People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran

The People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), also known as Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) or Mojahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO), is an Iranian dissident organization that was previously armed but has now transitioned primarily into a political advocacy group. Its headquarters are currently based in Albania. The group's ideology is rooted in "Islam with revolutionary Marxism", but after the Iranian revolution became about overthrowing the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and installing its own government. At one point the MEK was Iran's "largest and most active armed dissident group", and it is still sometimes presented by Western political backers as a major Iranian opposition group, but it is also known to be deeply unpopular today within Iran, largely due to its siding with Iraq in the Iran–Iraq War. The MEK was founded on 5 September 1965 by leftist Iranian students affiliated with the Freedom Movement of Iran to oppose the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The organization contributed to overthrowing the Shah during the 1979 Iranian Revolution. It subsequently pursued the establishment of a democracy in Iran, particularly gaining support from Iran's middle class intelligentsia. The MEK boycotted the 1979 constitutional referendum, which led to Khomeini barring MEK leader Massoud Rajavi from the 1980 presidential election. On June 20, 1981, the MEK organized a demonstration against Khomeini with the aim of overthrowing the regime. Some 50 demonstrators were killed in the protests. On June 28, the MEK was implicated in the blowing up of the headquarters of the Islamic Republican Party (IRP) in the Hafte Tir bombing, killing 74 officials and party members. Facing the subsequent repression of the MEK by the IRP, Rajavi fled to Paris. During the exile, the underground network that remained in Iran continued to plan and carry out attacks and it allegedly conducted the August 1981 bombing that killed Iran's president and prime minister, Rajai and Bahonar. In 1983, the MEK began meeting with Iraqi officials. In 1986, France expelled the MEK at the request of Iran, forcing it to relocate to Camp Ashraf in Iraq. During the Iran-Iraq War, the MEK then sided with Iraq, taking part in Operation Forty Stars, Operation Mersad, and the suppression of the 1991 uprisings in Iraq. Following Operation Mersad, Iranian officials ordered the mass execution of prisoners said to support the MEK.