Tweet
KARABAKH SEPARATISTS 'WERE MANAGED BY KGB'
news.az
June 22 2011
Azerbaijan
News.Az interviews Azerbaijani political scientist Arif Yunus.
The deputy chairman of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia, Razmik
Zohrabyan, said recently that the Karabakh committee, which played a
role in the separation of Karabakh from Azerbaijan, was created and
managed by the former USSR KGB. Is this statement by the second most
senior person in the Armenian ruling party true?
I can say that this statement is completely true. Armenian political
and public figures have also written about it. For example, the
Armenians have said that a former deputy of the Armenian parliament,
Igor Muradyan, who was a member of the Karabakh committee, was
associated with the USSR KGB. For this reason, other members of this
committee, including former Armenian President Levon Ter-Petrosyan,
were very suspicious of Igor Muradyan.
KGB leaders admitted in interviews in different newspapers after the
collapse of the USSR that the Movement of Crimean Tatars was the only
nationalist organization that contained no USSR intelligence agent,
while all the other nationalist organizations, created in the final
years of the USSR's existence, contained KGB agents or were regulated
by them. Thus, the absolute majority of nationalist organizations had
KGB agents. As for the Karabakh committee, it should be taken into
account that even if this separatist organization was not under the
KGB's direct control, at least this secret structure of the former
Soviet Union had agents and influence there.
All the same, I have to note that I have personal information about
people, who worked for the KGB in the Karabakh committee. I and some
other officials of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan
were retained by the country's leadership to review the activity
of the Karabakh committee at the time of its official launch. This
group, of which I was a member, had unlimited access to KGB documents
related to the activity of the Karabakh committee. Meanwhile, the
KGB presented the records of speeches by committee members to our
group for familiarization. It was Igor Muradyan who presented the
material. He reported against Ter Petrosyan and other leaders of the
Karabakh committee for the KGB.
In other words, the "confessions" of Razmik Zohrabyan did not come
as news to me. He said what I have already known for many years.
What prompted Zohrabyan to make this disclosure?
It can be easily explained, given the complicated situation in
Armenia. The Armenian president's position is shaky. The opposition
is putting a lot of pressure on him. This pressure has already been
effective, since Serzh Sargsyan ordered the release of political
prisoners and permitted protests in the centre of Yerevan. In this
sense, the "declaration" that the Karabakh committee was managed by
the KGB is a smear campaign.
Do you think that individuals who worked for the KGB in these
nationalist and separatist organizations can still fulfill their
former functions of reporting back or managing processes?
It's not likely. The work of the Karabakh committee itself has
been stopped. The people who worked for the KGB inside the Karabakh
committee have no influence now. Therefore, this removes any need
to use their services right now. In addition, the whole KGB working
method, as far as I could understand it in the 1990s while analysing
the situation of the Karabakh committee for the Azerbaijani leadership,
was that the local KGB structures of Azerbaijan and Armenia were
closely cooperating. Meanwhile, all the information was sent to the
centre, Moscow, and some of the documents were also sent to the then
Soviet capital. In other words, most of the original material is
not in Baku or Yerevan. It is in Moscow. There is no organization as
secretive as the KGB. But the presence of documents about individuals
who once worked for the KGB naturally preserves influence over them.
Is there any need for Azerbaijan to use the material against the
members of the Karabakh committee to expose the separatist nature of
what was happening at that time?
On the one hand, we should not forget that we live in 2011 and the
events of the 1990s have sunk into history. This history must be
born in mind but not fixated on. If Razmik Zohrabyan says that the
Karabakh committee was managed by the KGB but does not name names,
I can name at least one person - Igor Muradyan. He is a provocateur,
he writes provocative, insulting, anti-Azerbaijani articles. Therefore,
the names of these people should be made public so that they know
that Azerbaijan is aware of them and remembers who are they are.
From: Baghdasarian
news.az
June 22 2011
Azerbaijan
News.Az interviews Azerbaijani political scientist Arif Yunus.
The deputy chairman of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia, Razmik
Zohrabyan, said recently that the Karabakh committee, which played a
role in the separation of Karabakh from Azerbaijan, was created and
managed by the former USSR KGB. Is this statement by the second most
senior person in the Armenian ruling party true?
I can say that this statement is completely true. Armenian political
and public figures have also written about it. For example, the
Armenians have said that a former deputy of the Armenian parliament,
Igor Muradyan, who was a member of the Karabakh committee, was
associated with the USSR KGB. For this reason, other members of this
committee, including former Armenian President Levon Ter-Petrosyan,
were very suspicious of Igor Muradyan.
KGB leaders admitted in interviews in different newspapers after the
collapse of the USSR that the Movement of Crimean Tatars was the only
nationalist organization that contained no USSR intelligence agent,
while all the other nationalist organizations, created in the final
years of the USSR's existence, contained KGB agents or were regulated
by them. Thus, the absolute majority of nationalist organizations had
KGB agents. As for the Karabakh committee, it should be taken into
account that even if this separatist organization was not under the
KGB's direct control, at least this secret structure of the former
Soviet Union had agents and influence there.
All the same, I have to note that I have personal information about
people, who worked for the KGB in the Karabakh committee. I and some
other officials of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan
were retained by the country's leadership to review the activity
of the Karabakh committee at the time of its official launch. This
group, of which I was a member, had unlimited access to KGB documents
related to the activity of the Karabakh committee. Meanwhile, the
KGB presented the records of speeches by committee members to our
group for familiarization. It was Igor Muradyan who presented the
material. He reported against Ter Petrosyan and other leaders of the
Karabakh committee for the KGB.
In other words, the "confessions" of Razmik Zohrabyan did not come
as news to me. He said what I have already known for many years.
What prompted Zohrabyan to make this disclosure?
It can be easily explained, given the complicated situation in
Armenia. The Armenian president's position is shaky. The opposition
is putting a lot of pressure on him. This pressure has already been
effective, since Serzh Sargsyan ordered the release of political
prisoners and permitted protests in the centre of Yerevan. In this
sense, the "declaration" that the Karabakh committee was managed by
the KGB is a smear campaign.
Do you think that individuals who worked for the KGB in these
nationalist and separatist organizations can still fulfill their
former functions of reporting back or managing processes?
It's not likely. The work of the Karabakh committee itself has
been stopped. The people who worked for the KGB inside the Karabakh
committee have no influence now. Therefore, this removes any need
to use their services right now. In addition, the whole KGB working
method, as far as I could understand it in the 1990s while analysing
the situation of the Karabakh committee for the Azerbaijani leadership,
was that the local KGB structures of Azerbaijan and Armenia were
closely cooperating. Meanwhile, all the information was sent to the
centre, Moscow, and some of the documents were also sent to the then
Soviet capital. In other words, most of the original material is
not in Baku or Yerevan. It is in Moscow. There is no organization as
secretive as the KGB. But the presence of documents about individuals
who once worked for the KGB naturally preserves influence over them.
Is there any need for Azerbaijan to use the material against the
members of the Karabakh committee to expose the separatist nature of
what was happening at that time?
On the one hand, we should not forget that we live in 2011 and the
events of the 1990s have sunk into history. This history must be
born in mind but not fixated on. If Razmik Zohrabyan says that the
Karabakh committee was managed by the KGB but does not name names,
I can name at least one person - Igor Muradyan. He is a provocateur,
he writes provocative, insulting, anti-Azerbaijani articles. Therefore,
the names of these people should be made public so that they know
that Azerbaijan is aware of them and remembers who are they are.
From: Baghdasarian