Azernews.Az

By Rashid Shirinov

The Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) poses a growing threat to a number of U.S. policy interests, reads a declassified CIA document.

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency document RDP85T00283R000400030009-2, dated 1983, is one of the 13,000 documents declassified in January.

The document says ASALA’s development has ominous implications for international cooperation against terrorism.

“Recent fragmentation within ASALA and Armenian political groups, in our estimation, increases the risk of terrorist violence, particularly in Western Europe, as the various splinter groups vie for the attention of the Armenian community,” CIA said.

The document reads that Armenian terrorist groups ostensibly wanted to create an “independent Armenian homeland.” It was noted that in November 1980, the terrorists of ASALA together with members of the terrorist organization PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) conducted an armed attack on the Turkish Consulate in Strasbourg.

Moreover, the CIA report dated August 26, 1985, stated that the PKK created an armed group in the summer of 1984, and it included the Armenian terrorists.

The Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) terrorist group operated actively in 1973-1985. Forty-two Turkish diplomats were killed as a result of ASALA attacks. The organization committed 110 terror acts in total.

More than a third of ASALA attacks were aimed at airports in different countries and 50 percent were aimed at diplomatic missions. ASALA terrorists also carried out a number of terrorist attacks against religious figures and media workers.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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