The Founding of NCRI and Massoud Rajavi’s Work

Massoud Rajavi joined the PMOI/MEK in 1967. Soon he was appointed by the Mohammad Hanifnejad, the leader and founder of MEK Iran, to the MEK’s ideological group. There he helped the study and documentation of the organization’s ideological principles. Later, Rajavi became a member of the PMOI/MEK Iran’s Central Committee.

Massoud Rajavi, since 1981, has remained adamant that the only solution for Iran’s and Middle East’s problems is a is democratic regime change in Iran.

Rajavi holds the belief that the Iranian people and their organized resistance movement have everything they need to bring about democratic change in Iran. It is upon this belief that he has founded the largest independent opposition movement in Iran’s modern history.

On numerous occasions, Western states have tried to tackle the challenges posed by the Iranian regime. They have done this through appeasement and rapprochement and the endorsement of so-called “moderate” and “reformist” groups within the regime. It has often been at the cost of causing damage to the Iranian people and the Iranian opposition.

Massoud Rajavi has remained firm on his stance that the religious dictatorship ruling in Iran does not have the potential for reform. Today, after the failure of the decades-long appeasement campaign, it has become evident that Massoud Rajavi’s understandings and vision of Iranian politics had been accurate all along.

Regardless of the Iranian regime’s heavy security measures and repression, people across Iran are protesting and chanting slogans against the regime’s entirety, calling for the overthrow of the mullahs’ regime. This is the goal that Massoud Rajavi and the MEK Iran have been fighting for, since 1981.

The founding of the National Council of Resistance (NCRI)

It became evident that the country was headed for an era of total tyranny and religious dictatorship, as the Khomeini regime continued to tighten the noose around the freedoms of the Iranian people.

Massoud Rajavi and the MEK called for a peaceful demonstration on June 20, 1981, with the aim encourage Khomeini to respect the most basic political, social and legal rights of the Iranian population.

Although the demonstration was announced through word of mouth a mere two days before it took place, 500,000 people gathered. Similar demonstrations took place in other cities. As a response, the regime opened fire on the peaceful protesters, killing many in the streets and arresting thousands of others.

Many MEK members and supporters were killed in the streets in extrajudicial executions by the Members of the Revolutionary Guards.

Khomeini officially banned all Iranian opposition groups and ordered all their members and leaders to be arrested.

MEK supporters and members were massively executed. Rajavi was forced into hiding. He founded National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), while still in Iran. This is a coalition of Iranian opposition groups that aimed to replace the theocratic regime of Khomeini with a free, secular and democratic state. This organization became a rallying point for anyone who supported democracy in Iran and who endorsed a regime change.

Massoud Rajavi exited the country with the help of personnel in Iran’s air force who opposed the regime, on July 29, 1981. The top wanted opposition figure in Iran landed in France. There he took refuge and established the headquarters of the NCRI to further pursue the fight against the Iranian regime and for a better Iran.