Rival Narratives of IRGC Mouthpiece and Former Officer 

Emadeddin Baghi is known to most Iran watchers as a journalist, human rights activist, and reformist figure, but he is also one of the founding members of the Political Bureau of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Drawing on his experience and readings, he urges Iranians to express their protests by peaceful means and the regime to tolerate such protests. Javan daily, which is close to the IRGC, on the other hand, dismisses all protesters as “anarchists” and “rioters” rather than reformists. Had the regime embraced the likes of Baghi and other reformists in the 1990s, it would perhaps not have faced “anarchists” and “rioters” today.

• November 23: In an extensive interview with reformist Shargh daily, Baghi explained “They,” in reference to the regime, “claim ‘we accept protests but will not tolerate riots.’ As we have said and written many times, to prove your point, you should free individuals who only engaged in protests … or free individuals arrested prior to recent events, did not engage in any riot, and only verbally uttered their protest. But it is as if what we are saying is falling on deaf ears … If you read Kayhan newspaper, they claim we reformists paved the path of the protest movement. If the regime truly wants to engage in a dialogue, they should stop the artillery barrage first.” Asked about foreign machinations in the ongoing protests, Baghi said: “Nobody is denying the interference of foreign elements. They have always existed and have always been present in all states, just like microbes, which have been with us since the creation of man … but they only vanquish us when our immune system is compromised … Foreign elements cannot have an impact unless the ground is prepared within the country … Violence has not reached the point of no return … But dialogue is needed to prevent worse from happening … The choice is not between ‘Syrianization’ or submitting to the rulers … There are civil ways … But the regime has ultimate power and therefore ultimate responsibility. It was also the regime that began the entire thing. The solution too, first and foremost demobilizing the plainclothes officers, is in the hands of the regime. Accommodating minimum cultural and economic demands of the public comes next, but of course none of this legitimizes violence committed by the protesters.”
• November 23: Under the headline “Anarchism Against Mighty Iran” IRGC mouthpiece Javan daily’s editorial claimed: “We are facing a destructive movement for which there is no acceptable explanation … and the aim of which is to escalate violence … Economic problems, which have occurred in the wake of a decade of unprecedented global sanctions, are often mentioned as one of the main reasons behind the riots. While we can’t ignore this factor … this one factor alone cannot explain the state of affairs … as previous labor protests never ended in violence … What has happened is legitimization of extreme violence by rioters … What we see these days is not a reformist movement within the framework of the law and in the public interest but a destructive and ruinous one, which escalates violence and starts a civil war.” 

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