DEATH OF THE LADY OF TURKMEN HORSES:

A NATURAL DEATH OR A MURDER?

In Turkmensahra, Louise Firouz, who had devoted her whole life to the breeding of the noble Turkmen horses, suddenly lost her life on May 25th. The death of Louise Firouz, who was 76 years old and who had devoted her 50 years to the breeding of Turkmen horses, first seemed to be natural. However, our organization obtained certain information and documents in time which showed that she had died in a suspicious way. These information and documents reveal a new murder plan of the bloody Islamic Republic.

The Turkmen know Louise Firouz very well as a person who admired Turkmen horses and the Turkmen culture and life and spent her life in Turkmensahra as an American for a precious goal.

She married an Iranian called Narsi Firouz from the Qajar dynasty during the time of Pahlavi. As of 1957, she started to live in a green farm in the village of Qara Tappeh Sheikh of Kalaleh and engaged in breeding and exporting Turkmen horses. Louise enjoyed a special respect from the Turkmen in the region. The Turkmen considered her as a person like them and as the lady of Turkmen horses. Louise had a quiet life in Iran until her last days. However, after the fundamentalists came to power in Iran, the security forces of the Golestan region started to apply pressure on this lady of the Turkmen horses with oppression and persecution. The Iranian security forces, who were disturbed by Louise Firouz’s efforts to keep the noble Turkmen horse alive and her living among the Turkmen as a person originally from America, watched, with suspicion and concern, her travels she made in order to export horses abroad. Last year, in June, Louise was subjected to an interrogation which lasted for hours in the Gorgan Intelligence Office. Following this, she continuously came across with new problems. Finally, she witnessed that an individual known as Mohammadi, who was a member of the Intelligence, claimed the farm where she had been breeding horses for 50 years. Mohammadi managed to takeover the title deed of Louise Firouz’s farm with the support of the security forces. It was claimed that Louise’s farm had no title deed as many other lands in Turkmensahra! A clandestine plan, similar those which were used for many farmers in the Turkmen villages, was this time used for an old lady. This mean plan was an unexpected and unbearable fact for this lady who had devoted her life to the farm and her horses. This incident, the pressure of the men of the Golestan Intelligence and Louise’s resistance all turned her life into a hell.

Louise became ill on March in 2008 and went to Belgium where she received treatment in a hospital. After the medical treatment, she went back to the noble horses in Turkmensahra.

During the same period, the court which was arranged beforehand tried Louise in absentia and gave a judgment against her. Louise, after returning Iran, resisted and raised objection to this decision. So, threats against Louise increased. Four days before her death, a man who complained about her came to her and threatened this lady of Turkmen horses to empty her farm.

On May 25th, Louise Firouz lost her life due to internal bleeding in room 11 of the Surgical Clinic of Boryozah Hospital in Gonbad. Doctors reported the reason for her death was her use of NSAIDS pill. According to the claims, the said pill was given to her by Dr. A.F., whose full name is kept by us and who followed her court proceedings.

The security forces of Golestan kept her body for a few days in the morgue of the Gonbad-e Kavoos Security Hospital and prevented the delivery of the body to her family. Her son residing in Tehran and the people of the Qara Tappeh Sheikh village decided to bury Louise in her own farm. The security forces paid great efforts to prevent this and what’s more they prevented her being washed in the Imamzadah Yahya ebn Zayd Washing Place because she was not Muslim. However, they allowed the Turkmen women to wash her body there upon the insistence of the morgue officials. She was buried as a Muslim and in accordance with the Turkmen traditions in her own farm in a ceremony participated by the Turkmen of Qara Tappeh Sheikh, Tamir Qaraqouzi and Sofian villages.

Thus, there remained a memory of a lady who was in love with Turkmen horses. On the other hand, those who hated Turkmen culture and identity showed, in a disgusting way, that they could not bear a person - who was a symbol of love for people and animals among the Turkmen - and the Turkmen who were only after their identities, and that they would not feel pity even for the foreigners who probably stayed with these people for love and affection. It seems that they supported those individuals whom they brought from various regions like Sistan in order to seize Turkmensahra and used in line with the policy of eliminating the Turkmen, and they did not hesitate to do anything to this effect.

The pressure, trials, interrogations and threats to kill applied on this lady of the Turkmen horses in the last years of her life bring to the mind a question as to whether it was a natural death or she was killed mysteriously by the secret agents of the Islamic Republic.

For this reason, we ask the human rights institutions and organizations to make a research into the death of Mrs. Firouz and to make the necessary attempts in order to reveal the truth. As a matter of fact, behind the scenes, these mean hands had long been after eliminating this lady of Turkmen horses.

The last question: Will the backstage of the death of this lady of the Turkmen horses remain uncertain just as the case with the other serial murders in Iran?

سازمان آزادیبخش ترکمن صحرا – تورکمن صحرا آزادلیق قوراماسی

TURKMENSAHRA AZADLYK GURAMASY

TURKMENSAHRA LIBERATION ORGANIZATION