Armenian Terrorism in Switzerland in 1981, According to British National Archive

8/3/2019 Armenian Terrorism in Switzerland in 1981, According to British National Archive

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•CONFIDENTIAL

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BRITISH EMBASSY JLBERNE

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ARMENI AN TERRORI 3M

Mardiros, the young Armenian accused of the murder of an employeeof the Turkish Consulate in Gen~va on 9 Junel was convicted inGeneva on 19 December and sehtenced to 15 years' lmprisonmgt and15 years' banishment from Switze~land. T he d ~f $h ce lawyers are

reported to have lodged an apj?eal.

2. The result of tbeit was foreseen tha.t }m~~~

rep ris als a gai nst · Swiss ~ ~ ~ l ; ; ~ ; ; ~ ~Army for the Liberatio~ ~

of my letter to you ofday after the sentence ·-........:·..__.,luull.n;~4lJ; ..

a spokesman of the Secret tel~~'~~~'Beirut {~iving the Swiss Government nethe court's judgement. Otherwise thes ol el y r es po ns ib le for the death of ~nno~aSecret Army's first adion would be ,~:~u~

corom" ique is reported to have addedrejecJed the "immoral fl laws and verdi6would not remai.r ilent in the face of

trial Idardiroa'fi he ~as' 17 y.eCoUIG (cour di~'MR_l

- 1 r a. ," 1 19 0 f:fendersI COU:r::;li.I'JI»~

'he ' .enc e later produfr a r i mo the r. to l>~O~m1.1

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e;enocideo

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5 0 Such press comment as I have seen tends t o support the court'sverdict and to take the line that a light sentence would have been< :1 surrender to the Secret Army's threatso A t the same time somecc m n (m tators, while utterly condemning the Secret Army's terrorism

mention the right of the Armenians to live in the land of their 'oriGin.

G. I thiw( it must be admitted that the Secret Army for theI.iber-a t.Lon of .Armenia is having some success in publicising itsc~useo The witnesses to the horrors suffered by the Armenians in1915 who gave evidence in the court seem to have evoked considerablesympathy and this has been reflected in the pres~. At the samet im e t he SWiss court a nd the jury of 1 2 were not willing to beintimidated by terrorist threats. Swiss officials with whom Idiscussed this case a few days before the trial began were obviouslyconcerned about the likely repercussions of the sentence an d by thec ene ra l pr ob lem of Ar me nia n ' te rr or ism i n S wi tz erJ an d. I have nodoubt that the Swiss security services will b e ta ~ing t he SecretArmy's threats very seriously indeed.

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AR MEN IAN TER ROR ISM

With reference to my letter of 13 August you may be interested

to see the enclosed extract from the paper "Twenty four hours

lt

of 10 August based on a report put out by ,ttAgence T~legraphiqueSuisse". and carried by other Swiss papers, about anonymousthreats against the Armenian oommunity in, Switzerland followingthe recent Armenian terrorist attacks on S wi ss i nt er os ts ,

2 f will try to take an early opportuni ty of mentioning th11 ~report to my Turkish colleague in the hope that he has somecomment of interest to make (which I very much doubt) •

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T With r e f e " Y ' . . . . , " " ' , . . . . ~, ( )yOUT' le-tt r of 2~ Ju.~v and e a r l i e r correspondenceabout the Ar!nenJ..c:ih t.e rr o r«. {_l '1"l r - f .. I .: tl enclo sing a t r a n s l a t i o n ofan article in the Ita! lr11 I ~ J v i ' r , rl(-'l~f:rpr' .~_ ;r "Corriere del Ticino" of4. August, recording ' : f& ' ) ' . J..llteL'JJt v' C..\:1lf:>:.;n the paper's c o r r e s p o n d e n t ,Rita Porena, and Hagop.lan, hspr)ltebmarJ.st: of the S e c r e t Army for t h eLiberation of Armenia o

20 The recent bomb incidents claimed by tl1e "9th of JuneOrganisation", to which the interview refers, were r e p o r t e d i n

