FRENCH FOIL TURKS' HUNT FOR TERRORIST

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000706940033-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 15, 2011
• Sequence Number: 33
• Publication Date: October 31, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2011/12/15: CIA-RDP90-00965R000706940033-3
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WASHINGTON POST
31 October 1986
JACK ANDERSON and DALE VAN
ATTA I~~
French Foil Turks' Hunt for Terrorist
F rance's appeasement of terrorists has taken
another ugly turn. The French refuse to let
Turkish counterterrorist investigators see
photographs of the man who has directed the
slaughter of Turkish diplomats and their families.
For more than three years, Turkish intelligence
officials have been pleading with the French to give
them a picture o e No. Armenian terrorist
who uses the nom -de guerre " agoo agll onian."
The deadliest of the Armenian organizations is
ASALA, the Armenian Secret Army for the
Liberation of Armenia. Its goal is to force the
Turkish government to acknowledge what they
claim was the 1915 genocide of 1.5 million
Armenians by the Ottoman Turks, and to establish
an independent Armenian state in eastern Turkey.
ASALA was founded in Beirut in 1975 by the
shadowy Hagopian, a Syrian-Armenian with
Marxist inclinations.
After the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982,
Hagopian fled and set up new bases in Damascus
and Athens. He also broke with the Palestine
Liberation Organization, which had given ASALA
training and support. Hagopian linked up with Abu
Nidal, the anti-PLO leader responsible for much
anti-American terrorism.
Hagopian has never given a face-to-face
interview, and descriptions of him vary. A photo of
him would be of enormous value to the Turks, who
have been trying to track him down.
The French secret services have obtained
photographs of Hagopian. Intelligence sources tell
us that a top PLO leader, Salah Khalaf, slipped the
French some pictures of Hagopian and other
Armenian terrorists in December 1982, following
the ASALA-PLO break.
Using these pictures, the French were able to
identify Hagopian when he visited Paris in April
1983. They didn't arrest him, but followed him to
all his secret meetings and compiled an extensive
file on ASALA.
As we reported, the French cut a deal with
ASALA in January 1982, releasing an Armenian
leader in return for an end to a series of deadly
bombings. The truce was broken in July 1983, by
the premature detonation at Orly Airport of a bomb
terrorists say was intended to go off aboard a
Turkish airliner.
Using the information from their surveillance of
Hagopian, the French quickly rounded up 51 people
linked to ASALA. One of them, Varadjian
Garbidjian, was sentenced to life for murder; he is
one of three terrorists whose release has been
demanded by those responsible for the recent wave
of bombings in Paris.
One theory for the French refusal to give
Hagopian's picture to the Turks is that Garbidjian,
the Armenian terrorist now in a French prison, may
be the elusive Hagopian. A photo of Hagopian
would enable the Turks to prove this by comparing
it to pictures taken of Garbidjian at his trial.
The Hagopian/Garbidjian theory would explain
the wave of Paris bombings. ASALA (with a little
help from Abu Nidal) wants its founder released;
with the previous deal as precedent, the Armenian
terrorists figure they can win
Hagopian/Garbidjian's freedom with a series of
bombings.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2011/12/15: CIA-RDP90-00965R000706940033-3