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Event Recap: “Assassins of the Turquoise Palace”
AMERICAN FRIENDS OF BUCERIUS TRANSATLANTIC GLOBAL AGENDA
Roya Hakakian, with commentary from JD Bindenagel, Bruno Jost, and Alexander von Stahl, Sr.: “Assassins of the Turquoise Palace”
February 25, 2014, 12-2pm, Alston + Bird LLP, New York, NY
Roya Hakakian, an eminent journalist and writer, presented her book Assassins of the Turquoise Palace, as the opening program of the 2014 Transatlantic Global Agenda Lecture Series on February 25th, 2014. Ambassador J.D. Bindenagel, a former U.S. diplomat, provided the commentary from the perspective of the U.S. Embassy. Additional commentary was provided by Bruno Jost, the lead German Federal Prosecutor in the historic Mykonos trail, and Alexander von Stahl, Sr., Germany’s Chief Federal Prosecutor who supported the investigation. Mr. Jost and Mr. von Stahl were recipients of the prestigious U.S. Federal Bar Association Rule of Law Award, given for the first time in the nearly one hundred year history of this organization, to individuals from outside the United States. A former Associate Producer for the respected CBS program 60 Minutes, Ms. Hakakian is also a poet and the author of a memoir Journey from the Land of No. She is a founding member of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center and has been a fellow at Yale University’s Whitney Humanities Center. Born into a Jewish family in Iran, Roya came to the U.S. in 1995 on political asylum. Ambassador Bindenagel is a former U.S. Ambassador who served five times in three Germanys – West, East, and United – between 1972 and 2002. When the Mykonos Restaurant assassinations took place in Berlin, he was the State Department’s Country Director for Germany. He subsequently served as the Deputy Chief of Mission to Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke and later as Charge d’Affaires at the U.S. Embassy from 1994 – 1997 during the trial.
Assassins of the Turquoise Palace is an account of the crime and legal repercussions of the “Mykonos Case”, which took place in Germany from 1992 to 1997. In 1992, eight members of the Iranian and Kurdish opposition gathered in a Greek restaurant in Berlin called Mykonos. During the course of their meal, they were fired upon by a group of assailants; four were killed. Initially, a rival Kurdish group was suspected. However, due to the courage and integrity of two German prosecutors, the true perpetrators of this crime were revealed to be connected to the government of Iran. Ms. Hakakian’s painstakingly researched book on the Mykonos case has given these two German prosecutors, as well as the strong rule of law traditions in Germany, the recognition they deserve. Due to the courage of these two German prosecutors, the trial was a triumph for Iranian human rights activists, as well as a triumph for universal justice. Beyond all else, it revealed the independence of the German justice system and its ability to uphold the Rule of Law.
Although many experts believe the Mykonos trial to be the most important of its kind since Nuremburg, there is little public awareness of its significance. Despite discouragement from her friends and publisher, Ms. Hakakian decided to write this book lest this important piece of German-Iranian history be lost. Although many assassinations of Iranian dissidents had been perpetrated in Europe, and elsewhere around the world, no case had been thoroughly investigated before Mykonos. The Iranian campaign of extraterritorial assassinations was carried on in Europe, as well as countries such as Pakistan, Turkey and Iraq, unchecked. Only in the case of the Mykonos trial was the crime solved and traced to the highest leaders in the Iranian government who had ordered it. The trial took four years and included some 170 witnesses.
Although initially skeptical, once convinced of the evidence, German Minister Bernd Schmidbauer permitted the trial to proceed, a clear demonstration of the independence of the German justice system. The Iranian leadership was shocked that the German authorities put higher emphasis on rule of law than on the lucrative trading relationship between the two countries. Members of Iranian leadership at the time, including the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President All Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, were named as perpetrators. The final judgment issued by the court, including issuing an arrest warrant for Iranian intelligence minister Hojjat al-Islan Ali Fallahian, reverberated throughout Europe and shifted the relationship between Germany and Iran. The trial also had a great impact on U.S. – Iranian relations. Ambassador Bindenagel described the way in which the U.S. Embassy in Bonn had closely monitored the trial and taken note of the extent to which it had empowered civil society and the rule of law. Ambassadors from many European countries were also withdrawn from Iran in reaction to the ruling.
The outcome of the trial also had a great impact within Iran. A relatively unknown liberal figure, Mohammad Khatami, suddenly pulled ahead in the polls and won the June 1997 presidential elections in Iran. The election of Khatami coincides with the dawn of the Iranian reform movement. Ms. Hakakian described this as the “butterfly effect.” Two German prosecutors fluttered their wings and caused an enormous change within Iran. For the hundreds of thousands of Iranians in the European diaspora, the outcome of the Mykonos trial changed their relationships with their hosts. For the first time, they felt that they belonged to Germany and Europe. They felt that they had been acknowledged as people worthy of defense.
The Transatlantic Global Agenda
A broad range of issues impact both Germany and the United States of America. The Transatlantic Global Agenda, a discussion series hosted jointly by American Friends of Bucerius and the American Council on Germany and supported by Alston & Bird LLP, acknowledges this by giving leaders in the field of foreign policy the opportunity to exchange ideas and effectively share expertise.