John Brook's letter of 21 July a n A Jack Hobbs' ( G e n e v a ) l e t t e r o f

23 July t o J o h n D u n c a n i n W E D . A s y o u w i l l s e e H a g o p i a n i s r e p o r t e das saying that Switzerland will continue to be in danger from theArmenians until the release of Mardiros, the Armenian terroristarrested in Geneva on 9 June for shooting an employee of theTurkish Consulate there. It is interesting t o see the efforts of

Hagopian to "distance" the Secret Army from the operations of the3 October and 9 J u n e movements, while ~dmitting that his organisationhad encouraged all Armenian groups to carry o u t a t t a c k s o n S w i s s

interests o

3 0 What is even more interesting i~ the fact that the "Carrieredel Tieino" should have this conta~t with the Armenians and shouldsee fit to provide their "spokesman" with a platform of this kf nd ,



to do with

w does one

+ .or ARTICLE WHICH A rl'EA U D IN "CaRRIERE DEL TIeINO"

.I 1981

jHO ULD 1:.AK E NO TICE~ WJ.. ARE REA.!1Jl TO HIT THEM , AND HARD! n

"J. ... lust last year, i,}1 0 noke:·. l 1 of th S t A- r· e ecre rmenian Army,

L.uf)0 ~ ,gave his fire;ti, I~ervi(.I r R1 G ; ; l Porena of th e "Ca rri er e

del Tieino". Already i that inl .CW~ future action against

S wi - cz e rl an d was declared. Since ttl(' llf

ho attacks have been

increased. Rita Pore nr went bacl to:.~r _1 to Hagopian about the

latest attacks by the Armenian gu l.i.l1~sJ bout the organisation

"9 June", about Mardiros, the ArrnenLan IhlJtant in prison in Geneva

for th e assassination of a T urkish d~pl mat . And Hagopian, between

punctuations, assertions an d deni~~n, confirms that the Armenians

will c ontinu e to attack Swiss institutions and interests.

Beirut, 3 - (RP) Mr Hagopian, your militant Madiros was arrested

more than a month ago and will have to wait another month at least

for trial. Why then are there attacks against Switzerlru1d at themoment?

(H) Our organisation has nothing to do with the attacks of the

last few weeks in Switzerland. And the organisation "9 June" has

We are the Secretaken revenge, and "9 June" must be responsible.

Armenian Army for the liberation of Armenia.

(RP) But some time before the arrest of Mardiros, your o rr-antsat.Lon

appealed to all Armenian groups, inciting them to attack Switzerland.

This was one of you r deoisi ons.

(H) Yea, exactly. W e

to attack SWiss

the illite 0t ltis

they

all Armenian revolutionaries

tut10ns because we know about

Turkey and we know that

regime in Ankara against

was arrested: when

identity and the

th a photograph

public the day

kept secret in



(H) This qu .J': n would nav to oe put to the organisation"9 June".

As far as c are concerned, we deeply Jmpathise with the victims,

since our organisation respects human life. The proof of this is

when Mardiros went to the location of the assassination in Geneva

to accomplish the second part of the operation, which consisted of

killing the personnel of the Turkish Consulate, who would have run

to the spot, he did not do it to save, as we had ordered, possible

Swiss citizens who may have been around. Mardiros surrendered to

the authorities. In our opinion; the difference between the

operations of " 3 October" and " 9 June" were due to the position of

the Swiss authorities. We are certain that the operations of

"9 June" were the result of the refusal of Switzerland to recognise

the rights of Mard1ros and of the mal treatment to whf.ch he was

subjected at the time of his arrest, whenhe was beaten b.\' the

policemen and bitt~n b .r dog. The marks of this maltreat-

ment are evident on published by the Turkish press.

To this one m u s t 8 did to Alex during his

blindness. WhenAlex was setimprisonment, an4

t him and these all agreed in

free we had oessary treatment and that

DI that he ation had been done in

the S wi Ss a ut ho ri ti es ,

h i m cured, ignoring not

humans in general.

these attacks

rom the

. te1 I such names, or wer they formed spontaneousl ?

s we have no rela tLonsh.l.p a.t all w ' th . Y·.. l such groups

\ 1.S that before the t'rrest of Armen' . .'. ~. . . J.an revolutlonaries

furmlng, In other wor rs Armenian revolutionaries are .>

..rywhere to de f 'e nd t he "use of their countrymen in

gro

p.

