30 years after Spitak earthquake: Myths and reality in the view of  Armenian experts

ArmInfo.Objective historical memory is the foundation that predetermines the development of society in accordance with its civilizational and spiritual  aspirations.  Director of the Noravank Foundation, member of the  Eurasian Expert Club Gagik Harutyunyan expressed this opinion at the  round table "30 years after the Spitak earthquake: history,  experience and lessons of the tragedy".

"It is known that the deformation of historical memory leads to  serious consequences for the country and its society. It is not by  chance that modern technologies implemented in the" soft power "mode  of falsifying or erasing historical memory (which is sometimes  called" historical politics ") have become the most important element  of permanent "hybrid" wars. A vivid example of the results of such an  impact are the processes observed today in Ukraine and in other  countries in which "color revolutions" were committed, Harutyunyan  said.

At the same time, he stressed that such technologies are used in  almost all those countries that are to some extent involved in  competitive geopolitical developments. "Armenia is among such  countries, as the Armenian society today is in a state of ideological  and informational-psychological split between two geopolitical  integration projects competing with each other, which can be  conditionally called "Eurasian" and "Western ". In this context  holding discussions on the occasion of the regular date of the Spitak  tragedy seems to be highly relevant, especially since even in this  tragic event, there are manipulative technologies of "historical  politics" such as statement that the earthquake was artificial, and  the Soviet armed forces had organized it, "the expert concluded.

In turn, the deputy director of ''Noravank'' Ara Marjanyan focused on  one of these manipulations - the myth of the testing or use of  nuclear "seismic" weapons in the USSR, which caused the Spitak  earthquake.  "Today, taught by the bitter experience of the past  decades, we can confidently assert that this myth is one of the first  examples of information and psychological sabotage used (and still  being used) in the post- Soviet space. After the Spitak earthquake in  Armenia, rumors began to spread that an atomic bomb was detonated to  intimidate the warring Armenians and Azerbaijanis, or (as an option)  to prevent the Armenian national movement for independence. These  rumors began to spread in abroad as well, but in a slightly different  context - as an example of the villainous and inhuman experiments of  the USSR over its own population. A rumor began to spread that the  Spitak disaster occurred because of a strictly secret test in the  Soviet Union. "First, I consider it necessary to emphasize the  universality of this myth and its socio- psychological significance  for the unfolding political and geopolitical processes in our region.  More precisely its instrumental significance for spurring on early  anti-Soviet and then after the collapse of the USSR anti-Russian  public sentiment'.

According to him, it is important to be aware of the geopolitical  background of this myth. The fact is, according to the expert that it  is not the first time that Armenia has been involved in the  mechanisms for spreading rumors about atomic weapons. "Thus, in  January 2017, about 800 thousand so-called" raw "intelligence  documents of the CIA of the United States, previously declassified,  were posted on the Internet. One of them, dated January 20th 1950,  was a reprint of the article "Atomic Bomb Plant in Soviet Armenia  "from the Stockholm magazine" Obs! " dated January 18, 1950. The very  informed author of the article cited many details of the USSR's  atomic project, which, as we know today, turned out to be true.  But  he also claimed that in Soviet Armenia, in the gorge of the river  Zangu (Hrazdan) huge construction was underway, drilling equipment  delivered from Saxony and Thuringia. Concrete plants, mechanical  workshops, barracks for workers and German prisoners of war are being  built. All this and much more, including the developed hydropower  industry in Armenia, is interpreted by the author as preparation for  the construction of an enrichment plant of uranium and assembling  atomic bombs, "he writes, adding that the unnamed author of the  article considered the real large-scale work for the construction of  Arzni HPP on Sevan-Hrazdan hydrocascade as the construction of a  mythical nuclear plant in Armenia. According to the expert, the  industrial, scientific, engineering, technical and organizational  power of the 2nd Republic of Armenia, and indeed of the entire  Armenian community, was such that it was actually considered and  partly became an integral element of the most ambitious of world  projects implemented by the USSR in the 20th century. That is why,  Armenia (and Armenians) was often used as a screen, a field for  disinformation in the great global confrontation between two  ideological systems and their intelligence services.

"I want to bring an important example to emphasize the geopolitical  background of the whole range of issues raised by us. The matter  concerns the so-called " Exchange strategies " of Ukraine, Belarus,  Kazakhstan and, as we shall see, Azerbaijan, in the framework of the  so-called" Big Bargain 1994 ". One of the former US ambassadors in  Kazakhstan gave such a name to complex, multilateral and  multi-layered bargaining over the division of the nuclear inheritance  of the USSR between these republics and its exchange for Western  investments, which took place in 1992-1994 and led to the signing of  the Bishkek Protocol on a ceasefire in Artsakh ( 1994), Azerbaijan's  "Deal of the Century" on the annexation of Caspian oil and gas fields  (September 1994), to the signing of the Budapest Memorandum (December  1994) and many other things that shaped the geopolitical reality we  are in today, including the blockade of Armenia by Turkey and  Azerbaijan, or another failure to create a unified air defense and  missile defense system of the CSTO, which we observed recently in  Astana, at a meeting of the CSTO leaders, "concluded the expert.