Shapour Bakhtiar ( fa, شاپور بختیار, ; 26 June 19146 August 1991) was an Iranian politician who served as the last Prime Minister of Iran under the Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. In the words of historian

Abbas Milani Abbas Malekzadeh Milani ( fa, عباس ملک‌زاده میلانی; born 1949) is an Iranian-American historian, educator, and author. Milani is a visiting professor of Political Science, and the Hamid and Christina Moghadam Director of the Ira ...

: "more than once in the tone of a

jeremiad A jeremiad is a long literary work, usually in prose, but sometimes in verse, in which the author bitterly laments the state of society and its morals in a serious tone of sustained invective, and always contains a prophecy of society's immine ...

he reminded the nation of the dangers of clerical despotism, and of how the fascism of the mullahs would be darker than any military junta". In 1991, he and his secretary were murdered in his home in Suresnes, France, by agents of the Islamic Republic.

Early life

Bakhtiar was born on 26 June 1914 in southwestern

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

into a family of Iranian tribal nobility, the family of the paramount chieftains of the then powerful Bakhtiari tribe. His father was Mohammad Reza Khan (''Sardar-e-Fateh''). His mother was Naz-Baygom, and both of his parents were Lurs and Bakhtiaris. Bakhtiar's maternal grandfather, Najaf-Gholi Khan Samsam ol-Saltaneh, had been appointed prime minister twice, in 1912 and 1918. Bakhtiar's mother died when he was seven years old. His father was executed by Reza Shah in 1934 while Shapour was studying in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

Education

He attended elementary school in Shahr-e Kord and then secondary school, first in Isfahan and later in

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

, where he received his high school diploma from a French school. He attended Beirut University for two years. He and his cousin, Teymour Bakhtiar, then went to Paris for additional university education at the Faculty of Law. There, he attended the College of Political Science. Being a firm opponent of totalitarian rule, he was active in the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlism, Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebeli ...

for the

Second Spanish Republic The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931, after the deposition of King Alfonso XIII, and was dissolved on 1 ...

against General Francisco Franco's fascism. In 1940, he volunteered for the

French army History Early history The first permanent army, paid with regular wages, instead of feudal levies, was established under Charles VII of France, Charles VII in the 1420 to 1430s. The Kings of France needed reliable troops during and after the ...

– rather than the

French Foreign Legion The French Foreign Legion (french: Légion étrangère) is a corps of the French Army which comprises several specialties: infantry, cavalry, engineers, airborne troops. It was created in 1831 to allow foreign nationals into the French Army ...

– and fought in the 30th Artillerie Regiment of

Orléans Orléans (;"Orleans"
(US) and MEED'', Bakhtiar did 18 months' military service. While living in

Saint-Nicolas-du-Pélem Saint-Nicolas-du-Pélem (; ) is a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department of Brittany in northwestern France. Population Inhabitants of Saint-Nicolas-du-Pélem are called ''pélemois'' in French. History Prehistory The cairn of Croaz Dom H ...

, he fought with the

French Resistance The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...

against the

German occupation German-occupied Europe refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly occupied and civil-occupied (including puppet governments) by the military forces and the government of Nazi Germany at various times between 1939 ...

.Wolfgang Saxon (9 August 1991)
Shahpur Bakhtiar: Foe of Shah Hunted by Khomeini's Followers

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

, retrieved 6 July 2015 In 1945, he received his PhD in

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and ...

as well as degrees in law from the Faculty of Law of Paris and philosophy from

the Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

Political career

Bakhtiar returned to Iran in 1946 and joined the social democratic Iran Party in 1949 and led its youth organization. In 1951 he was appointed director of the labor department in the Province of Isfahan by the ministry of labor. He later held the same position in Khuzestan, center of the oil industry. In 1951 Mohammad Mosaddeq had come to power in Iran. Under his premiership Bakhtiar was appointed deputy minister of labor in 1953. After the Shah was reinstated by a British-American sponsored coup d'état, Bakhtiar remained a critic of his rule. Bakhtiar and mosaddegh cartoon

