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“Yes, my sin—my greater sin and even my greatest sin is that I nationalized Iran's oil industry and discarded the system of political and economic exploitation by the world's greatest empire. This at the cost to myself, my family; and at the risk of losing my life, my honor, and my property.” — Mohammad Mosaddeq at his tribunal, December 1953 In 2005, on a trip to Iran, I decided to go to Ahmadabad and take a video of the place. I had many reasons for doing so. One was for my own gratification; another was to honor my father. My father, Nosratollah Amini, was Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddeq's personal attorney, and the only one besides the immediate family who had permission to visit him during his years of house arrest from 1956 until his death in 1967. Even Jawaharlal Nehru of India, who during a visit to Iran had asked to see him, was dissuaded from doing so. He was told that Mosaddeq was sick, which was not true.

The seventieth anniversary of the 1953 coup that toppled the government of Mohammad Mossadeq in Iran provides the opportunity to assess not only the history of Iran during Mossadeq's premiership and the consequential oil crisis, but also to examine Mossadeq's legacy, the oil nationalization, and the conflict between Iran and the West. Mosaddeq's personality and distinct profile, which continued to haunt the West for decades even after his death, contributed to the mythical place this affair has occupied in the Iranian national memory, but now, seven decades later, how do we use that period as a lens through which to examine other chapters in Iran's history? What can we make of the scholarship and sources about Iran before 1951 or after 1953? What is the impact of this affair on the collective memory of Iranians in and outside Iran as we enter the second quarter of the 21st century?

The first court hearing of those accused in the Kahrizak detention centre [where the law enforcement forces were accused of rape] presided over by Judge Hojjat Ol-Eslam Mohammad Mossadeq was convened in the Armed Forces Judicial Organisation. [Mehr]: at the outset of the proceedings, attended by the families of the victims and the plaintiffs and their counsels and all the accused, Koranic verses were recited. Hojjat Ol-Eslam Mohammad Mossadeq said: The enforcing of justice and the law are the only objectives of this court. On the basis of the law, everyone is equal before this tribunal and they will be judged on the basis of evidence, witness [statements] and circumstances. The right decision will then be taken.

A poem is presented.

The many pavilions in this exhibition display America's interference in Iran and the tragedies perpetrated by that country in Lebanon, occupied Palestine, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Japan and...[ellipsis as published] - each of which bears witness to the American government's cruelties in the past fifty years or more. We would be able to grasp the slogan of \"Death to America\" more rationally if we were to glance at the instances of America's interference in Iran. The above and other cases of American plots against Iran have burnt all the bridges of communications and dialogue between Iran and that country. It is truly astonishing that, despite all these conspiracies and crimes, and the fact that America still harbours hostility towards the Iranian people, some people are thinking of negotiations and talking of the benefits of dialogue and relations with that country. Indeed, that there are some people who are not ashamed of saying that we should give up chanting: \"Death to America\"?! Last week, tens of thousands of people gathered in the Imam Khomeyni Square in Esfahan City and the thoroughfares of the hero- nurturing city of Najafabad, to loudly chant \"Death to America,\" and in a splendid display they proved that the Iranian nation is the same nation that it was in the year 1357 [1979] and the years of the [Iran- Iraq] war. Nothing has changed between Iran and America. Neither have the Americans climbed down from their high seat of arrogance, nor have we lost the fervour of our struggle against arrogant powers. Neither have the Americans regretted confronting pure Muhammadan Islam, nor have we given up in the slightest our defence of Islam. Neither have the Americans set aside their bullying and brutality, nor have we forgotten our zeal, courage and aspirations.

Few upheavals in the Middle East have had wider aftershocks than the 1953 coup that overthrew the Iranian nationalist leader Mohammed Mossadeq. Zahrani explores the complex factors--the people, the countries, and the parties--that played a part in what was hardly an inevitable outcome.

Against the backdrop of U.S. failures in Iraq, Washington's bellicosity towards Iran has intensified. The [George W. Bush] administration last week imposed the most sweeping set of unilateral sanctions on Iran since 1979, and proceeded with its controversial decision to brand the Quds unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps as a \"terrorist organisation\" for its alleged proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the Quds Force's alleged support of \"terrorism\" in Iraq. \"The label of the word terrorist is so devoid of meaning now, it's hypocritical,\" said Stephen Kinzer, a former New York Times bureau chief and author of the book \"All the Shah's Men\", about the 1953 Central Intelligence Agency-backed coup d'etat to oust democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeq. \"Had it not been for the fact that the democratic government came to power in the 1950s, and became obsessed with the great project of nationalising the Iranian oil reserves, there wouldn't be a 1953,\" said Kinzer. \"Had we [U.S.] not overthrown the Mossadeq government in 1953, we might have had a thriving democracy in the heart of the Middle East for these past 50 years.\"

Three outsize Britons presided over BP's birth in 1909: an entrepreneurial buccaneer named William Knox D'Arcy, a young member of Parliament named Winston Churchill, and the Royal Navy's leading \"oil maniac,\" Admiral Sir John Fisher. \"If a single man be permitted to hold the title,\" according to BP's authorized history, \"D'Arcy must go down to posterity as the father of the entire oil industry in the Middle East.\" It's true. Having amassed a fortune in Australia's gold rush, D'Arcy in 1901 gambled on reports that oil abounded in southwest Persia. Finally in 1908, just as D'Arcy was about to abandon his search for oil, a gusher erupted at Majid-i-Suleiman, a plateau in the Zagros Mountains. The oil field was immediately encircled by India's Bengal Lancers, as if it were British territory, and an ecstatic Lieutenant A.T. Wilson wired this coded message to his superiors: \"See Psalm 104 verse 15 third sentence\" (\"That he may bring oil out of the earth to make him a cheerful countenance\").

Today, 19 August is the 49th anniversary of the US-orchestrated 28 Mordad, 1332 (19 August, 1953) coup that toppled the popular and nationalist government of former Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeq and put back on the throne the exiled Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. Dr Mossadeq is best remembered for his drive toward nationalizing Iranian oil. During his short tenure as prime minister, Mossadeq was continuously thwarted in his effort to implement his popular and nationalist policies by the British and American-supported Shah. When Dr Mossadeq finally took his case directly to the Iranian nation, the ensuing chain of events forced the Shah to leave the country and seek refuge in Europe.

Against the backdrop of U.S. failures in Iraq, Washington's ferocity toward Iran has intensified. The [George W. Bush] administration last week imposed the most sweeping set of unilateral sanctions on Iran since 1979, and proceeded with its controversial decision to brand the Quds unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps as a \"terrorist organization\" for its alleged proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the Quds Force's alleged support of \"terrorism\" in Iraq. \"The label of the word terrorist is so devoid of meaning now, it's hypocritical,\" said Stephen Kinzer, a former New York Times bureau chief and author of the book \"All the Shah's Men,\" about the 1953 Central Intelligence Agency-backed coup d'etat to oust democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeq. \"Had it not been for the fact that the democratic government came to power in the 1950s and became obsessed with the great project of nationalizing the Iranian oil reserves, there wouldn't be a 1953,\" Kinzer added. \"Had we [the U.S.] not overthrown the Mossadeq government in 1953, we might have had a thriving democracy in the heart of the Middle East for these past 50 years.\"