`Look out! Ethnic espionage’: Igor Muradyan about the Armenian
Assembly of America

10:35 29.12.2005
Regnum

A number of controversial reports about the Armenian Assembly of
America have appeared in the media of late. REGNUM has asked Armenian
political scientist Igor Muradyan for comments. `No doubt that the
reports have serious grounds. You can turn down some arguments – for
the authors seem to be somewhat under-informed about the developments
– but certainly it is high time to call a spade a spade. First of all,
you should take into account the continuing political struggle in
Armenia and view the stance of the Armenian Assembly of America also
in this light.’

I don’t think that ethnic NGOs enjoy full independence in the US, but
the point is that the Armenian Assembly of America is more than
dependent. Even more, the Assembly is functionally dependent. The
Assembly directors and employees don’t just look down on Armenia’s
political class and leaders, they look down on them with
disdain. Given a whole range of serious political problems of Armenia,
the Assembly is focused on the problem of its relations with Robert
Kocharyan. Kocharyan has proved not very much convenient a partner for
them, just because the Assembly directors are unable to consult,
instruct and contact him in private on the phone. One cannot but agree
with the opinion that the Assembly is facing a crisis of genre.

First, as an instrument of another state it is very much unwanted in
the politics in Armenia. Second, the scope of the Assembly’s lobbying
has come to its limits – for within the limits of its tasks the US
policy in the region is quite conforming to Armenia’s interests. And
so, the Assembly is forced to search for new domains. Quite enough has
been said about this in the internet and so I’d better just remind
some facts. In 2001 the Assembly’s board decreed `to fight Armenian
nationalism.’ This implies suppression of any instance of patriotism,
especially over the Karabakh problem and Armenian-Turkish
relations. The Assembly is discriminating towards Armenian political
parties, NGOs, politicians and experts.

The employees and friends of the Assembly were set to carry out
reconnaissance in Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh Republic. We know at
least six citizens of Armenia and one resident of NKR whom they tried
to recruit for information gathering. The above activities envisaged
the following directions: Gathering information on the state of the
armed forces of Armenia, including armaments, information on senior
officers, on the import of military hardware (invoice numbers, payment
terms, transportation routes), receiving analytical notes on the
fighting capacity of the Armenian army, information and assessment of
typical conflicts inside the military command, the concerns and plans
of different groups in the military circles; gathering information on
the leaders and activists of political parties, the mass media and
political leaders of Armenia, including economic interests, ties with
foreign countries.

For example, the Assembly wanted detailed information on the economic
interests of Defense Minister Serzh Sargsyan in Russia, the
possibilities for discrediting him and the military command for
economic or other motives. Armenian citizens were shown video pictures
of Armenia’s military equipment and some military commanders, photos
of senior officers. Some of the videos and photos had apparently been
made from a very long distance. Special interest was given to possible
news about the import of air defense units, first of all, C-300, on
plans to develop military aviation, on possible purchases. They were
even interested in such non secret information as the parameters of
dynamic steel on tanks. They paid visits to Nagorno Karabakh – formal
and informal – they visited military units, talked with military
commanders. The talk was friendly and candid, but they got no
sensations – just stupid and thoughtless things. One NKR officer told
an Assembly agent in a friendly manner – `You guys are all but profies
or you cook like that in your country – you better learn a bit.’

One of the authors has already mentioned the interest of the Assembly
in the military intelligence of Armenia. As a matter of fact, one of
the `recruited’ young experts in Yerevan says that the Assembly is
very much interested in the personality of B.Azoyan. The Assembly
believes the exposure of the director of the military intelligence to
be one of its exploits. Exposed were quite banal facts – there
reportedly are proofs that the military intelligence of Armenia works
in `the American direction.’

Visitors from the Assembly have never much cared for political figures
in Armenia. They did care for analytical community, individual
experts. The experts were mostly very young and initially very much
eager to provide Assembly people with some information. But soon they
were told to supply information relating to the national security of
Armenia. These activities covered also the Armenian Embassy in the
US. It is a certainty that there were at least two information leaks
from the office of the military attaché. Also using documents from
the attaché’s table was repeatedly (and as if accidentally) the
military attaché of Belarus. So, it takes one no big effort to
carry out such activity. Let’s just hope that the military attaché
of Armenia may have no interesting information.

Mass media directors are also of interest. Of interest was, for
example, the dossier of the editor of Aravot daily Aram Abrahamyan,
especially his personal incomes and their sources. Very much of
interest was the personality of the well-known Alexander Haroutyunyuan
(if I am not mistaken, he is now the director of the public
television) and so on and so forth. It seems that the whole political
class of Armenia is being computerized.

Of certain interest is the impression I got personally from such
contacts. Strange but true: Assembly representatives get openly
malicious and bilious over the fact that the Armenian armed forces are
highly capable of discharging many combat operations on their
own. Would they be more comfortable if the army of their `historical
homeland’ had other characteristics and was like the armies of some
other states? Altogether incompetent the Assembly representatives were
as much annoyed to know that Armenia is not a perishing country and is
successfully developing economically.

The National Security Service and the Defense Ministry of Armenia are
perfectly informed of the activities of the Assembly and have relevant
directives on hand. For example, the top military command are strictly
forbidden to have meetings with their Assembly counterparts.

But no less worthy of mentioning is the fact that the Assembly
representatives are not the only ones to take a special interest in
their `historical homeland.’ Obviously having their definite interests
in Armenia and specialization is also the Armenian community of
Washington DC. For example, some Richard Kirakosyan, generally known
as analyst or political scientist or someone else, has offered an
Armenian citizen closely cooperating with the `Caucasian (Yerevan)
Center of Iranian Studies’ $10,000 for information on Iran –
absolutely definitely saying that this service was ordered by CIA.

I guess not everything is so dangerous for our country – as I do
believe that the US is our friend who knows that only Armenia can be a
strategic partner in the region (`small Israel’ or `Big Armenia’). The
Armenian society continues being modestly silent that the US strategy
is one of the major factors of our security, if not something
more. But somebody wants to be `more Catholic than the Pope is.’ These
are people for whom ethnicity is their profession. So it is time to
hang a sign `Look Out! Ethnic Espionage.’ In the meantime, we better
remember that our compatriots abroad are overwhelmingly citizens of
other states and are obliged to express their interests. We are still
far from being a `world nation.’ We have yet a long way to go. And
young vain analysts and political analysts better keep in mind that
our country is an active actor in the regional and global politics,
with quite a big interest given to it."

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