Stepan Zatikyan

Stepan Seghbosi Zatikyan (Eastern Armenian: Ստեփան Սեղբոսի Զատիկյան; June 20, 1946 - January, 1979) was a Soviet dissident and one of the founders of NUP(National United Party).
== Early Life ==
Stepan Zatikyan was born on June 20, 1946 in Yerevan to a family of craftsmen, his parents were immigrants from Western Armenia. He received his primary education at the high school after Mikayel Nalbandyan in Yerevan, graduating in 1963 with a gold medal. In the same year he entered the Faculty of Chemistry of the National Polytechnic University of Armenia|Yerevan Polytechnic Institute. Zatikyan's life was marked by the 1965 Yerevan demonstrations|mass demonstration on April 24, 1965 in Republic Square, Yerevan|Lenin (now the Republic) Square, the protestors condemned the Armenian Genocide|1915 Armenian Genocide and raised the issue of the return of Armenian lands. Encouraged by these ideas, the next day Zatikyan went to the city pantheon to lay flowers at the grave of the great Armenian composer Komitas. He was arrested by police near the grave and detained for 15 days. There he met Haykaz Khachatryan, who was also arrested near Komitas's grave.
== National United Party ==
File:Paros 1967.jpg|left|thumb|"Paros" Newspaper of National United Party.
Eventually Stepan Zatikyan and Haykaz Khachatryan agreed to work together on a common ideological basis. Some time later, they were joined by another young man, Shahen Harutyunyan (Shant Harutyunyan|Shant Harutyunyan's father); the three of them formed the National United Party (Armenia)|National United Party (NUP) on April 24, 1966. As the oldest, the organization was headed by Khachatryan. The governing body of the party was the General Council, one of the members of which was Zatikyan. The NUP developed a charter and action plan, the texts of which were written by Zatikyan. The first members of the organization took an oath of allegiance to the party's ideas at the Tsitsernakaberd|Tsitsernakaberd Memorial to the victims of the Armenian Genocide. In April 1967, dedicated to the Genocide Day, the NUP distributed its first leaflet entitled "Paros" ('Lighthouse' in Armenian), and on October 19-20 of the same year, it also distributed the four-page "Paros" newspaper with the following articles: "The new ones are coming out", "To the Armenian people", "Armenia under the yoke", "The Armenian question", "The international situation today", "The facts are ruthless", "What is the language of the nation", "A couple of words". In addition, Zatikyan had written and maintained defamatory articles defaming the Soviet reality, such as "The Essence of the Soviet Economy" "On the Other Side of the Curtain"․ The articles were about Armenian independence from Soviet Union|USSR, about annexation of Armenia by Russia, the Marx-Leninist teachings were criticized too. Zatikyan distributed "Paros" newspaper in the buildings of Yerevan State University, Polytechnic Institute and in the mailboxes of individual citizens' apartments․ It was significantly different from the leaflets and newspapers before it in Armenian and USSR circles. This was a new "phenomenon" for Soviet authorities, but also for dissidents in the region. The structure of the organization also included a youth branch. In NUP it was called "Shant" ('Lightning" in Armenian). Khachatryan and Zatikyan put seventeen-year-old Paruyr Hayrikyan at the head of this detachment. The members of NUP were such legendary figures as Armenian national hero Movses Gorgisyan, RPA founder Ashot Navasardyan, former Prime Minister of Armenia Andranik Margaryan, Azat Arshakyan and others. Stepan Zatikyan and Haykaz Khachatryan can be considered as "ideological founders" of Armenian independence movement and Third Republic of Armenia. 
== First Arrest ==
The existence of the NUP was known everywhere where the anti-Soviet movement began to gain momentum. The newspaper was banned and declared Anti-Sovietism. Not only the authors of "Paros" but also the readers were persecuted. The NUP members managed to publish only 2 issues of the newspaper.
