Monarchists’ Savak marches revive memories of the shah’s torture state
Supporters of Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s deposed shah, have marched through a number of European cities in recent weeks wearing military-style uniforms, carrying flags associated with Savak, the feared secret police accused of torture and repression under the monarchy.
Holding large images of Pahlavi, who has openly backed Israeli and US strikes on Iran during the recent war, they called for continued attacks on their homeland and the return of the former crown prince to power.
For many Iranians, the display of symbols of the notorious intelligence service revived memories of brutality under the shah’s rule. When Middle East Eye asked Iranian opposition figures what the name Savak and the parades evoked, all gave the same answer: torture.
Following a ceasefire between the US and Iran, Iranian monarchists held a march in London on 26 April, when they dressed entirely in black and marched in lines resembling military parades, their arms folded behind their backs, shouting “Long Live the Shah”. Some covered their faces with balaclavas, and the Savak flag led the march.
A similar event took place in Copenhagen on 9 May, this time in khaki military-style uniforms. Later, Regensburg in Germany saw a similar parade, with participants wearing T-shirts bearing the Savak emblem.
The State Security and Intelligence Organisation, known by its Persian acronym Savak, was established in Iran in 1957 with help from the CIA and Mossad. It was the main tool used to suppress opposition during Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's rule.
Savak agents terrorised Iranians through arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial executions, torture in prisons, pressure on families of political prisoners, and the intimidation of political activists abroad, according to international human rights groups.
In a 1976 report on human rights violations by Savak, Amnesty International documented torture and killings carried out by the agency and described it as operating “with extreme ruthlessness”.
Iranian opposition figures born after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, who never experienced the shah’s rule, described the recent marches to MEE as a “clown show”, “pure poison”, and a “pathetic reaction to losing momentum”.
One of them, a 27-year-old living in Iran, said: “I could not stop laughing when I saw them wearing T-shirts with the Savak emblem. They could have identified themselves with something linked to knowledge, change, freedom or justice. Anything. But Savak? Really?”
While many younger Iranians dismiss the marches as absurd, older generations view these displays of power very differently.
Monarchists align with European extreme right
The monarchists have lost much of their support inside Iran since the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran on 28 February. Abroad, meanwhile, they have taken a more aggressive approach, attacking opponents of the war online and in live interviews. In some cases, they have also confronted people holding anti-war signs at demonstrations organised by other Iranian opposition groups.
Behrouz Farahani, a long-time activist opposing the Islamic Republic who lives in exile in Paris, sees the recent monarchist parade as part of a broader pattern of hostility towards other opposition groups.
“Anyone with historical memory, anyone aware of the rise of fascism in Italy and Germany, would immediately think of these movements. When I saw the black-clad march, I was reminded of Mussolini’s supporters in Italy and pro-Hitler militia groups in Germany,” Farahani said.
The activist, who has spent 20 years organising against the Islamic Republic and has worked with labour unions in France, said the current political climate in the Global North is allowing this kind of ideology to resurface.
Farahani argues that many ruling parties in Europe and the US “have a far-right leaning toward fascism”, and sees this as one reason Iranian monarchists are able to act more freely in these countries.
He added that the parades serve two main purposes, beyond intimidating other opposition groups and trying to silence dissenting voices within the Iranian diaspora.
“The first goal is to attract younger Iranians who did not experience the shah’s era and are unaware of the killings, violence and torture carried out by Savak,” Farahani said.
“These events are designed to reach people who do not know that Savak was a system where every form of barbaric brutality and repression was concentrated.”
The second aim, he added, is to build links with far-right movements in Europe.
“They want to signal to fascist and far-right parties in power that they share the same views, in order to gain their support,” Farahani said.
Savak and long history of torture
Sudabeh Jazani, a former political prisoner under the Islamic Republic and now in exile in the US, also said the first thing that came to mind when she saw footage of the marches was the groups that supported Mussolini and Hitler.
Her brother, Bijan Jazani, and her uncle, Saeed (Mashouf) Kalantari, along with seven other political prisoners, were executed without trial in 1975 in the hills north of Tehran by Savak. Her family was never allowed to hold a funeral for them.
She told Middle East Eye that the monarchists’ military-style parades should force Iranians to think about what a future under their rule could look like.
'The name Savak reminds me of horror and torture; of when I was sitting in an interrogation room, looking at the shah’s picture on the wall'
- Iranian writer
“These people [monarchists], who still have no power, are creating fear and terror. Those who did not live through Iran under the Shah need to ask themselves what they would do if they came to power,” Jazani said.
Like Farahani, she believes that Pahlavi and his followers, backed politically and financially by some Iranian groups and supported by Israel, are trying to rewrite history in a distorted way to appeal to younger generations.
What surprises her most, however, is how freely they can operate in Europe.
“I was really shocked when I saw these people marching with the Savak logo in Germany. Germany has its own history with this kind of past, and it surprises me that such displays are allowed so openly,” she said.
“Human rights organisations must react to this.”
Speaking about Savak’s brutality, she recalled one of her encounters with the shah’s intelligence service. In 1975, after offering condolences to the family of another political prisoner killed by Savak, she was arrested by its agents.
In the interrogation room, she was shown a photo album containing images of tortured bodies and murdered political prisoners.
“The interrogator gave me the album and said, ‘I will give you time to look at these carefully. If you don’t speak, the same will be your fate,’” Jazani remembered.
“When I hear the name Savak, I feel enraged, because they destroyed my family. For me, Savak means destruction, suffering, and torture.”
From Sumka to Savak
A sociology professor living in Iran, who was arrested during the shah’s rule for possessing a political pamphlet and spent a year in prison, also recalled torture at the hands of Savak. Sleep deprivation, standing for hours, and having his moustache, hair and ears pulled were among the methods used.
He said he was “softly tortured”.
The sociologist, who opposes both Iran’s current rulers and the shah and asked not to be named for security reasons, described the climate of fear Savak created under the monarchy.
“The very conversation we are having now, during the shah’s time, even a father and son would be afraid to have it, because there was a belief that Savak could be listening and that it could lead to arrest and torture,” he said.
The academic added that marches like those seen in European cities in recent weeks were also organised by supporters of the shah in Iran in the early 1950s.
He was referring to Sumka, a pro-shah, neo-Nazi group rooted in the idea of Iranian Aryan racial superiority.
Sumka attacked gatherings of nationalist and leftist groups with clubs and knives during the relatively open political climate that followed the shah’s exile and preceded the CIA-backed 1953 coup that overthrew Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh.
After the shah was restored to power with US and British support, Savak was established to tighten control over students, political activists, intellectuals and even poets.
An Iranian writer living in Iran who was interrogated by intelligence agents both before and after the 1979 revolution over his literary work shared similar memories. He recalled sitting in a Savak interrogation room.
“The name Savak reminds me of horror and torture; of when I was sitting in an interrogation room and waiting for the interrogator, looking at the shah’s picture on the wall,” he said.
He cites a poem by the modern Iranian poet Mehdi Akhavan-Sales as one of the clearest expressions of Savak's brutality and the enduring memory of those who faced it.
Akhavan-Sales, who was himself detained and interrogated by Savak, wrote:
“And I am frightened by this image on the wall.
“In this image, that man, with the ominous and merciless whip of Xerxes, lashes out like a madman, but not at the sea; at my back, at my withered veins, at what lives in you, at what is dead in me.”
This article was sourced from Middle East Eye.
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