Tehran’s Art Bureau holds memorial for General Soleimani

Tehran’s Art Bureau has held memorial for Iran top commander major general Qassem Soleimani.

The ceremony was attended by a large number of artists, cineastes, poets and the commander’s companions on Saturday.

Speaking at the ceremony, the director of the bureau’s Center for Dramatic Arts, Kourosh Zarei, said, “The commander belonged to all the peace-seeking people in the world, and today they are saddened by the great loss.”

Milad Erfanpour, the director of the music center of the bureau also recited a poem in memory of the commander.

Soleimani’s companion during the 1980s Iraq-Iran war, Homayoun Amirzadeh, said, “The commander’s popularity does not belong to today or yesterday, it is rooted in the Sacred Defense era.”

The representative of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei in the Quds Force, Hojjatoleslam Ali Shirazi, also called Soleimani an artist and said, “He always deemed himself a soldier, and today, the whole country of Iran is in tears for him.”

“People saw honesty in him. When he announced the elimination of Daesh, nobody had doubts about him because they believed in him. When he used to say that he loved the children of the martyrs, he really felt the pain of the martyrs’ children. They all used to call him father or uncle,” he added.

Among the artists and officials attending the memorial ceremony were Deputy Culture Minister for Artistic Affairs Seyyed-Mojtaba Hosseini, Roudaki Foundation Managing Director Ali-Akbar Safipour, filmmakers Reza Mirkarimi and Shahram Karami, and writers Habib Ahmadzadeh and Mostafa Rahmandoust.

MG/AG