ARMENIAN BLAME SHIFTING

Azerbaijan wages the war in Karabakh not only on the battlefield but also on the information front. Unfortunately, the seemingly prestigious Russian and Western media outlets do not shun proliferating the Armenian fake news.

Fake number one

A few days before the provocation on the front line, Armenian propaganda accused Azerbaijan of pulling a group of Syrian mercenaries from the military jihadist groups opposing Bashar al-Assad to Karabakh, with Turkey reported as the organiser of deployment. However, even a month after the start of military operations in Karabakh, neither Armenia nor other countries could provide any convincing evidence. Yet they still refer to some forged photo and video footage or testimony of allegedly Syrian militants. But it is not difficult to identify the quality of the footage. For example, a ‘Syrian fighter’ dressed as an Azerbaijani border guard has miraculously appeared on the photo next to the Armenian Minister of Defense D. Tonoyan.

No matter how primitive these actions may seem, the fact that Armenia accuses Azerbaijan and Turkey of using radical Islamists means the experienced Armenian ‘machine of lies’ pursues several objectives. Firstly, they use this trick as another "factor" that would require immediate intervention of Russia to the conflict. Secondly, that’s how they support anti-Turkish forces in the Middle East and Europe. And thirdly, it’s a nice tool to divert the attention of the world community from their own terrorist activities.

Unfortunately, Armenian propaganda somewhat achieved these objectives. Despite the absence of evidence of terrorist groups in Azerbaijan, the world community silently observes the real terrorist groups from Lebanon, Iraq and other countries arrive in Armenia. Thus, the State Security Service of Azerbaijan publicly disclosed the facts that confirm the presence of Kurdish mercenaries fighting against Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Like in many other nations without a state, the Armenian Church has been the principal authority, which consolidated the Armenians for many centuries, even by using semi-secret methods. Throughout the 19th century, however, Armenian nationalist and political organizations became the main rivals of the Armenian Church. Luckily for Armenians, the Ottoman Empire with the largest Armenian community in the world was weakening, while the powerful European states of that time–Great Britain, France and Russia–competed with each other for the legacy of the Ottomans. And in order to put the final nail in the Ottoman Empire’s coffin, it was necessary to rip the 600-year-old fabric of the nation from within… using the Armenians, who instantly betrayed the interests of their homeland. Thus, the last decade of the 19th century went down in history by the emergence of the first Armenian nationalist organizations, which would soon commit numerous terrorist attacks in Istanbul.

History of Armenian terror

In 1885, the first Armenian classical terrorist organization Armenakan was created, which quite in a short time gained fame for armed attacks and terrorist acts in the Turkish cities of Van, Mush, Bitlis, Trabzon and Istanbul. Unlike Armenakan, the Hnchak party created in 1887 in Geneva was more robust and ideologically grounded. The third Armenian political organization was Dashnaktsutyun founded in Tiflis (present Tbilisi, Georgia) in 1890. Later it was transformed into the Armenian Revolutionary Federation.

The ideological basis of all three political organizations was an abstract idea of creating the Greater Armenia on the territories of the Russian (South Caucasus), Persian and Ottoman empires. To achieve this objective, all three organizations used cruel methods. For example, the political programs of these organisations provided for the establishment of armed terrorist and assault groups. Thanks to favourable historical conditions, the Armenian terrorist organizations committed numerous massacres of innocent people in Turkey, Iran and the South Caucasus.

Yet another revival of Armenian terrorist activity dates back to the 1970s of the Cold War period. Once again, the major world powers needed someone in the Middle East to conduct military operations for them. Armenian terrorist organizations well fit the purpose. Well-disciplined Arab, Armenian and Kurdish terrorist groups were perfect as "small tools of a major war" in Lebanon, which was in a state of chaos due to the civil war, as well as in Syria – the then NATO's eastern outpost against the USSR.

The Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) was established in 1975 with the outbreak of a fifteen-year civil war in Lebanon. Although the declared objective of the organization was the liberation of Armenia, all ASALA actions were directed against Turkey and its diplomats. The organization felt comfortable in Syria–the then main ally of the Soviets in the Middle East–having set up own camps there. Interestingly, soon after announcing its goal to detach Armenia from the USSR, ASALA joined forces with the terrorist Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK).

The first open meeting between PKK and ASALA representatives took place on April 8, 1980 in the Lebanese city of Saida. At that time, these organizations were united against Turkey. Even when ASALA declared the end of its activities, some of its members joined the ranks of the PKK.

The first official document most clearly confirming the cooperation of Armenian and Kurdish terrorist organizations in the Middle East was the CIA report on Kurdish and Armenian militants dated August 11, 1978.

In the 1970-1980s, ASALA assaulted many Turkish diplomats and their family members. For example, the ambassador to France, Ismayil Erez, was killed in 1975, the ambassador to the Holy See, Taha Carim, – in 1977, Consul General to Sydney, Sarik Aynak – in 1980, Consul General to Los Angeles, Kemal Arikan, and Honorary Consul General to Boston, Orhan Gunduz, – in 1982, ambassador to former Yugoslavia, Galib Balkar, – in 1983. The Armenian terror did not have mercy even on diplomats, who are considered ‘untouchable’ in line with the norms of international and humanitarian laws.

During the period of its activity, ASALA has committed 110 terrorist acts, including 70 explosions in 38 cities in 22 countries. According to unofficial data, the organization committed 182 terrorist acts.

Along with ASALA, several other Armenian terrorist organizations and groups were founded in the 1970-1990s: Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide (1972), Armenian Freedom Front (1979), Orly (1981), Armenian Union (1988), Union of Young Armenians (1990), Suicide Squad (1981), Movement for Freedom of Armenia (1991), June 9 (1991), Gegaron (2001), Apostle (2001), etc. This list is updated with new names from each year.

Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide (JCAG) is another Armenian terrorist organization as popular as ASALA. While ASALA is a leftist organization close to the Hnchak party, JCAG is more right-wing and close to Dashnaktsutyun. Yet both parties operated under a common denominator: terrorism. The decision about the establishment of JCAG was adopted in 1972 at the Dashnaktsutyun Congress in Vienna. It materialized three years later – in 1975 in Beirut. At different times, JCAG’s target have been Turkey and Turks living abroad. The main goal of the organization was to create an Armenian state on the territory of Turkey.

JCAG and ASALA were directly involved in the assassination of 77 people, including Turkish diplomats and their family members. Interestingly, although in 1991 ASALA announced the end of its operations worldwide, the Armenian terrorist organizations continued to exist.

In April 2019, an Armenian group called the Battalion of Nubar Ozonyan was founded within the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which is predominantly made up of Kurds. By the way, Ozonyan was a member of ASALA involved in a number of terrorist attacks. The establishment in the north of Syria controlled by PKK/YPG of an Armenian military group named after an ASALA terrorist was not accidental. Most Armenians support the government of Bashar al-Assad. Founding of a new group on the remains of ASALA and under the wing of SDF, that is – under the control of PKK, is associated with Armenia. In recent years, there have been serious signals about the resettlement of Armenians, as well as the PKK militants, to Armenia and the occupied territories of Azerbaijan. This process has especially intensified in the past three months amid the growing tension on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. For example, after the famous explosion in Beirut on August 4, Yerevan received 800 Armenians from Lebanon, which were later settled in Nagorno-Karabakh. Most of these individuals are considered members of ASALA and other terrorist groups involved in the Karabakh conflict.

Even after more than 130 years, the Armenian terror does not stand still. The involvement of one of the ASALA leaders–Monte Melkonyan– in the battles in Karabakh and his burial as a national hero in Yerevan confirms that terrorism is one of the tools to support the existence of modern Armenia. Therefore, any allegations Azerbaijan uses some militants from Syria to fight in Karabakh look and sound ridiculous.