~

'.L.ng the detent! of Al£· I. '~1Susy, another group had

J couim.l t i.!l'rori acts In "I t,zerland and that was the

'" ",0 bE r U ; but in th ease in( 1 I

- c . a ttack s of "9 June " have c 1;".

i...Ljurie s to anobhe r t1 'tty th 1,(.

\ J.t' no civilian victims, but

death of one person and

dc r+ng the places in which

How do YOli explain this

I L )

this occurred, the victimH V~jt

determination to punish ci'w' ia

I -nd ed

L ? .d hov: do you judge it?



> .J ~ but more to puni.ah Switzerland for the wrongs

' i " X J attributes to it.

. ift" inly, we think tha.i "9 June" is continuing to punish

wi tze~..L~J. 1- I..acd , also cauai ng c: ilian '\ .ctims, because of the

links between this count:ry l1fHl 1~j ~ Tll'rk5 },'rl regime, which go so far

as to pu; the interests of tn- A n ~"~l:aei .me above those of the

Swiss people 0 We are expe c .g a ic re aae in violence until the

Swiss Government ceases to 1- Lp 'l _:L.ey The Secret Armenian Army,

since the arrest of Mardiros, her' uz...j_l now abstained from punishing

Switzerland, but as soon as we decide the moment has come, we will

punish very hard o It all depends on the position which the Swiss

Government will take, not only wit~h reference to our "militant"

al:'

in prison, but also regarding the Armenian problem and t he Ar me ni an

Communiy in Switzerland. Weknow that Armenia~'1'IJ:r are being

subjected to persecution by the local authorities and are being

forced to publish or sign statements against revolutionary groups

under the threat of expulsion from Switzerland.

~ The spokesman of the Department of Justice and Police in Berne

has said that if Mardiros is found guilty he will have to sit at

least 5 years in Swiss prison. May we consider what you have just

said as a reply to this statement?

(H) If this is the reply: if the Swiss authorities decide on 5, 6,

10 years of prison this means that they are ilAoring t he i nt er es ts

of the SwiSS people and will have to expeot ,. 6, 10 years of danger.



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I . Th a n k y o u f o r your l e t t e r of 2 8 July asking m e so ~ e questionsabout ,the background to Armenian terrorist activity.

~. ~B I e xp la i ne d t o y o u o ve r t h e 'phone, m y e xp e rt i s e su c h as it1S 11es almost entirely in the fields of history Rnd culture. Inf ac t , b e ca u s e I am a Di p l om a t ic S e rv i c e Of fi c e r I r a th e r m ak e apoint of not asking my Ar m en i a n f r i en d s too many questions aboutpolitical activities in case they should think that I was in some

S DS trying to spy on them.

3 . A s y ou a r e doubtless aware, their 3 main p o l i t i c a l parties are

represented everywhere there is a substantial Armenian community_They are the Dashnaks, H n c h a k s and Ramgavars. In addition to these

p o l i t i c a l parties t he r e a re a n um b e r of splinter p,roups which ~o~eand go. I h a v e little knowledge of Annenian political leadership,

but Genevahas tradi tionally been an trnportant centre for the Dashnakp ar t y i n particular a nd I know that a c e r t a i n Harry l ~ssounian is

prominent t h e r e ; no d ou b t y o u r people are aware of that.

