TEHRAN - There is a saying in Persian that tells people to observe morality even in enmity. Throughout history, the Iranian society has always been unforgiving towards corrupt and decadent acts, with perhaps the most frowned upon of them all being treason.

There are engrained cultural and historical notions in Iran that put the motherland on a high pedestal and regard it as sacred, and there are very few people in Iran’s history who are thought to be guilty of betraying their country by almost everyone.

Today on the 35th anniversary of Operation Mersad we will take a look at one of the most infamous group of traitors in Iran’s modern history.

Tale of an unquenchable thirst for power

The Mojahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO/ME), known as Monafeqin (Hypocrites) in Iran, was founded in 1965 by leftist Iranian university students who sought to overthrow the monarchy. They fought alongside other Iranians to topple the Shah’s regime but soon it was revealed that the group cared for more than just freedom. The power thirsty group began a lifelong of treason and betrayal during the 1979 Iranian constitutional referendum when they realized that they were not nearly as popular as the late Imam Khomeini. The new Islamic constitution was approved by more than 99-percent of voters and the MKO resorted to terrorist acts in hopes of gaining power.

With the establishment of the Islamic Republic, the MKO launched assassinations and terror operations. The group was responsible for the death of about 12,000 out of a total of 17,000 killed in terrorist attacks in the 1980s. They called the terror acts freedom operations as they callously murdered civilians, including women and children. 

Peak of MKO’s betrayal

The MKO shifted to the orbit of Saddam Hussein during his invasion of Iran in the 1980s. Tehran and Baghdad accepted United Nations Security Council resolution 598 on July 20, 1988, which would end the war the next month on August 8. The MKO decided to make use of the remaining time and orchestrate an operation dubbed eternal light to topple the Islamic Republic system.

The group used its forces deployed inside Iraq to carry out the offensive. On July 26, 1988 the MKO began an incursion into Iran through western borders while it received support from Iraqi airpower. The aggression became the last land battle of the Iran–Iraq War and was liquidated by Iran’s counteroffensive dubbed Mersad in a matter of days. During the fight about 4,500 of MKO operatives were killed, including many of its senior members. Though Iranian armed forces ended up vanquishing the terrorists powerfully, this chapter of Iran’s history will forever be a painful and appalling time for people that love their country.

Off to next master

Some years after the disastrous defeat of their “Eternal Light Operation” came the downfall of Saddam Hussein.  The MKO which had its forces closed off in camps in eastern Iraq was now getting struck by Iranian fire. In 2012, the Iraqi government moved the group’s members from their primary residence in Camp Ahraf to a new camp in Baghdad under an claimed deal with the Iranian government. The terrorists who were now more prone to getting killed began to look for a new master to move on from the one that had ended up selling them.

In 2016, the MKO group was relocated to Albania under a U.S. brokered deal and from there it continued its anti-Iran operations many of which ended up getting neutralized by Iran.

But soon it was time for these traitors to get tossed around one more time. On June 20, 2023, Albanian police lunched an operation on the MKOs camp on the orders of the Albanian judiciary due to the "violation of agreement and commitments”. The raid led to the death of at least one MKO member and the arrest of 70 others. Some media outlets have claimed that Tirana has turned in some documents collected during the raid to Tehran and there has been little to no condemnation of the act so far.

Infamous even among anti-Iran campaigners

During the riots in the fall of 2022 which first began in Tehran, many anti-Iran figures living in the West began efforts to introduce themselves as the leader of some type of “movement” against the Islamic Republic. But even during this time when the enemies of Iran were getting united, the MKO was getting excluded from public activities. Even the so-called opposition group knows that the vast majority of Iranian people would not be accepting of a group they see as traitors. This shows traitors in fact betray themselves first, before betraying their country.