THIRTY FOREIGN AGENTS UNMASKED IN 14 YEARS – ARMENIAN SECURITY CHIEF
Golos Armenii, Yerevan
16 Dec 04 p 3
Excerpt from Vladimir Darbinyan’s report by Armenian newspaper Golos
Armenii on 16 December headlined “Thirty foreign agents have been
disclosed over the last 14 years”
An interview with the director of the National Security Service,
Gorik Akopyan.
(Correspondent) The 20 December marks the anniversary of national
security bodies. What would you wish your staff?
(Gorik Akopyan) Traditionally, our system has marked the 20 December
as a professional holiday, and the decision of the Armenian government
of 2002 to mark the 20 December as a day of the Armenian national
security service was taken by most people with enthusiasm.
(Passage omitted: Akopyan continues to comments on the traditions
in the national security system, the principles of its formation and
other details; biography details)
(Golos Armenii correspondent) You used to head the secret department
of the Armenian National Security Service. What results have been
achieved in this sphere?
(Gorik Akopyan) The secret department is one of the main directions
in the work of security structures. The ensuring of state security
greatly depends on the secret department. I think the fact that
the activities of more than 30 foreign agents have been revealed and
prevented over the last 14 years testifies to the work we have carried
out. I would like to recall that as a result of the activities of
the secret department, Turkish and Azerbaijani agents Bozholyan and
Shilina’s group were recently unmasked and appeared before the court.
(Correspondent) The fight against terrorism has become the main task of
almost all the secret services of the world. What working links does
the Armenian National Security Service have with similar structures
of other countries?
(Akopyan) The main department to defend the constitutional system
and fight terrorism was set up in 2000. The fight against terrorism
requires a complex approach and close cooperation between relevant
state structures. In the issue of stepping up the fight against
terrorism, Armenia is cooperating with relevant international
structures in line with corresponding international treaties and
provisions of UN Security Council resolutions. Specifically,
we are cooperating on this sphere within the framework of the
CIS antiterrorism centre, the CIS Collective Security Treaty, the
Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization, as well as with other
interested parties.
In recent years, a new legislative base, which also covers problems
of ensuring efficiency in the fight against terrorism, has been
created in Armenia. Specifically, the new Criminal Code of Armenia
has several articles related to the fight against terrorism. The
National Assembly has drawn up a law “On the fight against terrorism”
and adopted it in its first reading, which will provide a universal
legal solution to problems in fighting terrorism.
(Correspondent) Are there specific results in this sphere?
(Akopyan) The protection of special purpose facilities against
terrorism, as well as of the most important means of supporting the
economy, is the most significant thing in the process of fighting
terrorism. The prevention of terrorist attacks while they are
being prepared is in the centre of the attention of the national
security structures. Specifically, several assassination attempts
were revealed and prevented. Over the last three years, the National
Security Service has impounded several hundreds of guns, light missile
launchers and machine guns. The National Security Service is paying
special attention to the fight against the illegal circulation of
radioactive materials. We recently arrested an Armenian citizen who
had radioactive material caesium-137 that posed a serious threat to
the population. We are also concerned about so-called “telephone
terrorism”. Unfortunately, this new phenomenon is already common
in our country. It causes panic among the population and creates
additional difficulties in the work of the law-enforcement agencies. A
telephone terrorist was recently unmasked and arrested. On 19 November,
he chose the Chekhov secondary school as a target for “terror”.
(Passage omitted: Akopyan said that the secret service did everything
possible to disarm the gunmen who seized the Armenian parliament
in 1999 and killed the prime minister and members of parliament;
Other details)