Abbas Gharabaghi

Military education

Gharabaghi was sent to France to complete the advanced infantry officers' course. While there, he also studied at the University of Paris, earning a doctorate in law in 1954.

After returning to Iran, he served in the Operations Department (Third Bureau) of the Army General Staff. In 1955, he returned to France to attend the advanced course at the French War College. During this period, he completed:

• the Ninth General Staff Course at the War College (1956),
• the Joint Services Advanced Course (1960), and
• the Advanced Diploma of the French War College (1961).

Career

In March 1963, Gharabaghi was appointed Commandant of the War Collage. While holding that position, he was also entrusted in 1963 with:

• command of the Non-Commissioned Officers' Corps of the Iranian Science Corps,
• responsibility for security arrangements during the state visit of the King of Denmark to Iran, and
• responsibility for security arrangements during the visit of the President of India.

That same year, he was appointed President of the Special Military Court of Appeal, which reviewed the convictions of Mahmoud Taleghani, Mehdi Bazargan, Yadollah Sahabi, and several members of the Freedom Movement of Iran. The court ultimately upheld the original convictions.

In August 1964, Gharabaghi was appointed commander of the Gorgan Infantry Division and in September 1965, he was appointed commander of the 1st Guards Division. In October 1968, he became the Chief of Staff of the Ground Forces and held this position until May 1972. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general on March 10 of the same year. From May 1972 to October 1973, Gharabaghi was the deputy commander of the Ground Forces, but due to a disagreement between him and General Gholam Ali Oveissi, who was the commander of the Ground Forces at the time, he was dismissed from his position and appointed the commander of the Western Corps in Kermanshah.

He served as the gendarmerie commander until 1978.^[5] When the Iranian Revolution broke out in 1978, both Hassan Toufanian and Amir Hossein Rabii planned to carry out a coup to stabilize the turmoil in the country. However, the idea failed as it was not backed by other senior military officials, including Gharabaghi.^[6]

Gharabaghi was appointed chief of the joint staff of the Iranian Armed Forces on 7 January 1979. His job entailed defending the monarchy until the Shah left Iran and then supporting the new civilian government led by Shapour Bakhtiar. However, on 11 February 1979, after much strife on the streets of Tehran and elsewhere, Gharabaghi and with twenty-two other senior military leaders withdrew support of Bakhtiar, thus tacitly giving approval to the revolutionary Islamic Republic.^[7][8]

Gharabaghi was then assigned as a prosecutor to the Islamic Revolutionary Court, which ordered the killing of many senior Iranian officials who served under the Shah.^[3][9] However, as a result of tensions in Azerbaijan, in 1979 Gharabaghi's relations with Ayatollah Khomeini became tense and he fled from Tehran.^[3] The revolutionary authorities sought him, but did not manage to arrest him.^[3]

In December 1979, a report outlined the exiled Shah's belief that the covert meetings earlier in January of that year between U.S. General Robert E. Huyser and Khomeini representative Mehdi Bazargan were organized by Gharabaghi.^[10] He further accused Gharabaghi of being a traitor.^[11]

Works

Gharabaghi published his account of the revolution in his books Haghayegh Darbareye Bohran-e Iran ("Facts About the Iran Crisis", 1983), and Che Shod Ke Chonan Shod? (translated as "Why did it happen?", 1999).^[12] He argued that his decision to declare the army's "neutrality" was the main reason for the final triumph of the Islamic Revolution.

In his first book, Gharabaghi expresses his strong support for and loyalty to the Shah and paints a detailed picture of the chaos within the military ranks during the final days of the government, placing the blame on Prime Minister Bakhtiar for its collapse.^[13] He justifies his decision to declare the army's "neutrality" as the only reasonable solution given the circumstances in order to prevent further bloodshed, calling Bakhtiar a traitor.