Arash Aramesh

In an orchestrated effort, pro-government and state-run media in Iran have intensified their calls for the Iranian people to show up in large numbers for the planned February 11 demonstrations and celebrate the thirty-first anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. Fars News, a semi-official news agency with close ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, published calls and announcements made by many high-ranking Iranian officials and senior clerics, including Chief Justice Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, Mostafa Pourmohammadi, the former minister of interior, Grand Ayatollah Javadi-Amoli, Grand Ayatollah Ali Nouri-Hamedani, and even Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani.

According to Fars, Rafsanjani asked the Iranian people to “show the imperialists that they [people] are still with the revolution.” In a separate call, Chief Justice Larijani invited the masses to participate in the rallies in order to “disappoint the enemy.”

IRNA, the Islamic Republic’s News Agency, has published Ayatollah Nouri-Hamedani’s letter urging the masses to “defend the goals of the revolution.” Nouri-Hamedani, Iran’s only Grand Ayatollah who congratulated Ahmadinejad’s contested victory on June 12, said, “Unfortunately, the events that followed the election have made the enemy very happy and we must show our support for the Velayat Faqih and the regime on February 11.”

Kayhan, Iran’s largest state-run newspaper, dedicated its first page to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei who said, “The people of Iran will shock the world on February 11.” Khamenei, who was speaking to a number of Iran’s Air Force officers, said, “Those who stood in front of the will of the people after the election were not from the people. They are either counterrevolutionaries or doing the bidding of counterrevolutionaries due to their ignorance and intransigence and they are not from the masses.”

Aside from the print media and online news agencies, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, IRIB, has filled the airwaves with programs about the 1979 revolution urging people to participate in planned rallies and demonstrations across the country. Special talk shows, mini-series, and documentaries have been aired in the past few days all focusing on the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and asking people to commemorate the last great revolution of the century by showing their support for the government.

It is believed that the state is preparing for a large turnout by the opposition and the Green Movement. Various opposition sources are reporting that the state has bussed people from villages to major cities in order to participate in the February 11, pro-government rally. Many government agencies have ordered their employees to show up for planned demonstrations. Meanwhile, the government has severely slowed down internet speeds, filtered many social networking sites, such as Twitter and Skype, and shut down SMS services in an attempt to prevent the opposition from organizing effectively.