Mother of Iranian Tai Chi Champion: We've been buried alive every day since January 8, 2019
"They didn't hand my child over to us, they just showed us a coffin and said we'd hand him over to Behesht Zahra. When they brought him for burial, it was closed and they didn't let us open it to see. I was never able to see my child properly for the last time and believe that I was really putting my child in that ground. They were around the whole time, standing everywhere and not letting us."
"A closed coffin" is the last image that Arezo Fakur, the mother of Arshia Arbab Bahrami, an Iranian national hero and one of the 176 passengers on Flight 752 that was shot down by missiles from the Revolutionary Guard, has of her 19-year-old son.
In an interview with Radio Farda, Ms. Fakur recounts horrifying details of what happened at Imam Khomeini Airport on the night of January 8, 2019, and that her family has complained to the Revolutionary Guard, its commanders, and the perpetrators, but so far no one from the IRGC has been held accountable .
"Despite all the pain we were in, they came to our house and wanted to declare us martyrs. My child had gone to study, he had gone to study medicine. He had not gone to the front or to war. They killed my child. My child is a victim, not a martyr, and the person who killed my child is a murderer. The greatest suffering is that no one has been tried yet, no one has come to court yet to say that this person could be guilty in this case. We did not even have an apology, a condolence, from the government, and when 176 innocent people were crammed into this plane, the television was still playing the alarm bells of the invasion of Iraq and they did not even put a condolence message on the television."
On March 17, the Civil Aviation Organization blamed the "air defense system operator" in a 285-page report, which, according to the report, identified the passenger plane as a "hostile target" due to an "error in setting the geographic direction" and fired two missiles at it .
The report does not directly mention the Revolutionary Guard Corps, and the sole culprit for this incident is stated to be the "user of the air defense system," but the name or details of this "user" are not included in the report .
Arezo Fakur, the mother of Arshia Arbab Bahrami, calls the report "worthless" and says: "After 15 months, they have issued a completely worthless report in which not a single question has been answered and all the questions that were raised have remained unanswered. This report is wrong from beginning to end and they are handing us the previous lies. Of course, we did not expect anything else, because we were sure from day one that this crime was committed intentionally and deliberately and that our children, our loved ones, were used as human shields. We knew that they were murdered. Which murderer would condemn himself?"
At the same time, Ms. Fakur says that she hoped that in these 15 months, "of those who gave the order, those who carried it out, and those who made such a decision, perhaps someone's conscience will wake up and come and ease this suffering after 15 months. The bread that all these people bring home is stained with the blood of our children and will not go unanswered, and we are sure that one day we will get an answer, and until the day justice is served, we will not forgive, we will not remain silent, and we will not forget. Even at the cost of our lives. We have nothing left to lose. Life is no longer valuable to us. Eid is not Eid for us, nor is birthday, and all the important days of the year have changed for us, and there are no more important and valuable days."
"My wife complained to the authorities and perpetrators in the very first days. The rest of the association members who are in Iran have all gone many times, but have not received any answers. It is strange to us that none of those in the Revolutionary Guard are even questioned. They did not ask them once why or for what reason this happened, and no one was held accountable, neither the Revolutionary Guard nor the people at the airport."
Arshia Arbab Bahrami was a national champion in Iranian Tai Chi martial arts who had won several medals in international and world competitions. Her mother, in response to the government's announcement of compensation for the survivors, says:
"This is the biggest insult that could be done to families. Because they are actually saying, 'We beat everyone, we killed them, and now you come and make a deal with us and we will pay for it.' My child was a national champion. He was a world champion, and at the age of 17, do you know how many gold medals and how many silver medals he had? The very time he came to Iran, he won two gold medals in Tai Chi. I am willing to pay ten times that money. Will they give me my child back? Can I do that? Who is willing to trade their child for money?"
Ms. Fakur, who was present at Imam Khomeini Airport with her husband and two children until the Ukrainian plane took off, shares details that have rarely been discussed so far:
"We left the CIP section of the airport so that we could be with Arshia until the last minute, and Arshia had her head on my lap the whole time. At one point, I looked at the clock and saw that it was a little later than the time they were supposed to come, call, and give us our boarding passes. At one point, I looked and saw a woman watching TV and slapping her face. I felt like people were reacting a little bit. I got up and saw that the TV was showing that they had attacked the American base in Iraq and that they were celebrating the attack."
