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Hamid Ashraf: Iran’s Leading tactician of Guerrilla Warfare
Abstract
Hamid Ashraf (1946-1976) was a key revolutionary figure in the 1970s and a unique personality among revolutionary activists of his generation. Born in Tehran and educated in prestigious Tehran University, he was also an avid athlete engaging in mountaineering and swimming. As opposition to the regime of Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi went through generational cange and became more radical in t1960s, Ashraf joined political activists such as Bizhan Jazani and Hassan Zia-zarifi in preparing to launched armed struggle against it. As one of the youngest among the early activists, Ashraf soon showed great aptitude for organization and development of tactics suitable for an underground organization. When in late 1967 many members of the group he was working with were arrested by the security forces, he played a pivotal role in reorganizing the remnant of the group, open negotiations with another underground organization under the leadership of Masud Ahmadzadeh and Amir Parviz Puyan, help to launch the first guerrilla attack in February 1971 which led to the founding of Organization of People’s Fada’i Guerrillas (OIPFG) a few months later. By 1971, with the death of Ahmadzadeh and Puyan, and with Jazan and Zarifi in prison, Ashraf became the undisputed leader of OIPFG, and the main tactician of guerrilla warfare until his death in 1976. This paper examines the life and legacy of Hamid Ashraf based to his own writings, and available information on him and his time, especially recently published documents on his relationship with other Marxist underground groups and on the manner of his entrapment and death.
Discipline
History
Geographic Area
Iran
Sub Area
19th-21st Centuries