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Bahram Aryana

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Arteshbod
Bahram Aryana
General Bahram Aryana
Born
Hossein Manoochehri (حسین معتمدی منوچهری تنکابنی)

(1906-03-17)17 March 1906
Tehran, Persia
Died21 June 1985(1985-06-21) (aged 79)
Paris, France
Burial placeMontparnasse Cemetery
NationalityIranian Georgian
Occupations
OrganizationAzadegan Organization
TitleMilitary attaché of Iran to France and Benelux[1]
Term1952–1953
Political party
Academic background
Fields
Alma mater
ThesisNapoleon et l'Orient (1955)
InstitutionsOfficers' Academy[2]
WorksPour une ethique iranienne (1981)
Military career
Allegiance Iran
Service / branchGround Forces
Years of service1930–1979
RankField Marshal/5 Star General
CommandsImperial Iranian Ground Force
Imperial Guard
AwardsLegion of Honour

Field Marshal Bahram Aryana (Persian: بهرام آریانا); also spelled Bahram Ariana born Hossein Manouchehri;[3] 17 March 1906 – 21 June 1985)[4] was the most senior military commander of the Imperial Iranian Army during the reign of Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and an Iranian nationalist and humanist. Professor Monica M. Ringer described Aryana as probably the most famous “converted Zoroastrian” of the Pahlavi era.[5]

Biography

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He was born on 17 March 1906 in Tehran[6] from a noble Georgian mother,[7] who was the great granddaughter of King Heraclius II, and from a judge father, Sadr-ed-din.[6] His name was Hossein Manouchehri, which he would change to Bahram Aryana in 1950 and he was a descendant of Sepahsalar Khalatbari Tonekaboni, the noble Iranian statesman who was the leader of the constitutional revolutionary forces and four time former prime minister of Iran.[6] Professor Monica M. Ringer has described Aryana as probably the most notorious “converted Zoroastrian” of the Pahlavi era.[8]

Bahram Aryana (left of photo) at the coronation of the Shah of Iran (center) October 26, 1967. The Shah is seen crowning Empress Farah Pahlavi.

He was educated in France at the École Supérieur de Guerre and received his PhD in 1955 from the Faculty of Law of Paris with his thesis "Napoleon et l'Orient" (published in 1957). Aryana is known to have styled himself on Napoleon and dressed in the Imperial French style.[9]

After the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran in 1941 during World War II, he went on with armed struggle and resisted the occupation before being arrested by the British forces. He was instrumental in many of the nationalist policies in the 1950-1960s. During the military campaign of 1964-65 he successfully pacified rebellious tribes in the south of Iran (Pars, Isfahan and Khuzestan) stirred-up by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, without shedding blood.

General Bahram Aryana (center) with U.S. President Richard Nixon at the White House.
State visit by De Gaulle to Iran. From left to right; Charles de Gaulle, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and Bahram Aryana.

Following his military success in the south, General Aryana was named Chief of Staff of the Shah's Army, position he maintained from 1965 to 1969.

During his posting as Chief of Staff, he met with various head of states including Richard Nixon, who received him at the White House, Yitzhak Rabin (then the Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces), who received him in Israel and General de Gaulle, during his visit to Iran.

Aryana left Iran in 1969 on the order of the Shah.[6] This was due to the Arvand Rud (Shatt al-Arab) crisis.

Unlike his fellow Arteshbod and exiled leader, Gholam-Ali Oveissi. Aryana was 'beloved' by the Kurdish population of Iran from his time as the military governor of Kurdistan.

He died in exile in Paris in June 1985[10] and is buried at the Montparnasse cemetery. General Aryana was a Grand Officier of the French Legion of Honour.

His last published book, Pour une Éthique Iranienne was a call for unity against the obscurantist forces driving Khomeini and the mullahs' fundamentalist revolution.[11]

Party affiliation

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Aryana described himself as being an Iranian nationalist and moderate socialist, not a monarchist. Although he received a great deal of support from monarchists who considered him to be a supporter.[10] Aryana held dual membership of Aria Party and SUMKA.[12]

He founded Azadegan,[13] a nationalist opposition group which had "developed a full command staff structure and support from all nationalist elements from the moderate left to the monarchists".[14] while in exile in Paris.

Aryana combined his forces with not just Gholam Ali Oveissi but also Shapour Bakhtiar, Ahmad Madani and Ali Amini.[15] Azadegan, meaning Born Free, was an anti-Khomeini movement which claimed as many as 12,000 followers in Iran, many of them in the armed forces.[10] The daring seizing by Azadegan's officers of Tabarzin, an Iranian Navy's Combattante II class fast attack craft just built by France and en route to Iran while in the Mediterranean in August 1981, attracted media attention to Azadegan and its members' armed resistance against the clerical regime of Iran.[16][17]

References

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  1. ^ Naṣr Allāh Tavakkulī Nīshābūrī (2014). Memoirs of Nasrollah Tavakoli, The First Chief of Staff of the Iranian Army after the Islamic Revolution (in Persian). Ibex Pub. pp. 351–352. ISBN 978-1588140982.
  2. ^ a b "Who was Aryana" (in Persian). Political Studies and Research Institute. Retrieved 5 November 2017.
  3. ^ Ali Akbar Dareini (1998). The Rise and Fall of the Pahlavi Dynasty: Memoirs of Former General Hussein Fardust. Motilal Banarsidass Publ. pp. 15–16. ISBN 8120816420.
  4. ^ "Biographie du Général Bahram ARYANA" (in French). Aryana2500.fr. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
  5. ^ Monica M. Ringer (2012). "Iranian Nationalism and Zoroastrian Identity". In Abbas Amanat; Farzin Vejdan (eds.). Iran Facing Others. Palgrave Macmillan US. pp. 267–277. ISBN 978-1-137-01340-8. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  6. ^ a b c d "Iranian Personalities. General Bahram Ariana". Iran Chamber Society. Retrieved 4 January 2016.
  7. ^ Babak Rezvani (Winter 2009). "The Fereydani Georgian Representation". Anthropology of the Middle East. 4 (2): 57. doi:10.3167/ame.2009.040205.
  8. ^ Monica M. Ringer (2012). "Iranian Nationalism and Zoroastrian Identity". In Abbas Amanat; Farzin Vejdan (eds.). Iran Facing Others. Palgrave Macmillan US. pp. 267–277. doi:10.1057/9781137013408_13. ISBN 978-1-137-01340-8. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  9. ^ Brian Murphy (4 August 2006). The Root of Wild Madder: Chasing the History, Mystery, and Lore of the Persian Carpet. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-0-7432-6421-1.
  10. ^ a b c Bahram Aryana Dies; Ex-Iran Chief of Staff New York Times.(Paris). 27 June 1985. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  11. ^ "Pour une Ethique Iranienne". Amazon UK. Archived from the original on 25 September 2013. Retrieved 30 August 2017.
  12. ^ Ali Rahnema (24 November 2014). Behind the 1953 Coup in Iran: Thugs, Turncoats, Soldiers, and Spooks. Cambridge University Press. p. 55. ISBN 978-1107076068.
  13. ^ Anoushiravan Ehteshami (1995). After Khomeini: the Iranian Second Republic. Psychology Press. p. 15. ISBN 978-0-415-10879-9.
  14. ^ Defense & Foreign Affairs, February 1981
  15. ^ India Today. Thomson Living Media India Limited. 1982.
  16. ^ Frank J. Prial (19 August 1981). "Iranian Hijackers Sail To Marseilles". The New York Times. Marseilles. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
  17. ^ "Iran Exiles Plan New Military Acts". The New York Times. Reuters. 22 August 1981. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
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