Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – June 18, 1995

In the statement of the [Group of Seven] Halifax Summit in Canada, they issued a statement about Iran in which the usual words were repeated. It has nothing new. Under American pressure, a neutral action was taken. We headed toward [Mehrabad] Airport. Effat and a group of her women friends were accompanying. We immediately flew toward Tabriz. Messrs. Ali Mohammad Besharati, Akbar Torkan, Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh, Alireza Marandi, Gholamreza Forouzesh, and Gholamreza Shafei, the Ministers of Interior, Roads and Transportation, Industries, Health, Construction Jihad, and Cooperatives, and Messrs. Hamid Mirzadeh, [Deputy Executive of the President], Eqbali, [head of the security detail], and the province's representatives were accompanying.

After the official reception ceremony at the airport, we headed toward Takhti Stadium. The people's welcome was very huge. Mr. Ali Abdolalizadeh, the governor of East Azerbaijan, and Mr. Mohsen Mojtahed Shabestari, the Friday prayer leader, who were in my car, were saying that it is much wider and more enthusiastic than past welcomes. Due to the crowding, the window beside me broke and I was completely unprotected. We covered half of the streets of the route. It was no longer possible to proceed. We changed the route and reached the stadium via the ring road, and later apologized to the people of the rest of the route.

First, there was a ceremony in the warm and magnificent gathering of the selfless; an anthem and slogans and a report and welcome and my encouraging speech for the selfless. We went to the people's gathering in the open field of the stadium. The magnificence and density, the vastness and fervor and excitement of the people were indescribable. The Friday prayer leader and the governor gave a warm welcome. The atmosphere of the gathering tolerated nothing but praise, and the people offered enthusiastic feelings for the governor. I too gave a detailed speech about the greatness and honors of Tabriz and Azerbaijan and the potentials and the construction and development plans.

From there we went for the inauguration of the newly built Faculty of Dentistry. With a budget of seven hundred million tomans and five million dollars, it has been built over ten years and has expensive equipment, mainly foreign, and more than the need. They said it is the largest unit of its kind in the entire Middle East.

For lunch and prayer and rest, we went to Mr. Mojtahed Shabestari's house; the same house of Mr. Moslem Malakouti, the former Friday prayer leader. A group of clerics and managers were also there. After the rest, Mr. Alaeddin Boroujerdi, [the Deputy for Asia and Oceania of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs], came. He received a message for the President of Turkey and said relations are heading toward gloom. I guided him on what to say. Mr. Shabestari came. He said to arrange that in the counties the Friday prayer leaders also give welcome speeches. He expressed doubt about staying in Tabriz; for now he has come as the temporary Friday prayer leader.

We went for the inauguration of the new building of the Islamic Azad University, Tabriz Branch. It is a good place, with fifty hectares of land, eight thousand square meters of building, and many buildings under development, with eleven thousand students. We visited the exhibition and the classes. We heard the report of Mr. Seyyed Javad Angaji, [the head of the Islamic Azad University, Tabriz Branch], and the welcome of Mr. Abdollah Jasbi. A girl student recited an interesting poem describing my government's construction program. Overall, the axis of the praise and eulogy is this same axis of my government, and it is interesting that this situation has become established.

We inaugurated the Tabriz-Zanjan freeway project with sixteen billion tomans of credit and two hundred and ninety kilometers. Mr. Torkan's report and my speech and the groundbreaking of the project were carried out. We went to visit the Tabriz Petrochemical project under implementation. Mr. Ahmad Rahgozar, [the CEO of the Petrochemical Industries], and the project manager gave reports. With eight hundred million dollars and three hundred billion rials in cost and two hundred and fifty thousand tons of expensive product, it will be launched this year. With Mr. Rahgozar's explanations, we took a tour by car.

Then we went to the Tabriz refinery. With the refinery head's explanations, we took a tour by car, which is interesting. It seemed to me that it is a valuable unit and is well managed; although the Tabriz refinery was bombed 19 times during the war. It produces thirty percent above capacity.

Then we went to the telecommunications center. We participated in the ceremony for the operation of eighty-three thousand telephone lines, mobile telephone, and data. We went to the governorate. After a little rest and prayer and study, to participate in the meeting of the province's clergy, we went to the Jame Mosque of Tabriz. There were many people. Mr. Shabestari and Mr. Najaf Aqazadeh, the head of the Revolutionary Court, gave praise-filled welcome speeches. I too spoke about the services and duties of the clergy. We had dinner with the clerics. During dinner, one of the clerics who had been with me during my military service in 1963 at the Bagh-e Shah garrison sat beside me and asked for help.

At eleven at night we reached the governorate. Along all the routes there and back in the city of Tabriz, we were faced with the enthusiastic, unplanned welcome of the people. It is a source of surprise for the companions. I wrote the memoirs and slept.