Military government of Gholam Reza Azhari | |
|---|---|
.svg){kind=small} Military cabinet of Imperial State of Iran | |
| Prime Minister | |
 | |
| Date formed | 6 November 1978 |
| Date dissolved | 31 December 1978 |
| People and organisations | |
| Head of state | Mohammad Reza Pahlavi |
| Head of government | Gholam Reza Azhari |
| Deputy head of government | Ali Fardad |
| No. of ministers | 18 |
| History | |
| Legislature term | 24th Iranian Majlis |
| Predecessor | Government of Jafar Sharif-Emami |
| Successor | Government of Shapour Bakhtiar |
The Shah ordered Gholam Reza Azhari at 5 November 1978 to lead the military government at the time of growing protests in the country.[1] The selection of General Azhari was taken as an indirect signal to the revolutionaries that the regime had lost its resolve to resist and play it tough.[2] The cabinet was officially formed on 6 November.[3]
Of the eleven cabinet ministers appointed by Azhari, only six were military, and even this number was whittled down in the following weeks. The military cabinet members, for the most part, had no experience in their respective areas of responsibility. In short, the hotly debated change to a military government was, in practice, more cosmetic than real.[1]
Among Azhari's first acts were the arrest and imprisonment of former Prime Minister Hoveida, the former head of SAVAK, the former head of the national police, the former mayor of Tehran and several more former ministers and high dignitaries. These wanton acts were again carried out in the hope of appeasing the revolutionaries.[2]
On the eve of 20 December, Prime Minister Gholam Reza Azhari suffered a massive heart attack. He tendered his resignation to the Shah on 31 December 1978.[4]
- ^ a b Fardust, Hussein (1998). The Rise and Fall of the Pahlavi Dynasty: Memoirs of Former General Hussein Fardust. Translated by Dareini, Ali Akbar. Motilal Banarsidass. p. 392. ISBN 9788120816428.
- ^ a b Ganji, Manouchehr (2002). Defying the Iranian Revolution: From a Minister to the Shah to a Leader of Resistance. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 24–25. ISBN 9780275971878.
- ^ Misagh Parsa (1982). Social origins of the Iranian revolution (PhD thesis). University of Michigan. p. 127. ISBN 979-8-204-15323-3. ProQuest 303064421.
- ^ Phillips, Tomas B. (2012). Queer Sinister Things: The Hidden History of Iran. Lulu. p. 406. ISBN 9780557509294.