TEHRAN -- On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Jungle Movement led by legendary freedom fighter Mirza Koochak Khan Jangali, a conference will be held simultaneously in Tehran and Gilan Province's capital Rasht in 2002 with the participation of researchers and scholars from all across the nation.

In an exclusive interview with the TEHRAN TIMES, the Advisor of the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance and the Secretary General of the Jungle Movement Reevaluation Center, Mohammad Hassan Asgharnia, said that the conference will deal with various issues of the Jungle Movement, including its religious, social, historical, political as well as cultural aspects. The best works submitted to the secretariat will be awarded.

"The Jungle Movement, which was established on the eve of World War I, laid the ground for a popular movement in the northern part of the country. In this period, the Muslim people of Iran were grappling with social unrest, anarchy, political turmoil, abject poverty, famine and numerous other problems", Asgharnia said.

Meanwhile, the secretary of the conference said that after Reza Khan took power, he issued a highly classified document requesting high-ranking security officials to deliver Mirza Koochak to him, dead or alive, offering a large reward to whoever did so.

This secret document which was recently discovered explicitly shows that the king of Iran was desperately seeking to suppress the Jungle Movement as soon as possible in order to crack down on the new freedom movements mobilized in different parts of Iran, Asgharnia told the TEHRAN TIMES.

He emphasized that the Jungle Movement had to confront enemies on five fronts: the British, the Russians, Reza Khan's forces, the landlords (khans) and their multilateral spies.

Asgharnia said that the secretariat of the conference has so far received 44 articles from researchers and that the date of the conference will be announced soon.

Prominent Iranian researchers residing abroad will attend the conference, including Toraj Atabaki, the head of the Middle East Department of Amsterdam University in the Netherlands, who has submitted an article as well, Asgharnia said. Since the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, numerous books, articles, and research papers have been published on various aspects of the Jungle Movement.

Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) even broadcast a serial based on the life of this outstanding revolutionary hero of Iran who gave his life for the sake of Islam and Iran several decades ago. The serial, which addressed the realities of his life, drew an audience of millions across the country.

Asgharnia, who is also an academic board member, added that in a crisis-ridden society, Mirza Koochak Khan rose up in an armed struggle to topple the corrupt central government and replace it with a republic system based on the aspirations of the majority of the Muslim Iranian people.

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