Karo Djekerdjyan was an employee of Cyprian “Jetco trading” company which had been supplying food and beverage to Iraq since 2003. The head of the company was Karapet’s friend – a Beirut Armenian. Djekerdjyan is also from Beirut by birth but has a dual citizenship of Cyprus and Lebanon. He is 41 years old. He celebrated his last birthday under hatches. He was kidnapped on the 21st of August in Baghdad. The responsibility for the kidnapping was taken by previously unknown grouping, called “In the Name of Spreading Good and Liquidating Bad”. It is worth mentioning that Djekerdjyan was taken hostage not because Armenia takes part in the anti-terrorist coalition created by Americans and not because of the Armenian military presence in Iraq. Karapet’s ethnic origin was of no importance for the terrorists. Moreover, the basic idea of their “operation” was much more modest than criminal. The kidnappers just wanted to earn money.
Initially, the terrorists set two conditions: first they wanted the company to leave Iraq and pay two million dollars in cash. Otherwise, terrorists promised to behead the hostage. The first condition was fulfilled immediately. The director of the company and the hostage’s relatives entered into negotiations on redemption, though Americans were against that. The leaders of the Armenian community of Cyprus did all they could to help and got in touch with the representatives of Armenian organizations in Iraq. Early in September Djekerdjyan’s relatives were given a video cassette with a recording of terrorists threatening Karapet with machine guns and dictating new conditions. The kidnappers first decreased the redemption sum to one million. Several weeks later they gave in again and agreed to 500 thousand dollars. It is also known that the hostage’s aunt Rita Metsaturyan sold her property and started collecting money for paying the redemption. According to Nicosian “Cyprus weekly” newspaper, the hostage’s relatives had paid half of the redemption sum, but the terrorists kept on pressing them to pay another 300.000.
Circumstances of Djekerdjyan’s liberation still remain vague, which is essentially natural. Referring to Djekerdjyan’s family members “Svoboda” radio station reports that 200.000 dollars were paid for the hostage’s liberation. However, it is known that that sum was paid yet in September, whereas the hostage was released only in January. Anyway, the main thing is that the hostage is alive and has already returned home. “I hope I’ll manage to leave it all in the past and start a new life. Thank God I’ve managed to return. I will not even wish my enemy what I have experienced”, Karo Djekerdjyan said.
This is not the first case of liberating Armenian hostages in Iraq. The first Armenian hostage was Lebanese Armenian Aram Nalbandyan who was kidnapped in September 2003. The kidnappers did not manage to announce their conditions since on the next day Americans could snatch him away from terrorists in battle. In March 2005 terrorists kidnapped Armenian journalist from Bucharest Edward Ovidiu Hovhannisyan. Several months later he and his colleagues were liberated. But the employee of International Committee of Red Cross, Canadian citizen Vache Arslanyan was killed in Baghdad under up to now unknown circumstance. Altogether 10 Armenians have been killed in Iraq. It is noteworthy that two of them were killed already after the end of military actions.