"The world came crashing down on me. I was filled with a terrible fear that if something like this had happened, they might respond on the other side, and God forbid, something would happen to the plane. I felt very bad. At that moment, I said, 'What should we do now that something like this has happened?' Arshia joked back and said, 'Now that I'm flying, two missiles are passing above and below the plane.' I said, 'Mom, that's not a good joke, don't say it, it's not a good thing at all.' We thought to ourselves, 'If there's going to be a war, it's better for our child to leave early and have peace of mind.' We never thought that they would fire missiles at him over his own country."
Flight 752 departed that night with a delay, but according to Arshia's mother, the airport sign was out of order: "As I was hugging her, I didn't want to let her go; a state of anxiety and panic, I don't know what it was, but it was a very bad feeling. It wasn't like the last time I was sending her off. I was at the airport until six in the morning. The flight sign didn't change. It didn't say it was delayed or anything. I kept going back and asking why the flight wasn't leaving, why wasn't there any change in the sign? They said that this sign might be different from the main sign, that sometimes there are problems. I went back and asked again, and they said yes, it took off. We were relieved. My wife was looking at the flight schedule on her mobile phone, and she said it had taken off, but the internet was down and it wasn't showing . "
"It was 7 am, my cousin called. I was very surprised, but since she also has a son the same age as my son, I thought she heard the news of the attack and was worried about Arshia's flight. I picked up the phone and said, "I know you're worried about Arshia's departure. Thank God, Arshia flew and escaped this dangerous situation. Suddenly, she said, "Arzoo, which flight did she take? Wasn't it flight 752? I just remember that when I heard this, I couldn't control myself anymore. Why would she need to know my child's flight number? I said, "How do you know the flight number?" He said, "Nothing, they said it was a technical fault."
"I don't understand what happened anymore. I don't know at all, I just know I dropped the phone and I wasn't myself anymore, I don't remember anything at all. I remember everything like fragments of a movie, scenes, because I was in a psychotic state. I just remember screaming, 'Take me, let me find my child.' I was begging, 'Take me, wherever I am, let me find my child . '"
For the first three days after the plane was shot down, Islamic Republic officials concealed the truth, citing the cause as a plane crash. However, after international pressure, the IRGC's aerospace commander announced that the plane was targeted "accidentally" and that the IRGC's defenses had mistaken it for a cruise missile.
Arshia Arbab Bahrami's mother says: "They told me that the flight had a technical fault and that's why this happened. They wouldn't let me listen to any news. That is, they hid it from me for several days and wouldn't let me find out what happened. Later I found out that they had fired a missile at the plane. This was another disaster upon disaster, and every day I say I wish this plane had a technical fault, at least we would have said it was an accident. After all, someone has an accident, someone gets sick; but it's very difficult to accept this."
"More than a year has passed, but every day we are being buried alive. That is, we have no life since January 18; we are practically the walking dead. We are no longer alive. Our life ended there. We cannot see another happy day, and every day with every piece of news that comes, we feel bad again and we fall apart . "
"I say the first missile was hit, why was the second missile hit? When they said 19 seconds, believe me, I counted 24 hours and 19 seconds. 19 seconds was not a short time. It was not a short time for them to be afraid. For them to suffer. Why was the plane delayed? Why was the atmosphere at the airport so strange? We didn't understand at the time, but now that we think about it, the atmosphere at the airport was not normal. There was nothing written on the sign and the delay was excessive, and none of this was normal. This is truly unbearable. It is a rage that will not be extinguished in any way, and since that date, we have heard different news every day, and with every piece of news, January 18 has been repeated to us, and with every piece of news, we have been buried alive again."
Arshia's burnt passport is the only thing her family was given: "I begged you to give me the cellphone and laptop; all my child's memories are in them, and my child's memories are important to me. He had all this money with him, he had gold with him, they were nothing, but give me the things that were memories for us. They didn't give them, and this is torture for me."
"All we want is for justice to be served. Our questions must be answered. They are playing with our souls every day; every day with every word, every sentence, and every example they give. For us, the worst thing that could have happened has happened, and there is no greater tragedy or greater pain than this. At least from now on, let us burn with our pain and stop harassing us so much. Answer our questions so that at least we can get out of this ambiguity. Living in ambiguity is very difficult. Losing your loved one and not knowing what happened is very difficult. At least they don't rub salt in our wounds. We are only alive to see the day of justice, we are only alive to get answers to our questions."
Source: Radio Farda
