A priest, previously released by Vezirov at the request of the Catholicos of All Armenians, blew himself up in Azerbaijan nearly 30 years ago, just like in Catalonia.
The self-destruction of the Imam in Spain in preparation for large-scale terrorist attacks in Catalonia reminded that in the late 1980s, the clergyman of the Armenian church blew himself up in Azerbaijan, political analyst Fuad Akhundov told Interfax-Azerbaijan.
He noted that while the case with the Imam is known to the entire world, nobody even in the USSR knew anything about the case with the Armenian cleric.
"A certain Stepan Davtyan, a clergyman of the Armenian church, blew himself up when an attempt was made to blow up the monument to international friendship established in the Gazakh region. But while there were few notes about this case in the republican newspapers, no one knew anything in general about Davtyan's other "feat" committed at the order of the head of the Azerbaijani SSR Abdurakhman Vezirov. I found those interesting details when I was reviewing a summary of the incidents on the national ground while preparing a book about Armenian terrorism at the head office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. There I came across the name of Stepan Davtyan, an Armenian clergyman, detained in Baku in the late 1980s with a dagger and a bottle of incendiary mixture. And I remembered that some Davtyan later blew himself up in Gazakh. In the end, I found out that this was the same person. When I sent a request to Ministry of Internal Affairs about the reason the armed clergyman preparing the detonation was immediately released, it came out that Catholicos Vazgen II was interceding with Vazirov for Davtyan. This episode was published in the book 'Undeclared War' of 'Azerbaijan' publishing house," Akhundov informed.
He noted that while no one would intercede for the Imam, since the Islamic world condemns terrorism and the Imam's actions, Davtyan's action was not condemned but rather an appeal was made to release him.
"Echmiadzin was found involved in illegal, anti-state and terrorist actions back in tsarist Russia . A large number of researchers, including members of the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, politicians pointed to these facts. In particular, American historian Paul Werth wrote that the Echmiadzin Catholicos used the international political levers provided by Russia to create the Armenian kingdom. In addition, Echmiadzin began to blackmail autocracy skillfully in case it sought to obstruct such Armenian plans. As a result, in 1903 Echmiadzin was disbanded, and its property confiscated. And it was anathematized by the Russian Orthodox Church. That is, already in the beginning of the 20th century, the Armenian church was a supporter of anti-state actions and terrorism, and the tsarist authorities banned it, being aware of the danger of such actions. However, these belated actions did not stop the collapse of the Russian empire. And already in the late 1980s, the actions of Mikhail Gorbachev, who did not see this danger, accelerated the collapse of the Soviet empire," said the political scientist.
