YEREVAN, DECEMBER 10, ARMENPRESS. The next volume of the Russian-language book series “Outstanding Lives” titled “Vartanyan” is dedicated to the prominent Armenian intelligence agents Gevork amd Gohar Vartanians. As reports “Armenpress” citing Russian-Armenian periodical Yerkramas, the presentation of the book authored by the deputy editor-in-chief of Rossiyskaya Gazeta Nikolai Dolgopolov was held in the building of the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation.

Rossiyskaya Gazeta deputy editor-in-chief Nikolai Dolgopolov presented the new book about the Soviet spy team of Gevork and Goar Vartanyan advancing the 70th anniversary of the Tehran Conference. Dolgopolov previous books, which came out in the “Outstanding Lives” series of the Molodaya Gvardiya publishing house, have become bestsellers. They were devoted to Colonel Abel (Fischer) and Kim Philby.

Gevork Vartanian was born to Armenian parents in Nor Nakhichevan, USSR. His father was a Soviet intelligence agent as well who was sent to Persia in 1930, where he worked for 23 years under a cover of a wealthy merchant. Gevork Vartanian was not even 16 when he went into intelligence. In 1955, he graduated from the Institute of Foreign Languages, Yerevan. He is primarily responsible for thwarting Operation Long Jump, concocted byAdolf Hitler, headed by Ernst Kaltenbrunner, and led by Otto Skorzeny, which was an attempt to assassinate Stalin, Churchill, andRoosevelt at the Tehran conference in 1943.

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, Hitler sent his special commando agent, Otto Skorzeny, along with six other men to rendezvous at Tehran and spearhead the operation. The plan entailed the capture and/or assassination of Josef Stalin, Winston Churchill, and Franklin Roosevelt.

The first tip-off about the planned attempt came from Soviet intelligence agent Nikolai Kuznetsov, under the alias of WehrmachtOberleutnant Paul Siebert, from Nazi-occupied Ukraine. Kuznetsov got a drunk SS officer named Ulrich von Ortel to tell him about the attempt. Although the scheduled date of the operation was not known, the fact that it would take place was confirmed.

Vartanian had been assigned to recruit agents since 1940. In 1940-41 Vartanyan’s team of seven intelligence officers had identified more than 400 Nazi agents, all of whom had been arrested by Soviet troops. In the autumn of 1943, they were assigned the task of ensuring the security for the upcoming Tehran conference. In their efforts to foil the assassination plot devised by the Nazis, Vartanyan’s group located six Nazi radio operators shortly before the conference opened on November 28 1943. The German assassins had been dropped by parachute near the town of Qom, 40 miles from Tehran. Vartanian later told the following details, “We followed them to Tehran, where the Nazi field station had readied a villa for their stay. They were travelling by camel, and were loaded with weapons. While we were watching the group, we established that they had contacted Berlin by radio, and recorded their communication... When we decrypted these radio messages, we learnt that the Germans were preparing to land a second group of subversives for a terrorist act — the assassination or abduction of the 'Big Three’. The second group was supposed to be led by Skorzeny himself”. All the members of the first group were arrested and forced to contact their handlers under Soviet supervision. The operation got off track and the main group led by Skorzeny never went to Tehran. This way the success of Vartanian's group in locating the Nazi advance party prevented the Nazi attempt to assassinate the 'Big Three'.

In 2003, relying on declassified documents, Yuri Lvovich Kuznets published a book called Tehran-43 or Operation Long Jump, which detailed Vartanyan’s role at the Tehran Conference. A Soviet film, Tegeran-43, which featured the French actor Alain Delon, was released in 1981.

Vartanian was awarded with the Hero of the Soviet Union medal. In 2007 he met with Winston Churchill's granddaughter and was 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.

Gevork Vartanian died at the age of 87 at Botkin hospital in Moscow on 10 January 2012.

Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin attended the funeral and paid his respects to Vartanian's widow Gohar.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev expressed his condolences to Vartanian’s friends and relatives. He described Vartanian as "a legendary intelligence agent, a genuine patriot of his country, a bright and extraordinary person... He took part in splendid operations, which went down in the history of the Russian foreign intelligence service. His death is an irretrievable loss to his family and all those who knew and highly appreciated the legendary man."

Condolences were also expressed by the President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, Prime Minister of Armenia Tigran Sargsyan, President of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Bako Sahakyan.