ASALA?

[dragon]

Is ASALA still active? I don't know much about the current situation of this organization, can anybody give more information?

I know they have website ASALAonline.com, but only pictures and some sentences.

 

Dragon

[Harut]

what does ASALA stand for?

what is it? i have no idea what it is.

can somebody explain me please?

[ThornyRose]

?

[Taguhi]

Name of this organization is Secret Army for Liberation Armenia. But I don't now they are actiff now or not.

[MosJan]

Is ASALA still active -> YES

Ther is a ASALA Office in Yerevan

 

what does ASALA stand for?

Armenian Secret Army of liberation of Armenia

 

can somebody explain me please >?

You cen search the Hye Forum for ASALA - it will gave you most of what you need

 

Movses

 

[ June 04, 2001: Message edited by: MosJan ]

[Negrug]

[dragon]

Yeah, you're right

[MosJan]

A TURKISH SOURCE INFORMES ABOUT A MEETING OF THE LEADERS OF ASALA AND PKK

13.06.2001

 

/PanARMENIAN.Net/. "Mediamax" informs that Anatolian agency has spread information about a meeting of the representatives of the leadership of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and ASALA (Privy Army for Liberation of Armenia). According to the information of the agency, ASALA was presented at the meeting by its "leader Simon Zakarian and the director of the political wing Vazgen Petrosian". According to the report of the source, Zakarian claimed to the leaders of the PKK that "after the decision to stop military operations against Turkey Kurds should not rely on the support of Armenia".

[THOTH]

I wouldn't put any faith in this report. It seems identcal to one spread around last year. Don't you think it is odd that the Turkish media would have details concerning what might have been discussed at such a mythical meeting (and who is to say these sort of meeting don't go on all of the time)...still...sillyness IMO...Again - certain elements in Turkey trying to keep the Armenian & Kurd as villian images alive...(and now both cooperate against the Turkish State)...ooh...aah...we must obtain more attack helicopters and crush them etc. - seems to me most of the shooting has been one way of late....

 

quote:

---

Originally posted by MosJan:

A TURKISH SOURCE INFORMES ABOUT A MEETING OF THE LEADERS OF ASALA AND PKK

13.06.2001

 

/PanARMENIAN.Net/. "Mediamax" informs that Anatolian agency has spread information about a meeting of the representatives of the leadership of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and ASALA (Privy Army for Liberation of Armenia). According to the information of the agency, ASALA was presented at the meeting by its "leader Simon Zakarian and the director of the political wing Vazgen Petrosian". According to the report of the source, Zakarian claimed to the leaders of the PKK that "after the decision to stop military operations against Turkey Kurds should not rely on the support of Armenia".

---

[Guest]

excellent reply THOTH congratulations!

ASALA only serves the turkish cause by opposing a genocide of more than a million to a terrorist organization and its killings which gave the opportunity to turks to say that armenians have also killed and it certainly represents armenians as much as the turkish terrorist M.A. Agca(Pope's aggressor in 1980) represent turks.

[Guest]

this is an obvious attempt by turks to assimilate kurdish terrorism to the armenian one, a well known propaganda which they started to use after 1993 asserting that Armenia is helping PKK although there is no proof.

[THOTH]

Hovik - agre on both counts. I have in the past used the Mehmet Ali Acga situation to illustrate - "do the acts of one/a few condemn an entire nation". Obviously the (preconcieved) answer of the Young Turks/CUP was YES. So has the current Turkish State changed in this perspective? Are the Turks (still) such (uneducated/unaware/willing to hate/generalize) sheep that they will (believe/follow/unquestion &) act on such? And if not what could they do anyway? I still fear that in many ways little has changed (based on empircal evidence) - though I know that in fact there has been (some) change - and I expect the pace and degree of such to grow substantially...sometime soon...I know it will...I know it will...tap 3 times and I will be back in Kanses...eh? ?

 

I have often said that I disaprove of the methods, tactics and outcome of the actions of ASALA (killing of innocents - even the poor Diplomats [with families etc]...) - and I do - I think that ASALA is wrong! all wrong - and also very bad for our image (feeds Turkish propaganda more than our own) - but I also must confess that deep down I (would) get a certain inner sense of satisfaction when one of the unacknowledging unrepentent (Turkish Diplomat) bastards went down!

[Guest]

however you feel this is purely turkish probaganda when I was doing my military service some of my colleagues used to come and tell me about Armenia helping kurds even then(and not in a forum) I said no this is probaganda pure lie. They show pictures of Ocalan with a priest(that they present as an armenian) and the priest is an arab assyrian one. They say they captured a terrorist of armenian origine and the guy's name is Abdullah, Mehmet, Mohammed(LOOOL) or sth like that.