4. The 2 main Armenian terrorist groups are the Secret Army for the

L ib e r at i o n of Armenia a nd t h e Ju s t ic e Comwandos of the Armenian Genocide.Tbe former is thou¥ht to b of e xt r e m e left ideology, and to ha~e hadcontacts with ariQua ian Kurdi sh and extreme left Turklsh

p I am how little suspicious of attempts to

~ clo e d i f f e r e n t terrorist groups and

-"---8t th be a considerable degree of .r conta.ct view is that both these Armenlan

woulc\ be a mis take to deduce

• that they form part of some

eo-operation.

thought tomainstream of

)



XC 19, but I ha e nen now anyone ho was activ

7. I have written nothing of anytopic. The best ccount I haveLos ngeles Tim s of 25 J nuarya c py in case you have not seento the modern Armenian situationWal er and David Lang published b

i opber alke 's ~~e~~ __



British Consulate General

37-39 rue de Vermont 1211 Geneva 20

Telex 22966 Telegrams Britain Geneva

Telephone 34 38 00 33 23 85

-----~~---------------

J S DuncanW.E.D.F . e . o .

------------our reference

23 July 1981

o :-,/ I,.,_~ . . . . . .

. JOur reference

CON 051/4

27 JUll98i Date

-lfnE.'( PA

AR ME NI AN TE RR OR IS TS

The latest wave of bomb outrages reported by John Brook inhis letter of 21 July has continued in Lausanne where a bomb explodedin the Uniprix department store on 21 July, and in Geneva Where twoexplosions occurred at the main railway station during the eveningrush hour yesterday. The first incident resulted in 26 persons beingtaken to hospital. In the second, five people were injured, includingan knerican and a Japanese, and some of the injured are now in

intensive care. There were no British among the cas~ties.Responsibility for these outrages has been claimed by the "N inth of

June Organisation", as in the case of the incidents reported by Berne.The organisation announced on Tuesday (from a Beirut source) that itwould continue its attacks against Swiss t ar ge ts u nt il M ar di ro sSankodigian, the young man accused Qf killing an employee of theTurkish Consulate-General in Genev~ June 1981, w as r el ea se d.

2. These recent outrages havenot least because SWitzerlandArmenian cause, and has givenrefugees, many of whom aret he A rm en ia n terrorist.T ur ki sh d ip lo ma ts tOW.r!spublished a historythat had been _ a . .bring aid to

their ca" ..War • It'~;,;r."'~~111

c mn st er na ti on h er e,~~1;JI~Cl1 Upholder of the

o f Armenianthe ago, whenaway from

r.~~~.".~authoritiesefforts

1896, to

t o de fe ndGreat

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- 2 -

a s are th e Swis s, I wa s sur pris ed to b e to ld, so me mon ths ago, b ya wel l-to -do m iddl e-age d Arme nian t hat he had so me s ympa thy for the

move ment, wh ose v iolen t met hods , he sa id, se emed to be the on lymean s of draw ing p ubli C a tten tion to th e d eep r esen tmen t stil l f elt

by the Armenian community at large.

4. ~he o nly good thin g one ca n say abou t this late st w ave of vio lenc eis t hat it ma y perh aps caus e t he Swis s pres s to sh ow mor e und erst andi ngfo r B riti sh p olic y t oward s l. R.A. ter roris ts. There i s no SUgges tioni n any o f the c ommen ts I ha ve read that the se Arme nian S ar e e ntitl edt o len ient tre atmen t be caus e th ey hav e c ommi tted crim es i n purs uit of

a p olit ical cau se. The Jou rnal de Ge ni! ! vefo r e xamp le say s - "Asys tema tic po lice e nquir y, and ab solut e firm nesS by t he Swi sS poli tica l

an d jud icia l au thor itie s wi ll b e nec essar y t o prev ent t his b ranch of

t erro rist acti vity from pros peri ng alon g with ot hers , k nown a nd

unknown" .

cc: M r J Brook -Mr N SmithChancery - _.-



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BRITISH CONSULATE-GENERAL

GENEVAPA

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BritishBerne

Our ref: CON 051/3

10 June 1981

I enclose a copy of t he report by the l o c a l B rit is h Ai rw ay s

m a n a g e r , Laurence O'Toole, of t h e at.ack OL the British AirwaysS a l e s Shop inG e n e v a . I not . there is anything at thismoment to add to the t the estimate of thedamage seems to hav~ ed from SFr. 50,000 toSFr. 5,000. The er figurew hi c h Iquoted in t , but British Airwaysassured me this is, however, a

point which. .DS.



