Armenian militant Monte Melkonian collaborated with Iran ASALA militant’s confession

Armenian terrorist, former member of Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) Martiros Zhamkochyan, during his visit to Yerablur Military Pantheon, gave an interview to the Hraparak newspaper.

During the interview, he revealed the facts of cooperation between Armenian militant Monte Melkonian and Iranian special services. Melkonian was killed by the Azerbaijani military in June 1993 in Marzili village of Azerbaijan’s Aghdam district.

Caliber.Az reference: Martiros Zhamkochyan was born in Beirut on June 21, 1958. From an early age, he joined ASALA terrorist organisation. Zhamkochyan killed Mehmet Yerguz, an employee of the Turkish consulate, with three shots fired point blank in the centre of Geneva on June 9, 1981. The Swiss court sentenced the terrorist to 10 years in prison. After he was freed, Zhamkochyan moved to Armenia, and then to Karabakh, where he took an active part in ethnic cleansing and murder of the Azerbaijani civilians as part of a detachment under Melkonian’s command. As opposed to his commander, Zhamkochyan managed to escape the retribution, and today he lives peacefully in Armenia.

During an interview with the Armenian Hraparak newspaper Zhamkochyan said that together with Melkonian, he was engaged in "cleansing" in the Azerbaijani villages in Khojavand in spring 1992.

“There were Turkish [Azerbaijani] villages along the way. Our group began cleansing these territories. Our detachment had the biggest volume of military equipment and weapons in the entire region,” he said.

At the same time, the terrorist spoke about an interesting episode - about the cooperation of Melkonian with the Iranian side.

“Before the “liberation of Gubatlu” (Gubadli was occupied on August 31, 1993, when Melkonian had already been killed), the Persians called Monte, they took his opinion into account. This is a secret, and I am revealing it to you today. The Persians came to Goris (Gorus) to meet with Monte, they knew that an operation was being prepared,” Zhamkochyan said.

“During that period, we were in Lachin city, to which we brought some tank divisions to continue the attack on Zangilan, Gubatly (Gubadli), Horadiz from there. The Persians knew about this operation and who organised it,” he noted.

“Iran wanted to cooperate with us for nothing to happen, and for the war not to spread to the other side of the Araks (Araz). It wanted guarantees and came to negotiate with us. It was at the beginning of 1993, in spring. So our friends and enemies knew who they were dealing with,” Zhamkochyan added.

“That is why they took our opinion into account and negotiated with us. Of course, we gave a guarantee to the Persians that we would not allow our soldiers to shoot in the direction of Iran and at the Azerbaijanis retreating in its direction,” Zhamkochyan said.

This “open secret”, revealed by the Armenian terrorist, once again shows Tehran’s duplicitous policy. Verbally supporting Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, ranting about the historical, religious and cultural ties between the Azerbaijani and Iranian peoples, Iran nevertheless cooperated with the Armenian terrorists in Karabakh.

It is clear that we lost Shusha during the Iranian mediation round in 1992. Therefore, we do not even surprise anymore, recalling the characteristic episode from the second Karabakh war, when the advanced detachments of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, moving along the Araz River towards the dam of the Khudafarin hydroelectric power station, to reach the Zangilan district by the shortest and safest way, came across the Iranian army.

The transfer of intelligence data by the Iranian side to the Armenians about the movements of the Azerbaijani army during the war also testifies to the reverent attitude of the mullahs to the occupation policy of Armenia and its scum in Karabakh.