thumb|The names of the four victims on a commemorative plaque

In the Mykonos restaurant assassinations (, ; also the "Mykonos Incident"), Iranian-Kurdish opposition leaders Sadegh Sharafkandi, Fattah Abdoli, Homayoun Ardalan and their translator Nouri Dehkordi, were assassinated at the Mykonos Greek restaurant in Berlin, Germany on 17 September 1992. The assassination took place during the KDPI insurgency (1989–96), as part of the general Kurdish separatism in Iran. The assassins were believed by German courts to have links to Iranian intelligence. Kazem Darabi, an Iranian intelligence service employee, was tried and sentenced to life imprisonment by the Berlin Supreme Court.

Events

Sharafkandi, Abdoli, Ardalan and Dehkordi were murdered in a mafia-style attack at the Mykonos Greek restaurant located on Prager Straße in Berlin at about 11 pm on 17 September 1992. In the same restaurant a meeting was scheduled of Ingvar Carlsson, a two-term Prime Minister of Sweden and leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party, Mona Sahlin, the secretary of the Swedish Social Democratic Party and Pierre Schori, the former Swedish State Secretary for Foreign Affairs. Due to a telephone call to Ingvar Carlsson from Carl Bildt, the then-current Prime Minister of Sweden, who urged Carlsson to immediately return to Sweden due to the alleged urgent state of the Swedish economy, all three flew back to Sweden the same day and thus probably escaped being assassinated as well. after declaring that the assassination had been ordered by him with knowledge of Khamenei and Rafsanjani. This led to a diplomatic crisis between the government of Iran and those of several European countries lasting until November 1997. Despite international and domestic protests, Darabi and Rhayel were released from prison on 10 December 2007 and deported back to their home countries.

Adaptations in media

The events surrounding the Mykonos restaurant assassinations and subsequent trial were adapted into a non-fiction story by Roya Hakakian in her book Assassins of the Turquoise Palace in 2011.

The Mykonos restaurant assassinations (alongside the 1994 AMIA bombing) are attributed to Majid Javadi in the first episode of the third season of the 2011 American TV show Homeland.

See also

  • Germany–Iran relations
  • Iran and state-sponsored terrorism
  • Chain murders of Iran
  • Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran

References

  • "Holy Crime" A Documentary by Reza Allamehzadeh about the assassinations (English version on YouTube)
  • A detailed report on the assassinations Iran Human Rights Documentation Center