COMMUNIST ACTIVITY IN NEAR EAST INCREASING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91T01172R000300290025-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 31, 2006
• Sequence Number: 25
• Publication Date: August 10, 1951
• Content Type: IM

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Dissemination Authorized
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
OFFICE OF CURRENT INTEI,I,IGENCE
Intelligence Memorandum
lsalm.It Ms
110 August 1951
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ilasa. Chang"d To. TS S C
Auth Hd 16.2
Office of Current Intelligence
State Dept. review completed
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
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INTELLIGENCE MEMORANDUM
SUBJECT: Communist Activity in Near East Increasing
where Soviet-Communism is paying increasing attention to the Near East,
political stability has already been weakened by the development
of extreme nationalism. Recent events such as the Anglo-Iranian oil
nationalization crisis present the Communists with potent material
for their propaganda efforts.
The growth of terrorist groups such as those responsible for the
recent murders of Jordanian King Abdullah and Iranian-Prime Minister
Razmara also.provides useful tools and powerful allies for the dis-
cauragement of pro-Western sentiments among local leaders.
Current Communist activity, however, is not based solely on the
expedient of exploiting daily events and ready-made situations. A
resolution of the Helsinki World Peace Committee, referring to the
Near East as a focal poi4t of tensions, reflects Soviet recognition of"
the area as one rapidly becoming worthy of more serious exploitation.
Although there are-currently insufficient data available to conclude
that any carefully planned and centrally directed campaign against the
Near East has as yet been waged, the outline of a pattern has begun
to emerge.
Local Conn inist parties and some front groups have been banned'in
many _?arts of the Near East, but the governments are unable to prevent
illegal organizational and
propaganda activities. One of the primary
points of Communist-activity is the Partisans of Peace movement through
which numerous non-Communist and fellow-travelling groups might be won
over to neutralism. Toward this end a Middle East Peace Congress, one
of a series of regional conferences planned at the February meeting in
Berlin of the World Peace Congress, is soon to be held. Related to these
attempts to link the Near East with over-all Communist efforts is the
attendance of about 200 students at the World Youth Festival in Berlin.
The majority of this group is Lebanese, but there are also delegations
from Syria Iraq and Iran.
An over-all increase in the amount of Soviet propaganda directed
to the Near East has been observed during 1951. Alarm over the violence
and vigor of local Communist propaganda, especially in Eth
cently been expressed to the US Ambassador in Cairo by both ttheaSecre-
tary General of the Arab League and the Yugoslav Minister.
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Several new Communist newsna-oers have nm ared in Egypt during
the summer. Their financia.. backing appears'to be strong, for they
flourish without advertising. Th.:y also seem to have been unaffected
by the shortage of newsprint which has bothered other Egyptian papers.
Egyptian piblications other than the indcntifiably Communist press
have been urging friendship with the USSR in a highly'organized, skill-
ful and subtle fashion which is not common in Egyptian journalism.
Direct Soviet implication in such a development -- at least to the
extent of subsidy -- seems obvious.
Ethnic groups with separatist traditions, such as the Kurds,,
have been given greater attention in Soviet propaganda. While most of
the propaganda effort, possibly reinforced by agent activity, is aimed
at the Iranian Kurds.-it also reaches sizeable numbers in Turkey, Iraq,
Syria, and Lebanon. To many of these tribesmen the concept of an in-
dependent Kurdistan to be carved out of other Near Eastern states
has always been an alluring dream. Its increased encouragement will
make them restive and a threat to the stability of Near Eastern states.
Continuous efforts are also being made to use Moslem aid Greek
Orthodox groups as implements for creating pro-Soviet sympathy. Much
emphasis has been put on the freedom of worship granted to Moslem
groups inside the Soviet Union. Offers of financial assistance by
Greek Orthodox communities in the USSR have been extended to Near
Eastern churches. The most amenable to these blandishments has
been the Patriarch of Antioch, who signed the Stockholm Peace Appeal
and is currently in Moscow, presumably in the hope of obtaining
compensation for expropriated church property.
Most of the Greek Orthodox communities in the Near East appear
to be anti-Communist, and the dominant' figure in the Near Eastern hier-
archy, the Patriarch of Istanbul, is firmly so. The poverty of the
Church will make offers of-financial assistance attractive, however,
especially since there have traditionally been close ties between
Russian and Near Eastern congregations.
With the exception of Iran, where the Communist Party (Tudeb)
is well-organized and has astute direction, Communism in the Near
East is in an early stage of development. There is some evidence of
consolidation of the links between these paxties and the USSR,
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In the main, Moscow seems content to permit these parties to
associate. themselves with the indigenous forces that are foster-
ing instability and anti-Westernism rather than openly to avow
Soviet aims and Communist ideologies. This concentration on
local issues of widespread emotional appeal attracts additional
Communist supporters and helps to speed up the existing trend
in the area toward political instability.
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