I.

5th Jun o , 198 1

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Sequence of EVents

At 02:15 on the morning of Friday, 29th May, DSM Alex Hofmann and

myself were contacted by the Guardmobilc PolicL who advlsed thclt

our silles shop windows had been broken by a group of 2-4 persons

of whom one had been apprehended. On Friday morning ?'lt11 1-1,1','\':'

WI'rr' vi -,1 t('d by MI, V.II,rllll Clr io I of (';VJIL'Vw '~Urt'll' uru! pr o v iu. (1 .I',

milch Lnforme tion as possible, including de ta il s of a porsi b l .e

W1.tness living in an appartment opposite the sales shop, Later

that morning we were asked to sign a complaint against the chap

who had b ee n a rr es te d.

sign panels were broken by

due to the fast ~ntervention

at the time, The damage

and the new

s de Ju sti rc an d wer v

police on the Fr1.day

""""~"'''S Dea bo r de s , Fr en ch ,his Lawyer,

doing al that time

to Rue des Gl'ottes,

to eat from a bak£ry

be saw thv pollce,

had met on prevlous

had a leputdtion

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UNCLASS t FEDt<-...., <:::'-.,.'":J..tR

E&'if~/6C~NSULATE GENERAL GENEVA 291315Z 81

T O R O U T I N E F C O

T E L N O 5 O F 2 9 M A Y

l N F O S A V I N G T O B E R N E A N D Z U R I C H

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~lP R O - I R A A C T I V IT I E S

BR IT ISH A IR \\rA YS OFFICE ~JAS DA~ 'AGED LA ST N IGHT BY STONE THRO~ 'ING .

T H R E E L A R G E \.,rlNDQ\'iIS ~ iE R E B R O K E N AND T ' d O ILLUM INA TED S IG NS D A f v ' I A G E D .

ESTU . , A T ED EXTENT SW ISS FRANCS 50,300. IT S EEMS ONLY TWO PERSONS

\\'E RE I NVOLVED , ONE OF WHO~1 WA S ARRESTED .

2 . P O L I C E T E L L · U S A R R E S T E D P E R S O N I S F R E N C H L I V I N G I N G E N E V A

A N D H A S R E C O R D . T H E Y · D O N O T T H I N K THAT M O T I V E IS PRO-IRA BUT

C A N N O T R U L E T H I S O U T . P R I S O N E R R E F U S E S T O S P E A K F O R T H E M O M E N T .



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.:'10 'J'ha11k YOl for your letter of 2 I,larch to Allen Brown in vll"icI_

,rou c~llltnen~ed01 the sentences passed on the two "3 October"

Armenlans In Geneva.

2~ The points in your paragraph 2(a)' were made to the Swiss sometime ago and are a. regular theme in our continuing dialogue wi t!1

the Federal security authorities. We11've reservations however o-;eryour paragraph 2(b) _ We can of cour-se understand your concern J~' t

the Swiss appear to have chosen the path of discretion rather t :_ all

that 0f valour in this particular case, and we believe them to beseriously concerned about the threat to security posed by theexistence of terrorists serving long-term sentences in Svdss prisons.

J:9ve:cttl.eless, the two terrorists in question can hardly re:'re sc. t acontinuing threat. .Nor 'do I think it follov~~sthat the Ar~enia~ls..VJill in future regard S'wi tzerland as a partlC1.:tl~~y safe __-ve.r:..~Cf:l

'111i,ch to launch operations. The Federal authorl tics lave a :"00 J

~"'Gcord in dealing with terrorists and Laat Octo bor -tllC ~w j G .• 1 l'~;';';

~~a.e the point some justification, that the A~:net l31'S WO,.iJ .~••o. d re sent of the Swiss secur i ty . 11 t1 0 " : ; ~1 es

lave gOO .in following ad th~S country-

30you reno re 81J0J2,a,l;.

