Reviving "SAVAK" Symbols is a Dangerous Normalization with Tyranny and a Direct Threat to the Future of Democracy in Iran

Ali Safavi, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), stated today that attempts to rehabilitate symbols associated with Iran's former secret police (SAVAK) in certain European circles do not represent a passing political nostalgia. Rather, they constitute systematic whitewashing of authoritarian violence aimed at legitimizing the language of repression under the guise of fake patriotism.

Safavi said: "History teaches us that fascist projects do not always begin with tanks, but with the aesthetics of fear and the rehabilitation of symbols of torture. For thousands of Iranians, SAVAK was not merely an intelligence agency; it was the sound of prison doors slamming shut in the middle of the night and the embodiment of a machine designed to crush the human spirit before the body. Attempting to absolve this bloody legacy today is an attempt to erase national memory and grant executioners the opportunity to reinvent themselves as guardians of stability."

He added: "At a time when the Velayat-e Faqih regime is disintegrating and facing its inevitable demise following the death of Mullah Ali Khamenei, and under the weight of the external war that is shattering the regime's military infrastructure, the danger of nostalgia for monarchical autocracy emerges as an obstacle to the people's aspirations. The recourse of certain circles surrounding Reza Pahlavi to glorify former tools of repression reveals a stark contradiction between their democratic claims and the exclusionary political culture they adopt, which has begun directing its hostility toward the genuine opposition forces rather than the existing regime."

Safavi continued: "The Iranian people have finalized their choice with their central slogan 'Death to the oppressor, be it the Shah or the Leader,' affirming their categorical rejection of a return to eras of hereditary dictatorship. Any attempt to impose artificial 'hereditary' alternatives from abroad is a losing bet aimed at aborting the democratic revolution led by the **Resistance Units** on the ground. They are the only organized force capable of filling the sovereign vacuum."

Safavi explained: "While the advocates of former autocracy are busy polishing the images of executioners, the sacrifices of our people continue in the face of the remnants of the decaying regime. The apparatus of repression has recently accelerated its crimes by executing eight members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). Among those who gave their lives in this latest wave of judicial murders were the heroes Vahid Bani Amerian and Abolhassan Montazer. This pure blood confirms that the real battle is between tyranny and freedom, and that liberation will only come through organized resistance, not through begging for foreign intervention or recycling the waste of previous regimes."

He emphasized: "The National Council of Resistance of Iran, based on Mrs. Maryam Rajavi's 10-point plan, has announced the formation of a Provisional Government to transition sovereignty to the Iranian people through free and fair elections. This is the democratic alternative that guarantees a non-nuclear Iran, separates religion from the state, respects the rights of nationalities, and ends a century of successive dictatorships."

Safavi concluded: "The international community, especially in Europe, must realize that normalizing SAVAK symbols is a normalization of the concept of torture itself. The future of Iran is being forged by the 'Uprising Youth' and the **Resistance Units** who have paid the price of steadfastness in prisons and exile, not those waiting to inherit power over the ruins of war. The era of obedience masked as patriotism has ended, and the Iran of tomorrow is a pluralistic democratic republic where there is no place for a Shah or a Mullah."