Ex-head of Armenian community arrested in Georgia as Russian spy

Armen Gevorgyan, former head of Armenian community in Adzharia, is among the 20 persons arrested by Georgian law enforcers on charges of spying for Russia. However, the members of his community believe that the latter came under suspicion only because of his ties in Russia.

Eduard Musaelyan, the present leader of the above Armenian community in Adzharia, said that some of the detainees are residents of Batumi; and one of the suspects - Armen Gevorgyan - was the community leader during the rule of Aslan Abashidze.

"I don't believe that they may have been involved in espionage, as the official version insists. It is clear that their case is falsified," said Musaelyan.
The community wants to appeal to the General Prosecutor's Office of Georgia for explanations, the "Gazeta.Ru" reports.

According to unofficial sources, the detainees worked for the General Intelligence Department (known as "GRU") of the General Staff of the Russian Federation. According this version, the group of citizens tried to collect data about purchases of the Georgia's Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) and Defence Ministry, as well as data on the top figures in Georgian power structures, the "InterPressNews" reports.

"The Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has no information about it. This issue is entirely within the competence of the Georgian MIA. When we have information, we'll let you know about it," said Ms Kalandadze, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia.

So far, the Georgian MIA has not commented on this information, the IA "News-Georgia" reports.