Iran, 1980 — dissident coup conspiracy
Event Summary
This entry is coded 16 January 1980, during the early revolutionary crisis of the Islamic Republic of Iran, in the weeks before the first presidential election that would bring Abolhassan Banisadr to office on 25 January 1980. The date is the one-year anniversary of the Shah's departure into exile on 16 January 1979. At this point the economy and apparatus of government had collapsed and the military and security forces were in disarray, with the army still containing many monarchist loyalists and a history of infiltration by communists and guerrilla organizations.
The regime was continuously uncovering and suppressing alleged plots by monarchist and secular-nationalist officers, purging and executing former imperial commanders, while the US embassy hostage crisis that had begun in November 1979 remained unresolved. The 16 January 1980 coding sits in this early-1980 period of anti-regime military plotting and the revolutionary regime's fears of a counter-coup, before its later consolidation of power.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
63001161980
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Khomeini and the revolutionary regime survived early plots and consolidated power by 1982-83.
Baseline coding: Plot discovered and disrupted before execution. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
CSP
Times of India
Globe and Mail
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →