About 3 members of the MEK, the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran, are sheltering in Albania. They claim that the MEK plays a significant role in the protests in Iran. Some experts disagree.

A fortified camp in Manzë, near Tirana, is home to around 3 mujahideen from the People's Mujahideen Organization of Iran (PMOI), or as they are known in the local language, the Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK).

Members of this organization have been living in Albania since 2013, when the Albanian government agreed to shelter them at the request of the United States and the United Nations.

What is MEK?
MEK is an Islamist opposition political group with socialist leanings.

Founded in Iran in 1965, the group armed itself against the ruling Pahlavi dynasty, carrying out bombing campaigns against the Shah's government and American targets in the 1970s, as well as supporting Ayatollah Khomeini in the Islamic Revolution of 1978-1979.

However, shortly after the revolution, the MEK severed ties with the new government in Tehran and its members were banned from living in Iran. The group then lived in exile, continuing its opposition activities across the border.

The MEK moved to Iraq, from where it directed military operations during the Iran-Iraq war, whose actions are still not tolerated by many in Iran today.

The US State Department designated the MEK a terrorist organization in 1997, but removed it from its list of foreign terrorist organizations in 2012.

The MEK first reported that Iran had a secret uranium enrichment program. After the fall of Saddam Hussein, the organization was expelled from Iraq.

Recent protests in Iran
For Andreas Krieg, a Middle East expert and professor at the School of Security Studies at King's College London, the current wave of protests in Iran "looks more like a convergence of ongoing grievances that finally became synchronized, rather than a single 'incident'."

"It started with an immediate economic shock, the collapse of the local currency and inflation that translated into a sudden increase in prices, shortages and trade paralysis, and then it quickly became politicized, as people concluded that the state either could not or would not stabilize daily life," he told DW.

"What stands out is the profile of the coalition: markets and vendors helped as instigators, students and urban neighborhoods made the protest visible, while suburban cities and minority areas increased the scale of participation," Krieg said.

“The state response quickly shifted from prevention to repression, including nationwide communications blackouts designed to slow coordination and reduce external control, which usually coincides with harsher use of force on the ground,” he said.

Fragmented opposition
Despite the fact that there have been many nationwide protests in Iran in recent decades, the Iranian opposition, both inside and outside the country, is not organized and is characterized by a large number of rival groups and ideological factions.

“Where the opposition ‘stands’ is better understood as fragmentation rather than absence,” Krieg said, adding that “within Iran, collective action remains largely leaderless and networked: local mobilization, social connections, workplace dynamics, and university ecosystems produce coordinated outbreaks of protest, without an integrated national command structure.”

Iran's opposition abroad
Outside Iran, the two largest opposition groups are the monarchists and the MEK. Leaders and members of both groups have lived in exile since the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979.

Reza Pahlavi, the heir to the last Shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, lives in the United States. Although he has many admirers in the Iranian diaspora, his support within Iran remains unclear.

“Outside Iran, the diaspora remains influential in shaping the narrative and morality, but it is divided and often people inside the country do not trust it, as they fear both manipulation and the void they have created after leaving,” says Andreas Krieg.

"This is important for the security of the regime, because it reduces the probability of quick and clean elite divisions, even as it increases the likelihood of repeated cycles of protests: suppressing a wave of protests does not address the underlying factors that keep the streets filled," he added.

What role does the MEK play in the protests?
The second largest opposition group in Iran is the MEK, the largest group of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the coalition of Iranian opposition groups.

But what role does the MEK have in the latest protests?

Ali Safavi from the NCRI says the MEK has been actively involved in the protests.

"The Resistance Units lead, coordinate and organize the resistance against the oppressive forces," he told DW. "In many cases, they have also played an important role in protecting protesters against the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] attack. If it weren't for their role, the regime would have crushed the uprising very quickly."

Safavi told DW that "a significant number of MEK activists are among the 3 killed by security forces."

MEK, legitimacy problems for many Iranians
However, for Middle East expert Krieg, "when talking about the MEK, it is important to separate perception from the consensus on the ground."

“The organization is disciplined, media-savvy, and capable of generating noise, lobbying, and delivering multiple messages from abroad. However, it has major legitimacy problems among many Iranians due to its history, accusations of internal control, and long stay in exile, factors that limit its ability to act as a unifying vehicle for the opposition within the country. This is why allegations have been made that the organization functions as a foreign ‘Trojan horse.’”

“The MEK is easy to instrumentalize by multiple actors in the information space, including anti-Iran “hawks” (note: the term “hawks” refers to diplomats or politicians who believe in forceful or military solutions) in the US and Israel. But in practice, the effect is more often related to reputation. It gives the regime the appropriate framework to act as a foreign proxy. But it plays no role in leading these protests,” Krieg said.

Considered by Iran as a terrorist group, the MEK is now calling on Europe to take strict action against the government in Iran.

“Europe should immediately designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist entity, expel the regime’s diplomats, withdraw its ambassadors from Tehran, cut the regime off from the international financial system, boycott oil sales, and bring its leaders before international courts to face prosecution for crimes against humanity. This includes Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other senior officials,” says Ali Safavi.

Albania's perspective
The media in Albania has regularly reported on the protests in Iran and the mujahedeen in Albania, since the start of the last wave of protests.

For their part, MEK members in Albania have been active on social media, sharing posts and photos related to protesters who have lost their lives and their members killed in the protests.

Prime Minister Edi Rama, who has cut diplomatic ties with Iran since September 2022, following allegations that they were responsible for cyberattacks orchestrated by the Islamic Republic, has made no comment regarding the recent protests in Iran. /DW