On July 13, 2019, dignitaries from dozens of countries across the world attended the main event of the Free Iran 2019 international conference. The conference was part of the five-day Free Iran 2019 series of conferences at the main headquarters of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) in Ashraf 3, Albania. Several dignitaries, political and human rights activists delivered speeches, issuing remarks about the struggles of the Iranian people and their resistance movement for freedom in their country.
Following are key remarks by Senator Robert Torricelli at the Ashraf 3 conference.
Senator Robert Torricelli :
My friends. Thank you. Allow me to introduce myself. I am a volunteer, a simple soldier in the international fight to end the dictatorship and bring freedom to Iran. For a thousand years, in ancient times, from Palestine to the hills of Albania to Gibraltar, when people met on street corners and homes, the proudest claim in all the world, civis romanus sum, “I am a citizen of Rome”. Within the life of the oldest among us, from the Caspian Sea to the cafes of Tehran to the Indian Ocean, and cities and towns, wherever men and women stand tall, the tallest among them will say, I was a resident of Ashraf. I never gave up. I never gave in. I am an Iranian who always lived free. That is Ashraf.
“I am a volunteer, a simple soldier in the international fight to end the dictatorship in Iran,” said Sen. Robert Torricelli tells the #FreeIran rally in Ashraf 3, home to PMOI/MEK in Tirana, Albania.#WeSupportMEK#IStandWithMaryamRajavi pic.twitter.com/bymSupp6v8
— People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) July 13, 2019
Today, what began with a single woman is now a chorus of voices all around the world. To those of you in Iran who are risking your lives, listening to us on radios or on flickering television screens or on devices in your hands, it is your time. We are ready. It is your moment.
To the students, if you have not joined a brigade of resistance yesterday, join it today. If you do not join today, join tomorrow. But do not be a witness to history, take your lives in your own hands.
To those in the diaspora, the Iranian community from Germany and France to Canada and America. The future is now. We have a common cause, to restore the dignity of the Iranian nation, the freedom of the Iranian people, and build secure freedom of liberty. There is only one organization that promises the destruction of the regime, the building of a democratic future, that can muster the resources, make the sacrifices, and restore the nation. That organization is the PMOI [MEK] and its leader is Maryam Rajavi.
Gathered here today is what the regime could not buy, the respect, the dignity of other nations. I am proud to be here among the delegation of my own nation. Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, north, south, east and west, in the most distinguished group of united Americans it has ever been my pleasure to join. Committed to one common cause: the destruction of this regime now.