In the mid-1950s he was involved in underground activity against the Shah's regime, calling for the 1954 Majlis elections to be free and fair and attempting to revive the nationalist movement. In 1960, the Second National Front was formed and Bakhtiar played a crucial role in the new organization's activities as the head of the student activist body of the Front. He and his colleagues differed from most other government opponents in that they were very moderate, restricting their activity to peaceful protest and calling only for the restoration of democratic rights within the framework of a constitutional monarchy. The Shah refused to co-operate and outlawed the Front and imprisoned the most prominent liberals. From 1964 to 1977, the imperial regime refused to permit any form of opposition activity, even from moderate liberals like Bakhtiar. In the following years Bakhtiar was imprisoned repeatedly, a total of six years, for his opposition to the Shah. He was also one of the prominent members of central council of the illegal Fourth National Front in late 1977, when the group was reconstituted as the Union of National Front Forces with Bakhtiar as head of the Iran Party (the largest group in the Front). At the end of 1978 (as the Shah's power was crumbling), Bakhtiar was chosen to help in the creation of a civilian government to replace the existing military one. He was appointed to the position of Prime Minister by the Shah, as a concession to his opponents, especially the followers of the

Ayatollah Ayatollah ( ; fa, آیت‌الله, āyatollāh) is an honorific title for high-ranking Twelver Shia clergy in Iran and Iraq that came into widespread usage in the 20th century. Etymology The title is originally derived from Arabic word ...

Ruhollah Khomeini. Although that caused him to be expelled from the National Front, he accepted the appointment, as he feared a revolution in which communists and mullahs would take over the country, which he thought would ruin Iran. In his 36 days as premier of Iran, Bakhtiar ordered all political prisoners to be freed, lifted censorship of newspapers (whose staff had until then been on strike), relaxed martial law, ordered the dissolution of SAVAK (the regime's secret police) and requested for the opposition to give him three months to hold elections for a constituent assembly that would decide the fate of the monarchy and determine the future form of government for Iran. Despite the conciliatory gestures, Khomeini refused to collaborate with Bakhtiar, denouncing the premier as a traitor for siding with the Shah, labeling his government "illegitimate" and "illegal" and calling for the overthrow of the monarchy. Bakhtiar was accused by some of making mistakes during his premiership such as allowing Khomeini to re-enter Iran. In the end, he failed to rally even his own former colleagues of the National Front. His government was overwhelmingly rejected by the masses except for a very small number of pro-Shah loyalists and a handful of moderate pro-democratic elements. The opposition was not willing to compromise. The Shah was forced to leave the country in January 1979; Bakhtiar left Iran again for France in April of the same year.

French exile and series of assassination attempts

Shortly after the revolution, Ayatollah Sadegh Khalkhali, a religious judge and later chairman of the Revolutionary Court, announced to the press that the death sentence had been passed on members of the Pahlavi family and former Shah officials, including Bakhtiar. In July 1979, Bakhtiar emerged in Paris. He was given

political asylum The right of asylum (sometimes called right of political asylum; ) is an ancient juridical concept, under which people persecuted by their own rulers might be protected by another sovereign authority, like a second country or another entit ...

there. From his base in Paris, he led the National Movement of Iranian Resistance, which fought the Islamic Republic from within the country. Between 9 and 10 July 1980, Bakhtiar helped organize a coup attempt known as the

Nojeh coup plot The "Saving Iran's Great Uprising" ( fa, نجات قیام ایران بزرگ; acronymed NEQAB, fa, نقاب, lit=Mask) more commonly known as the Nojeh coup d'état ( fa, کودتای نوژه, Kūdetâ-ye Nowžeh), was a plan to overthrow the ...

, prompting the Islamic Republic to issue a death sentence on him. On 18 July 1980, he escaped an assassination attempt by a group of three attackers in his home in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a suburb of Paris, in which a policeman and a neighbor were killed. The five-man assassination team with ties to the newly formed Islamic republic led by Anis Naccache, a Lebanese, was captured. They were given life sentences, but French President François Mitterrand pardoned them in July 1990. They were sent to Tehran.

