\u00a0Short English Summary<\/p>\n
of<\/p>\n
CLANDESTINE OPERATIONS BY THE ARMENIAN INTELLIGENCE IN THE 1720S<\/strong><\/p>\n by Armen Ayvazyan<\/p>\n \n Starting from the late 17th\u00a0<\/sup>century, the Armenians were secretly planning an all-out uprising against the Persian Safavi empire (the details on this uprising could be found in A. Ayvazyan\u2019s\u00a0The Armenian Rebellion of the 1720s and the Threat of Genocidal Reprisal<\/a>).<\/p>\n Their decades-long preparations and strategy, among other things, called for the three sets of\u00a0clandestine activities: (1) production, procurement and smuggling of arms and ammunition; (2) the conduct of negotiations with the governments of Christian Europe and Russia about getting their military backing to the Armenian liberation attempts; and (3) the training of the Armenian officers and soldiers abroad, in several east European countries and Russia, with the aim of their prompt arrival into Armenia at the very outset of the uprising. \u00a0The vigorous implementation of these activities resulted,\u00a0inter alia, in the extensive Armenian network of foreign agents covering Iran, the Ottoman Empire, Russia,\u00a0Rzeczpospolita Polska\u00a0(Polish\u2013Lithuanian Commonwealth), Hungary, Crimea, Habsburg Monarchy (Holy Roman Empire), Wallachia,\u00a0as well as, according to one of the archival documents, \u201cother countries.\u201d\u00a0 The Armenian foreign intelligence \u201cstations\u201d were established in\u00a0Kamianets-Podilskyi (at the time, the strongest fortress in Poland, currently a city in Ukraine), Tabriz and Isfahan (Iran), Moscow, the cities of the Crimean Khanate (then the protectorate of the Ottoman Empire) and elsewhere. Parenthetically, in April of 1724, the\u00a0powerful\u00a0Tabriz station was partly uncovered and thirty of its members were executed by the Iranian authorities.<\/p>\n \n To very briefly illustrate the capacity of this Armenian foreign intelligence network, here it will suffice to mention just a few facts.<\/p>\n \n In 1722,\u00a0285 Armenian soldiers were secretly transported\u00a0from Crimea\u00a0to eastern\/Persian Armenia across the hostile territory of the Ottoman Empire. \u00a0This was one of the most successful\u00a0operations\u00a0of the Armenian\u00a0intelligence in the 1720s.<\/p>\n \n About 500 Armenians \u2013 \u201call military men, disguised as traders,\u201d as they claimed to the astounded Russian officials in 1727 \u2013 were secretly organized and scattered in small independent squads\/cells throughout Poland, Hungary,\u00a0Wallachia and some other\u00a0neighboring regions of east Europe. Their command and control was performed by the troika of highest officers, going under the (probably fake) names of Isahak, Martiros, and Manuk\u00a0who were usually based in\u00a0Kamianets-Podilskyi.\u00a0\u00a0The exact locations, the numbers and\u00a0the commanders\u00a0of each squad were\u00a0known and responsible\u00a0to these three superiors only. \u00a0On the contrary, neither the rank-and-file soldiers, nor seemingly some of the Armenian commanders had any definite idea about their exact identity or the whereabouts of their regional headquarters. In winter of 1727-1728, the troika called a general assembly of these\u00a0well-trained\u00a0and motivated\u00a0forces in Poland and tried to organize their immediate transfer to Armenia via Russia. \u00a0This emergency moving was most probably ordered from Armenia by the leaders of the liberation movement who exactly in 1727-1728 were fighting against the increasingly overwhelming odds, beating back many Ottoman charges into the besieged mountainous provinces of Karabakh (Artsakh) and Ghapan (Syunik) in eastern Armenia. \u00a0In 1728, at least two Armenian detachments were allowed by the Russian authorities to pass from Rzeczpospolita Polska through\u00a0vast\u00a0Russian\u00a0territory and ultimately the narrow wedge controlled by the Ottoman troops and their Caucasian allies to Armenia. Successfully entering Karabakh, they took part in the ongoing hostilities against the invading Ottoman armies.<\/p>\n \n In fact, the secret militarized grouping\u00a0directed by the\u00a0Kamianets-Podilskyi station of the\u00a0Armenian intelligence was perhaps the largest ethnic organization of its kind in Europe of the XVIII century. These findings are valuable addition to our knowledge about the history of intelligence and espionage.<\/p>\n \n Below are the links to both the Armenian and Russian versions, published respectively in\u00a0Hayastani Zrutzakitz (in Arm.) and Sobesednik Armenii (in Rus.):<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u0540\u0561\u0575\u056f\u0561\u056f\u0561\u0576\u00a0\u0570\u0565\u057f\u0561\u056d\u0578\u0582\u0566\u0578\u0582\u0569\u0575\u0561\u0576\u00a0 \u0540\u0561\u0575\u056f\u0561\u056f\u0561\u0576\u00a0\u0570\u0565\u057f\u0561\u056d\u0578\u0582\u0566\u0578\u0582\u0569\u0575\u0561\u0576\u00a0 \u0540\u0561\u0575\u056f\u0561\u056f\u0561\u0576\u00a0\u0570\u0565\u057f\u0561\u056d\u0578\u0582\u0566\u0578\u0582\u0569\u0575\u0561\u0576\u00a0 \u0540\u0561\u0575\u056f\u0561\u056f\u0561\u0576\u00a0\u0570\u0565\u057f\u0561\u056d\u0578\u0582\u0566\u0578\u0582\u0569\u0575\u0561\u0576\u00a0 \u0540\u0561\u0575\u056f\u0561\u056f\u0561\u0576\u00a0\u0570\u0565\u057f\u0561\u056d\u0578\u0582\u0566\u0578\u0582\u0569\u0575\u0561\u0576\u00a0 <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u0422\u0430\u0439\u043d\u044b\u0435\u00a0 \u043e\u043f\u0435\u0440\u0430\u0446\u0438\u0438 \u0430\u0440\u043c\u044f\u043d\u0441\u043a\u043e\u0439\u00a0\u0440\u0430\u0437\u0432\u0435\u0434\u043a\u0438 \u0432 1720-\u0445\u00a0 \u0433\u0433. (V)<\/a><\/p>\n \u0422\u0430\u0439\u043d\u044b\u0435\u00a0 \u043e\u043f\u0435\u0440\u0430\u0446\u0438\u0438 \u0430\u0440\u043c\u044f\u043d\u0441\u043a\u043e\u0439\u00a0\u0440\u0430\u0437\u0432\u0435\u0434\u043a\u0438 \u0432 1720-\u0445\u00a0 \u0433\u0433. (IV)<\/a><\/p>\n \u0422\u0430\u0439\u043d\u044b\u0435\u00a0 \u043e\u043f\u0435\u0440\u0430\u0446\u0438\u0438 \u0430\u0440\u043c\u044f\u043d\u0441\u043a\u043e\u0439\u00a0\u0440\u0430\u0437\u0432\u0435\u0434\u043a\u0438 \u0432 1720-\u0445\u00a0 \u0433\u0433. (III)<\/a><\/p>\n