[THOTH]

Armenians have barely been able to help their own (Karabagh). Just with what have Armenians been able to offer the Kurds/PKK - besides perhaps some moral support?

[MJ]

Obviously, ASALA is a liability for Armenians. However, that liability is taken way out of proportions by the Turkish side.

 

As to the Armenian support of PKK - that is another exaggeration. It is hard to imagine that there have not been Armenians supporting PKK. PKK has been Marxist/Socialist organization, and so that to garner some support from the Kurdish population, the tribal structure of which doesn't accommodate Marxism, it has later added nationalistic/anti-Turkish flavor to its appearance, which I think has been of peripheral character. Hardly these two magnets would’ve not attracted at least moral support from similar Armenian elements. ASALA has also been a Marxist organization, financed by non-Armenian sources (therefore managed, I assume), and it has obviously had a nationalistic orientation (better to say anti-Turkish orientation).

 

Clearly the name ASALA as Army of Liberation of Armenia doesn't correspond to its actual mission. The assassinations that they have committed, allegedly, have pursued a purpose of raising public awareness, and breaking the wall of silence on the subject of the Armenian Genocide. On such capacity, under the best scenario, ASALA has been a PR organization. In my view the negative PR they have generated Ha substantially exceeded the positive one. Additionally, the positive PR, in my view, has been accomplished primarily in the internal Armenian arena, by raising awareness of the Genocide as an actual subject of interest inside the Armenian communities.

 

It is interesting that ASALA has never made any declarations (furthermore no actions) on the subject of the liberation of Soviet Armenia. This fact itself raises suspicions of Soviet support, even if we assume absence of such direct allegations.

 

I doubt that it has ever been larger than few dozens of young man, of which perhaps only one dozen has participated in actions. There is also information that, subsequently, ten of them have participated in the liberation of Karabagh.

 

Now, the question is why so much noise about ASALA from both sides? The motivations of the Turkish side to disproportionately present the Armenian liability of ASALA are understandable. The sympathies towards ASALA from some segments of the Armenian nation are more of a psychological character rather than political, I think. The burden of being victimized without the punishment of the guilty, and moreover, without recognition of victimization is frequently a heavy burden. The ASALA actions have somewhat lightened that burden at the time of their occurrence.

[dragon]

Asala started good, but then failed in the mission... when its rifle addressed to diasporan armenians, mostly against Tashnagtsoutiun.

We have to wait, to know the Truth. History must say its last word.

[nairakev]

What was good in ASALA's activity? Killing ambassadors and bombing civil sites? Do you think it was good even in the name of 1.500.000 victims of Genocide?
I'm surprised to know that ASALA does have an office in Yerevan. How come? When many oppostion activists were/are jailed in Armenia?

[Boghos]

I am sorry to hear that.

[Boghos]

The fact that ASALA has an office in Yerevan is probably because some of its original members such as Monte Melkonian, participated in the Karabagh struggle and were revered as great leaders and fighters.

 

I will not bother to comment on the Turkish use of ASALA for its own deceitful practices. Posters above have already done a good job.

 

I think what many fail to understand is that ASALA is not a purely Armenian phenomenon in its genesis. It was created amidst two important circumstantial situations: the increased violence in Lebanon and the emergence of small terrorist/revolutionary (depending on your optic) groups all over the place. The hangover from 1968.

 

Interestingly enough most of these groups did not acomplish anything. ASALA, in spite of its methods, really brought the issue of the Armenian Genocide to the foefront. People don´t seem to realize how recent of a phenomenon that is. Even in the Soviet Union for a long time, there was strong objection from Moscow on mourning the Genocide let alone promote its recognition. The USSR and Turkey relation is an interesting one to analyse but not appropriate to this thread.

 

Dragon mention ASALA going wrong after they started fighting Armenians. He doesn´t mention the fact that in Beirut at that time the ARF decided to crate its own "revolutionary Army" in order to deter the enormous attraction that ASALA caused among the Armenian youth, including ARF ranks. Divisiveness and political shortsightedness are specialties of the ARF.

[Guest]

The assertion that ASALA had soviet support simply doesn't hold. Monte Melkonian was an american citizen wasn't he? Hagop hagopian being half arab half armenian I doubt the extent to which that organisation was really directed by armenians the perpetrators may be armenians naturally. I think ASALA served more the turkish cause then the armenian cause. Intensifying its actions at a time where there was a military regime(backed by the US) it diverted turkish public's attention from domestic issues creating an athmosphere of unity for some time.