Assassination

On 6 August 1991, Bakhtiar was murdered along with his secretary, Soroush Katibeh, by three assassins in his home in the Parisian suburb of Suresnes. Both men were killed with kitchen knives. Their bodies were not found until at least 36 hours after death, even though Bakhtiar had heavy police protection and his killers had left identity documents with a guard at his house.Riding, Alan
"France Vows to Press for Release of Newly Taken Hostage"
''New York Times'', 10 August 1991. Retrieved 5 November 2007. Two of the assassins escaped to Iran. A third, Ali Vakili Rad, was apprehended in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

,Rempel, William C
"Tale of Deadly Iranian Network Woven in Paris"
, ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

'', 3 November 1994. Retrieved 5 November 2007. along with an alleged accomplice, Zeynalabedin Sarhadi, a great-nephew of the president of Iran at the time, Hashemi Rafsanjani. Both were extradited to France for trial. Vakili Rad was sentenced to life in prison in December 1994, but Sarhadi was acquitted. Rad was paroled on 19 May 2010, after serving 16 years of his sentence. He was received as a hero by Islamic Republic officials.

Aftermath

The release of Rad had happened only two days after Tehran freed Clotilde Reiss, a French student accused of spying by the Islamic regime. Both the French and Iranian governments deny the two affairs are linked. Hours after the assassination of Bakhtiar, a British hostage was released from Lebanon, presumably held by Hezbollah, but a French hostage was taken. Although many in the Iranian exile community speculated of official French complicity in Bakhtiar's death, the second kidnapping is said to cast a shadow over such theories. The French would seem unlikely to support an operation that included the kidnapping of another French hostage in Lebanon, but there is no apparent connection between the two events.

Published works

He published a memoir in addition to many articles. Bakhtiar's books include ''Ma Fidélité'' (in French)Chapour Bachtiar, ''Ma Fidélité'', Edition Albin Michel, Paris 1985 , and ''37 Days after 37 Years'' (in Persian), his biography (highlighting his political career and his beliefs, up to the

Iranian Revolution The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dyna ...

). His writings are of special interest regarding society and politics in the

Pahlavi Era The Pahlavi dynasty ( fa, دودمان پهلوی) was the last Iranian royal dynasty, ruling for almost 54 years between 1925 and 1979. The dynasty was founded by Reza Shah Pahlavi, a non-aristocratic Mazanderani soldier in modern times, who ...

and the period of riots and turbulence just before the fall of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi.

Personal life

Bakhtiar was first married to a French woman with whom he had three children, a son Guy and two daughters, Viviane and France. Viviane died of a heart attack at the age of 49 in

Cannes Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The ...

in August 1991. Guy is a French police intelligence unit officer. Shortly before his death, Bakhtiar divorced his wife and married a young Iranian woman. His second wife was Shahintaj, and they had a son, Goudarz. He also had a stepdaughter named Manijeh Assad. As of 2001, all three were United States citizens. Bakhtiar is buried in Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris.

Notes

External links

* *Website dedicated to Bakhtiar
(English)
*Interview with Bakhtiar on Tuesday 6 March 1984 in Paris (in Persian):
''Shapour Bakhtiar'', Iranian Oral History

�
Audio 1a
(29 min 30 sec)
Audio 2a
(30 min 35 sec)
Audio 1b
(29 min 18 sec)
Audio 2b
(30 min 44 sec)
Iran Chamber Society—Historic Personalities: Shapour Bakhtiar
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bakhtiar, Shapour 1914 births 1991 deaths People from Khuzestan Province Lur people Bakhtiari people National Front (Iran) politicians Prime Ministers of Iran Iranian democracy activists People of the Iranian Revolution French Army soldiers Exiles of the Iranian Revolution in France Iranian emigrants to France University of Paris alumni 1991 murders in France Assassinated Iranian politicians Iranian people murdered abroad People murdered in Paris Terrorism deaths in France Deaths by stabbing in France Burials at Montparnasse Cemetery French Army personnel of World War II French Resistance members People of the Spanish Civil War Iran Party politicians National Resistance Movement of Iran politicians People with acquired French citizenship 20th-century Iranian politicians People from Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province 1990s murders in Paris