The Story behind General Afshartoos Murder

In 1940s, Iran passed through its most crucial, full of tension, hardest and in one way most exciting time in her contemporary history. The ultimate of this period is late 1940s and early 1950s when the Oil Nationalization Movement was at its highest moments, Mossadegh had become prime minister and finally the 1953 coup happened. All the main events in this period had important implications and reflections that each one has been followed by many discussions and challenges. One of these events that had been noted seriously is the story of murdering the country’s police commander at the time of Mossadegh administration. General Mahmoud Afshartoos was brutally killed in an astonishing event just three months after being chosen as the police force commander. This event not only at that time but also even decades later had been focused on as one of the main events of Mossadegh premiership. There are different viewpoints around this event because of the effect of it on the coup happening and the role played by some opponents of Mossadegh. In this paper the author wants to analyze this event. There are some books published about this event but they cannot be considered as and academic text or a comprehensive research because all of them are based on party or political interests or just raw unorganized materials. The books around the Mossadegh cabi- net and 1953 coup that usually may focus in some pages on this matter are not comprehensive or complete. Considering all these, the author has tried to represent this event comprehensively and organized using his own knowledge and historical info capabilities. He has tried to not to repeat the repeated info in other sources and bring new materials for documenting this event for the readers.