make~ould

r us is t " 1 . 8 one to ';i!;ich

r. The~· Qver:-J. 8'<i.. .: S

discree evIl VIe r;_ : _ t ~ " ~reaction at' 3"-1iss c ff ~cialsthe SVlisJ or any ~u.1.:~~,~nto us abou1, uenterlCCS

would therefol'e, j f -:the SViist 0 1 -.118.30 1 I;;8,

d run if \Je did SO, ,'Jl C .... 1•• , 11v

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Telephone 01.

your re eranca

A R B row n Esq

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2 MA R \9ts ~h.",'IKY

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I"~NDEX PA

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ARMENIAN TERRORISTS

1. I was most interested by your letter of 13 February to Duncanabout the trial in Geneva of the two '3 October' Armenians. Needlessto say, we were disappointed by the remarkably mild sentences whichthese two received - tantamount to finding them guilty of seriousterrorist crimes, and then simply releasing them. I appreciate thatthe Swiss are likely to be sensitive to criticism and, of course, thegovernment is not responsible for the judiciary. Furthermore, weare grateful for their cooperation through liaison channels.

2. I should be most grateful, however, if you could take a suitableopportunity to make the following comments to the Swiss:

(a) We have naturally been concerned by the numerous terroristattacks on Swiss interests following the 3 October incidentin Geneva, including the attack in London on the Swiss Airoffice on 12 O c t o b e r . UK authorities have respondedpositively to for extra protection for Swissinterests. don and particularly at thetime of have been prompt in supplyingto , including our own, full

we are most grateful. Weformation which comes toal way.

it Mr Yenekomochian noterrorist. Indeed, his

~Ul~uuate punishment. Buttake a stronger line to• possibility thatas a haven from which toSwiss would not want this.

Departrnen t



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Mr Verek er

1. You will want to see Allen Brown's letter to me of ~~

13 February.

2

2 . .1 / ]

• ~r Caie SED has proposed a draft reply to this letter. <

I am not sure I a!2,"reeith the tone. It is not for us to

speculate on how the Turks may feel about the affair.The Swiss are quite touchy about outside criticism yet asMr 1I'0berleyhowed over exports to Pakistan they can'come

up trumps if approached in the right way.

3. I feel that it would be better to make an approach

on the lines 'Understand that in this case theindiVidual no lon~er presented a threat as a futureterrorist. His injuries m~ have been considered adequatepunishment. Although UK has not received a full reportfrom SWiss themselves surprised they did not take stronger

line to deter future sts. Possibility thatterrorists pOW land as a haven from which tolaunch ss would not want this.'If you line further with !'AED and

SED.

S Duncantern European Department

5 233 5903

\



13 February 1981

J Duncan Esq~EDFCO

ERI TI 3H ~ABA3S\{BERrE

REal' '. . .. i., 1

17 FEB \98 \

Ai-u lSNI IJ T8RR O:tr t)T~

~. T~e trial ended. in Geneva. on 10 February of the~~ConJ of t~o Armenlan ~err9rI~ts whose b~ explodedwnlle they were assembllng It In a hotel bedroom on3 October 1980 Alex Yenekomochian, a ~eban3se, N asfGund guilty a t illegal possession of explosives andsentenced to 18 montns' lmprisonment (suspended) andbanishment for 15 years. His colleague, SuzyIAasteredjta~i an Afnerican ci ttzen, had earlier beengiven a slml ar sentence and IS thougnt to have

returned to her home in Los Angeles,o n Y ene kmo ch ian .vas receivedSYmpathisors in the court,

judges (there 'NaG not of fence ; Yenekomochianinal mojlV8S; anJ as ast his 3ig ht, his 18f the Nas p~rtia11Ydeaf.

enekomoctian had: : > e p t 0 D l t J J r 1~30 a : ( l 9 -

ss p 80)le of A m e : T I l an

e f undS to the1 October, he went

e i v e d u ore-arra~ged

i n s t r u c t e d t o p l c ka DubLic lavatoryTheir p u r p 0 L : 8 w s . son 3 october,

that each d e V l c ebstance l I h i c h " w a sd be f ound in

/4.

I

Documents

Armenian Terrorism in Switzerland in 1981, According to British National Archive