Hayk DEMOYAN
( n. 1975 )

The persecution of the Armenians and the massacres committed against them received extensive coverage by the international media of the day. This coverage shed light on the many facets of the centuries-long persecution of Armenians and highlighted numerous issues concerning the genocide of the Armenian people. Especially notable were the British, Russian, French and American newspaper reports about the Hamidian massacres of 1894-1896, the Adana atrocities of 1909, and the Genocide of 1915-1923. A large number of reports and articles also referred to the humanitarian consequences of the Genocide, such as the fate of Armenian deportees, the caring of orphans, and the rescue of women and children abductees.

These publications in the foreign media convey to us invaluable information about genocide as a phenomenon, its processes and consequences, and serve as indirect evidence of the historic truth of the Armenian Genocide.

The eyewitness accounts of people fleeing the Ottoman Empire and of survivors of the Genocide served as a primary source for international reporters and newspaper editors, who also relied on reports sent back by foreign diplomats, relief workers, missionaries and other eyewitnesses who saw firsthand the scale and extent of the massacres being unleashed on the Armenian populace and on other Christian minorities in the Ottoman Empire at the end of 19lh and the beginning of the 20th century.

Particularly important information about the ongoing violence and the crimes against humanity was provided by reporters of foreign periodicals, who by virtue of their presence on the ground were able to give chronologically accurate reports about the events. These publications in European and American newspapers and journals often included gruesome photographs, and are of particular interest as they offer exceptional photographic and primary evidence and a true glimpse into the tragedy that was unfolding in the Ottoman Empire at the time. They also enable readers to understand the overall situation and empathize with the unimaginable suffering of the deportees and survivors of the mass slaughter that was taking place in that empire.

As a result of these publications, the international community was made aware of the ongoing crimes committed by the Ottoman Turkish government. Thanks to the numerous articles and editorials that appeared in the global media at the time, pro-Armenian movements and initiatives gained momentum, and massive humanitarian fundraising campaigns were launched to help the survivors of the Genocide. In fact, as early as the Hamidian massacres, certain editorial offices were actively assisting in the organization of fundraising activities to help destitute Armenians.

The publications dealing with the persecution of Armenians that appeared on the front pages of European and American newspapers are especially interesting, and are indicative of the topicality of the Armenian Genocide at the time and of the intensity of the desire to know what was happening to the Armenians.

HAYK DEMOYAN

Director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute

I began working on this volume because of the need to re-examine developments in international relations following the 2001 September 11th attacks on the United States. Not only did those atrocities become a turning point in modem history, they also brought about dramatic shifts in the world community's awareness of its vulnerability to terrorist outrages. This global sense of fear has produced an urgent need to understand the workings and motivations behind contemporary terrorism. These issues are of vital importance not just to historians and journalists but to policy makers, diplomats and world leaders as well.
Up until recently there have been no attempts in academic circles to analyse documents and evidence concerning the recruitment and use of trained mercenaries and Chechen, Afghan and other Islamist fighters in the Karabakh war, a conflict that started in the dying days of the Soviet Union and escalated into a major war between the newly-independent states of Armenia and Azerbaijan. Neither has the nature and scale of Turkish military assistance to Azerbaijan during and after that war been studied in depth. In that sense, this book is unique, as it brings together these two interrelated subjects and shows how the repercussions and dangers stemming from those activities still linger today. I believe that the facts presented in this book go far in explaining how terrorist structures emerged and developed in the Caucasus region, and why Azerbaijani and Turkish government agencies regularly patronise their activities and seek a continuation of their presence in the region.
The struggle of Karabakh Armenians for self-determination and self-preservation between 1988 and 1994 is often misconstrued as an attempt at secession. The Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh, however, was forced to fight not only against regular Azeri troops, who tried to expel them from their ancestral homeland, but also against an impressive array of foreign mercenaries and extremists recruited by the Azerbaijani authorities. After the war ended in 1994, some of those mercenaries and extremists joined the ranks of international terrorist organisations and are still active today.
While working on this volume, I used various sources in Armenian, Russian, English, French and Turkish. I have tried to use these sources in such a way so that they complement and buttress each other, in order to avoid one-sided conclusions and interpretations.
I hope this book will interest all those who research the Karabakh conflict and study the workings and interconnections between international terrorist organisations.
Hayk Demoyan, Ph.D.
Yerevan, Armenia

CONTENTS
Introduction ...................................................................................... 3
PART I
Turkish political, diplomatic and military support to Azerbaijan during and after the Karabakh war of 1991-1994 ............................................................ 5
Conclusions .................................................. 20
PART II
The role of mercenaries, extremists and Islamist fighters during and after the Karabakh war of 1991-1994 ................................................................................... 23
Chechen mercenaries in Karabakh ................................................... 26
Afghan Mujahedeen in Karabakh .................................................... 30
Conclusions ........................... 39