The Announcement of the Creation of “The Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims”
On January 8, 2020, a crime took place in Tehran’s airspace and over its international airport that devastated our lives forever. We have grieved over this pain a great deal and sobbed for our sorrow days and nights, and we have successively spoken of this atrocity. However, grieving and crying and talking are not enough.
We, in this short note, are officially announcing the creation of “The Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims” as a new civic non-governmental association. Despite knowing that our knees are still shaking and much of our tears are still left uncried, we are leaning on one another to not lose sight of this unspeakable crime and to light a candle in this darkness for those who seek justice.
This association first aims to keep the memories of the passengers of that flight alive for as long as possible with the help from artists, journalists, activists and anyone who can assist in achieving this goal. The association will operate against dismissal of the memories and will write and prevail.
This association further seeks to support the suffering families of the passengers of the flight. It will strive to be there for them, soothe their open wounds, and comfort them.
In the end, the major goal of this association is to seek justice. With a conclusive strategy and a comprehensive plan, we are hoping to hold to account those who ordered this crime, those who carried it out, those who concealed it and those who are responsible for it, and to one day watch them charged before a court of law.
The constitution and policies of the association have been compiled by an interim board of directors. As a first step, we are announcing “Hamed Esmaeilion” as our interim speaker. The official board of directors will be elected in a near future and will be announced if needed. All of the board members will be from the family members of the passengers of the flight and they will be conducting all the activities of the association.
We hereby announce the establishment of “The Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims” to the general public. This association is an independent organization with no ties to any of the political parties in Iran or Canada, and its objective is recorded in this statement and in its constitution. We are obviously hoping to have the support of Iranians, Canadians and everyone from all over the world in walking down this difficult road, and we are hoping to find anyone who seeks justice by our side.
Javad Soleimani, Paniz Gorji, Hamed Esmaeilion, Shahnaz Morattab, Mahmoud Zibaie, Armin Morattab, Vahid Emami, Alborz Sadeghi, Farhad Madani, Amirali Alavi, Arash Morattab.