 

The armenian liability doesn't exist. ASALA never represented the armenian republic which did not exist at that time as an independent repubic. Today's republic strongly denies and condemns the act of people with 'unbalanced personality'.

 

As for the armenian public awareness everybody was well aware of that well before the attacks began. I was in Europe at the time when attacks were carried out. The blind suicide attacks created more unease for armenians in France than enthusiastic feelings. At some point the french started being exasperated and I remember very well Mitterand's sentence addressed to the armenian community of France: 'there cannot be a misunderstanding between armenians of France and the french, those elements carrying out these actions are foreign elements coming from abroad'. The question is who were they working for if the armenian republic did not exist at that time and the soviets were certainly not inclined to exacerbate nationalist movements?

[MJ]

I may be ready to accept that an organization with a name ASALA, even comprising from some older ASALA members may exist in Armenia, however it would have a totally different charter. The existence of terrorist organizations on the soil of the Republic of Armenia is forbidden by the law of Armenia.

 

 

The assertion that ASALA had soviet support simply doesn't hold.

 

How come?

 

Monte Melkonian was an american citizen wasn't he?

 

Yes. So?

 

Hagop hagopian being half arab half armenian I doubt the extent to which that organisation was really directed by armenians the perpetrators may be armenians naturally.

 

Don’t see the validity of the arguments. PKK was also led by Kurds, but armed and financed by the USSR, as well as the PLO was in the old days.

 

The armenian liability doesn't exist. ASALA never represented the armenian republic which did not exist at that time as an independent repubic. Today's republic strongly denies and condemns the act of people with 'unbalanced personality'.

 

I have not claimed that ASALA is a liability for the Republic of Armenia, but for Armenians, meaning the Armenian cause.

 

As for the armenian public awareness everybody was well aware of that well before the attacks began.

 

Sure there was awareness of the historic fact. However, that awareness lacked political context, and was more in the context of mourning the ancestors.

 

…and the soviets were certainly not inclined to exacerbate nationalist movements?

 

Very strange statement, the least…

 

[ June 14, 2001: Message edited by: MJ ]

[MJ]

Dear Boghos,

Actually, the Soviet "change of heart" w.r.t. the Armenian Genocide has taken place in 1965 - at least few years earlier than the emergence of ASALA, I think.

[Boghos]

Dear Martin,

 

I was pointing to the fact that even in Soviet Armenia, a republic, it took a long time to get this issue dealt with. Witness Dzizerganaberd and Sardarabad. I am not tying it to ASALA. Genocide recognition was mostly a diaspora initiative.

 

Turkey and the USSR were strange bedmates. Even since Ataturk and Lenin.

 

[ June 14, 2001: Message edited by: Boghos ]

[MJ]

Yes. Now that I read it over, you are right. You were not tying ASALA's actions to the awareness on the subject of the Genocide. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

Indeed, effective 1965, USSR allowed Armenia to mourn (from whatever considerations). However, that was the extent of it.

 

Undoubtedly, the issue of the recognition and the condemnation of the Genocide has been on the shoulders of Diaspora all the way up to the year 2000, I think, when the Government of Armenia has stepped in.

[Guest]

You mean that people like Monte Melkonian and Hagop Hagopian were manipulated by the Soviets?What may be true for PLO may not be true for ASALA.

 

Well I don't feel liable at all as far as ASALA's acts are concerned Those who supported it are accountable for their acts and should pay if necessary.

 

...and how come that you are amazed when I say "soviets were certainly not inclined to exacerbate nationalist movements". Do you think the leaders of the Soviet Union had suicidal tendancies to the extent that they supported movements which would inevitably end up reviving nationalist feelings in one of the Soviet Republics leading to the break-up of the Union. No this seems simply absurd to me.

 

The last but not the least: you did not react to my assertion that the intensification of ASALA's terrorist acts coincided with the establishment of a military regime in Turkey and those terrorist acts were like a manna for the turkish junta which was trying to divert its public's attention from domestic issues( widespread and systematic human rights violations ,lack of democracy, various economic and social problems) getting the turkish public opinion concentrate instead contantly on that issue of 'armenian' terrorism.

 

So to whom did really the 'armenian' terrorism benefit: armenians around the world(whose name was sullied by blind terrorist attacks in Europe and the armenians of Turkey who came under enormous pressure-many armenians migrated to USA at that time) or the turkish military regime of that time? It's up to you to decide.