As “ARC” experts point, urgent measures are currently being taken in the occupied Crimea to recruitvolunteers to take part in the fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh, with direct assistance from the Russianoccupation authorities in Crimea and personally from the “Head of Crimea” Serhiy Aksyonov.
Former “Prime Minister” of Nagorno-Karabakh Anushavan Danielyan initiated the active search forsources of replenishment of mobilization resources of the Armed Forces of Armenia. Mr. Danielyan,who has Ukrainian, Armenian and Russian citizenship, lived in Crimea from 1983 to 1998, served asDeputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea from July 1995 toApril 1998, and was Chairman of the “Crimean Armenian Union”.
After corruption scandals and accusations of Mr. Danielyan in the activities of organized criminalgroups, controlled by the Russian secret services (about which “ARC” experts wrote a lot), togetherwith the leader of the “Seilem” group, Vladimir Shevyev, Mr. Danielyan fled to the Republic of Armenia.Since taking office in the ARC authorities, Anushavan Danielyan has maintained business relations withSerhiy Aksyonov as a representative of the “Seilem” gang. Mr. Danielyan lobbied for the business ofthe leaders of the Armenian diaspora in Crimea; under the control of the Russian special services heinvolved the diaspora in the events of the “Crimean Spring” in 2014, as well as Armenian Karabakhmercenaries in the conflict in Eastern Ukraine. The “ARC” experts has also repeatedly written aboutthe links between the relevant ethnic criminal groups in Crimea and the Krasnodar Region of Russiaon oil smuggling and illegal resort construction.
From the beginning of October 2020, the “Armenian Union of Crimea”, together with Armenianreligious and cultural figures, with the support of the Russian occupation authorities in Crimea,primarily members of the “Seilem” group and with Aksyonov’s personal assistance, organized thefundraising in Crimea for the “victims of Azerbaijan aggression”, which amounted to about 10 million
rubles during the first week. Also, this Union, with the support of Aksyonov, organized a campaign togather volunteers – “defenders of Artsakh”, the main locations of which were Armenian religious andcultural institutions in Simferopol, Evpatoria, Feodosia, Yalta, and Sevastopol.
As of October 5, 2020, more than 150 “volunteers” from the Crimea used flights from Simferopolairport, with transfers through Rostov-on-Don, Moscow, Krasnodar and Sochi, began transportation toYerevan airport, some of them have already taken part in the military activities. Losses of CrimeanArmenians during hostilities are being clarified.
It is worth noting that in Armenia, Mr. Danielyan is associated with the activities of Nairi Hunanyan,the ethnic Armenian who lived in the 1990s. in Yevpatoria (Crimea), with his brothers Karen andArmen. Mr. Hunanyan allegedly engaged in journalism and public activities, but he was closelyassociated with organized crime and Russian intelligence cervices, and then returned to Armenia. NairiHunanyan and Karen Hunanyan are currently serving life sentences in Armenia for the September 27,1999 terrorist attack in the Armenian Parliament that killed eight people, including Armenian PrimeMinister Vazgen Sargsyan and Parliament Speaker Karen Demirchyan.
