Analysis: Armenia, Azerbaijan Confront The Return Of The Private Army
By Liz Fuller
Radio Free Europe, Czech Republic
Feb 16 2005
In the run-up to, and the years immediately following, the collapse of
the USSR, private armies played a key role in political developments
across the South Caucasus. Tengiz Kitovani’s National Guard was
instrumental in ousting Georgian President Zviad Gamsakhurdia in late
1991. Soon afterward, together with Djaba Ioseliani’s Mkhedrioni,
Kitovani’s group triggered wars in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
An informal militia subordinate to the Azerbaijan Popular Front helped
thwart a comeback attempt in May 1992 by President Ayaz Mutalibov. A
second private army helped rebel Colonel Suret Huseinov topple
Mutalibov’s successor, Abulfaz Elchibey, in June 1993, paving the way
for the return to Baku of former Communist Party of Azerbaijan First
Secretary Heidar Aliyev. And in Armenia, the Yerkrapah detachments
formed by Vazgen Sargsian to fight in the Karabakh war rose to
political prominence, catapulting Sargsian to the post of defense
minister and then prime minister.
Huseinov was effectively neutralized in early 1995, and Kitovani and
Ioseliani by the end of that year. True, in Georgia guerrilla bands
enjoying covert support from the Georgian government continued to
target CIS peacekeepers and Abkhaz customs officials in Abkhazia —
but at least those detachments were firmly under the control of the
regime. Elsewhere in the South Caucasus, however, they appeared to
have disbanded.
A Reemergence?
In recent weeks, however, there have been reports of the reemergence
of such forces in both Azerbaijan and Armenia. In Azerbaijan, the
independent daily newspaper “Azadliq” reported on 1 February that
the CIA warned President Ilham Aliyev one month previously that the
head of a government agency had allegedly created his own private
army numbering 150-200 fighters with “advanced military training.”
“Azadlig” did not name the Azerbaijani official in question. Aliyev has
since assured Washington that the army in question has been disarmed,
according to “Azadliq.” The paper claimed that the CIA’s primary
concern was that the militia in question could sabotage “strategic
installations,” possibly meaning the unfinished Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan
oil pipeline or the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzerum gas pipeline.
But such a private army could also be mobilized during the Azerbaijani
parliamentary elections due in November. The daily “Vatandash
Hamrayliyi” newspaper claimed on 9 February, citing governmental
sources, that two powerful and wealthy government officials, State
Customs Committee Chairman Kamaladdin Heydarov and Economic Development
Minister Farhad Aliyev (no relation to the president), planned to
create their personal blocs to participate in those elections.
Trouble In Armenia
In Yerevan, President Robert Kocharian’s national security adviser,
Garnik Isagulian, was quoted by “Hayots ashkhar” on 15 February as
expressing concern over recent armed clashes between rival business
clans and calling for immediate measures to put an end to such
lawlessness. “Many of our wealthy persons have created bodyguard
structures,” Isagulian explained. “Some of them even have personal
security services.” One man died and two others were injured in
the latest such shootout, on 4 February, apparently between armed
supporters of rival “mafias” (see “Three Men Arrested After Deadly
Shootout In Yerevan”).
On 8 February, the same paper reported unconfirmed rumors that
individuals close to Yerevan officials or to past of present parliament
deputies were involved in the 4 February gun battle. “Iravunk”
for its part suggested that the Armenian authorities are powerless
to control even those criminal “clans” whose members support them,
and have consequently become hostages of that “criminal conglomerate.”