the failure of the European Union to unblock our European integration process,” Zaev said. “That process can be stopped in Brussels, but the Europeanization and implementation of European values in Northern Macedonia, Serbia, and Albania have no reason to be on hold.”

Officials of the three other Western Balkan countries seeking to join the EU — Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Montenegro — have expressed skepticism toward the Open Balkan initiative and rejected calls to join.
Vucic’s arrival in Tirana on December 20 triggered a protest by thousands of Albanians opposed to his visit and the summit.
The rally was called by former Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha, who said the Open Balkan initiative was meant to “establish Serbian hegemony in the region.”
The next Open Balkan summit is scheduled for February in North Macedonia’s capital, Skopje.

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2- ASILA: the way will be open for families of MEK hostages
Nejat Society

The head of the Association for the Support of the Iranians Living in Albania (ASILA) spoke of the new options that are opening for the families of MEK members who are looking forward to visiting their loved ones in the group’s camp in Albania.
The newly established ASILA has the duty to support the Iranians who defects the Cult of Rajavi and the families of those who are still taken as hostages in the group’s camp Ashraf 3, in the region of Durres in North of Tirana, Albania.

In an online meeting between Hassan Heyrani, the head of ASILA, in Tirana, and a number of families of MEK members in the office of Nejat Society in Tehran, Heyrani promised to use all capacities of the association to pave the way for the families to travel to Albania.
“I assure you that the way will be opened,” he said. “The cult of Rajavi cannot prevent you from visiting your loved ones in a democratic European country. They have been supported by the US and Israel so far but they have not been able to keep their own children in their cult.”

In response to the heart-broken mother of Mijad Hajalirezai who was weeping tears languishing for her son, Heyrani said, “The Mujahedin cannot keep their members under pressure, mind control and intimidation forever. Half of their members have defected since the early 2000s.”
ASILA has been officially registered in the Albanian Judiciary department and its activities are closely supervised by the Albanian government.

December 23, 2021 0 comments

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