Gevork Vartanian

Gevork Vartanian (born 1924) in Rostov-on-Don, [ [http://www.russiatoday.com/spotlight/period/2008/05/09 RussiaToday : Spotlight ] ] was an intelligence agent and the son of a Soviet intelligence agent who worked in Iran under the cover of a wealthy merchant. In 1930, he moved to Iran with his family and in 1940, he joined the Soviet Foreign Intelligence Service. In 1955, he graduated from the Institute of Foreign Languages, Yerevan. He is primarily responsible for thwarting Operation Long Jump, concocted by Adolf Hitler, headed by Ernst Kaltenbrunner, and led by Otto Skorzeny, which was an attempt to assassinate Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt at the Tehran conference in 1943. [ [http://publishing.yudu.com/A5m9n/rbh19-12-07/resources/7.htm RBTH - Washington Post - 19/12/2007 ] ]

Operation Long Jump

In 1942, Adolf Hitler decided to set the operation in motion. After careful planning and deliberation under the personal supervision of Security Police Chief Ernst Kaltenbrunner, the Nazis sent his special commando agent, Otto Skorzeny, along with six other men to rendezvous at Tehran, Iran and spearhead the operation. The plan entailed the capture and/or assassination of Josef Stalin, Winston Churchill, and Franklin Roosevelt.

However, the plot was foiled. The first tip-off about the planned attempt came from Soviet intelligence agent Nikolai Kuznetsov, under the alias of Wermacht Oberleutnant Paul Siebert, from Nazi-occupied Ukraine. [ [http://rbth.rg.ru/articles/lion_and_bear.html How ⌠The Lion And The Bear■ Were Saved - Russia Beyond the Headlines ] ] Kuznetsov, a legendary Soviet spy, got an SS man named Ulrich von Ortel to tell him about the attempt. Although exact evidence of the date in which the operation were to take place was not known, the fact that it would take place was confirmed.

Thwarting the Plot

In the autumn of 1943, fate thrust 19-year-old Gevork Vartanian into the centre of the operation. Vartanian was an intelligence agent and the son of a Soviet intelligence agent who worked in Iran under the cover of a wealthy merchant. He received his first assignment and the cover name Amir from the resident back in 1940. He was to form a group of like-minded people. All seven were of about the same age – Armenians, a Lezghin and an Assyrian – and they communicated in Russian and Persian. Their parents had been exiled or fled from the USSR to escape Stalin's GULAG. They were outcasts and refugees, but they put their lives on the line for the sake of the Soviet Union.

They were new to the intelligence profession and people from Soviet intelligence had to teach them as they went along. The resident called the group "light cavalry" because of their agility and speed. They shadowed Germans and identified Iranian agents. Gevork Vartanian – under the alias Amir, claims that the "light cavalry" had been instrumental in bringing about the arrest of several hundred people who posed a great danger to the USSR and Britain, the two allies that had moved their troops into Iran as early as the autumn of 1941.

On the eve of the Tehran Conference, the Soviet and British field stations worked under tremendous strain. And no wonder, the "Big Three" were coming to Tehran. The "light cavalry" received orders to prevent the assassination attempt at all costs. These young men handled the job. Six German radio operators had been dropped by parachute into the holy Muslim city of Qum and made it to Tehran. That was the start of Operation "Long Jump". The Germans established communication with Berlin. The "light cavalry" was given the mission to locate the radio station in the huge city of Tehran. Day and night, Gevork and his squad scoured the streets, 14 to 16 hours a day. Eventually, they managed to find the place where the commando unit was hiding. [ [http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20071016/84122320.html RIA Novosti - Opinion & analysis - Tehran-43: Wrecking the plan to kill Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill ] ]

From then on the German agents were transmitting messages to Berlin that were intercepted by the Soviet and British intelligence and used against the Germans. But the Nazi radio operators weren't fools. One of them managed to send a coded message "we are under surveillance". The principals in Germany realised that the operation was getting off to a disastrous start. The Nazis decided against sending the main group led by Skorzeny to certain death. Because of the full exposure, the Nazis decided to halt the operation.

Later Years

Vartanian was awarded with the Hero of the Soviet Union medal, a gold star with ribbon. He has met with Churchill's granddaughter and been congratulated for his great service to the Allies. Vartanian has been interviewed many times. Al Gurnov of Russia Today interviewed Vartanian on the eve of the Victory Day parade, which was broadcast on May 9, 2008. It was revealed that Vartanian's identity was kept secret until the year 2000, when he finally received full credit for putting a stop to the assassination plot.

References

External links

* [http://www.russiatoday.com/spotlight/period/2008/05/09 Interview with Al Gurnov]
* [http://publishing.yudu.com/A5m9n/rbh19-12-07/resources/7.htm Washington Post Article]
* [http://rbth.rg.ru/articles/lion_and_bear.html Russia Beyond The Headlines]
* [http://www.fpp.co.uk/Hitler/assassinations/Big_Three_Teheran.html 1943 Nazi Plot]