Analysis of the reasons and consequences of publishing the article on January 7, 1977

n January 7, 1978, an article entitled "Iran and the Red and Black Colonization" written by Ahmad Rashidi Motlagh was published in the newspaper Ettela'at. This article was widely reported throughout Iran, but with the spread of the Qom protests, its consequences became immediately apparent, and the number of people killed increased as the protests spread. This paper seeks to investigate the nature of the article and the reasons and consequences of its publication by considering Korpi's theory and Mohammad Reza Shah's performance in the face of crisis. The findings of the present study show that the article of January 7, like a spark in the heart of suffocating and repressive days, led to the unification of opposition forces based on religious ideology and became a turning point for field struggles. What is important, meanwhile, was the regime's reckless approach to confronting the opposition, which ultimately sparked the revolution in the wake of such incidents.