Arrests of NUP leaders began on July 9, 1968, Stepan Zatikyan was in his fifth year at the university at that time. During the interrogation on July 10, Stepan Zatikyan informed the investigator that he had started a hunger strike and made the following written statement.
"In order to meet some of my legal requirements, ie to meet with the Public Prosecutor, to meet with members of the public, to meet with my mother, as well as The interrogation to be based on the Declaration of Human Rights, which is higher than the laws of any state, any society, under which there is also the signature of the representative of the USSR., I declare a hunger strike, which, in fact, I started on July 9, 1968, and I announce it in writing form on July 10, 1968, at 4 p.m. Until then, I was not given the opportunity to report it in writing form".
He was charged with Articles 65.1 and 67 of the Criminal Code of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic|Armenian SSR (anti-Soviet agitation, participation in an anti-Soviet organization), The Supreme Court of the Armenian SSR sentenced Zatikyan to 4 years in a correctional labor colony. His first years of imprisonment were spent in the political camp of Mordovia. Zatikyan continued his active political activity there. In early July 1970, he and 20 young political prisoners went on a six-day hunger strike to protest the crackdown. For that action he was sent to Vladimir, Russia|Vladimir prison. In November 1971, Zatikyan, along with other political prisoners, went on a hunger strike in Vladimir prison. They protested against the KGB|KGB's practice of collecting information on political prisoners, as well as the submission of prisoners' statements to state bodies as anti-Soviet documents, criminalizing them and blackmailing them.
After his release at the end of his term, Zatikyan was placed under administrative supervision. He worked at the Yerevan Electromechanical Plant as a transformer assembler. He did not participate in social activities, considering emigration to be the most reasonable way out for himself and for other Armenians who had served their sentences. In 1975 Zatikyan sent a statement to the Supreme Soviet in which he renounced Soviet citizenship and asked to be given the opportunity to leave for any non-socialist country. Together with the application, he also sent his passport. Zatikyan did not receive an answer, and the passport was sent to the KGB. 
In 1974 Zatikyan married Paruyr Hayrikyan's sister Sona. They had two children, a daughter, Hasmik, and a son, Vrezh. They currently reside in US. His son Vrezh Zatikyan was also involved in politics in Armenia․
== 1977 Moscow bombings ==
File:Stepan_Zatikyan-1.jpg|thumb|Stepan Zatikyan
On January 8, 1977, 1977 Moscow bombings|an explosion took place in the Moscow metro, killing 7 people and injuring 37 others (the number of victims and injured became known only after the verdict). Day after the explosion, politician and academician Andrei Sakharov expressed suspicions that the incident may have been organized by the KGB and used against members of a Dissident movement in the Soviet Union|dissident movement. 
"...I cannot shake the feeling that the explosion in the Moscow metro and the tragic death of people are a new and most dangerous provocation of the repressive organs in recent years. It was this feeling and the associated fears that this provocation could lead to changes in the entire internal climate of the country that were the incentive for writing this article. I would be very glad if my thoughts turned out to be wrong...".
On January 14, the Moscow Helsinki Group organized a press conference at which the following statement was made on behalf of the Ukrainian and Moscow Helsinki Groups and a number of other human rights and dissident organizations:
"... Dissidents view terror with indignation and disgust. ... We call on media professionals around the world to use the term "dissidents" only in this sense and not to expand it to include violent individuals. ... We ask you to remember that every journalist or commentator who does not distinguish between dissidents and terrorists helps those who are trying to revive Stalin's methods of reprisals against dissidents".
In 1977 October 28 Stepan Zatikyan, Hakob Stepanyan, Zaven Baghdasaryan were arrested on suspicion of carrying out the explosion. Stepan Zatikyan was introduced as the organizer of the action. The preliminary investigation and the trial were held in top secret conditions, even the relatives of the defendants were not present at the verdict. During the meeting with his family after the verdict (the only time since the moment of his arrest) Zatikyan's brother took him aside from the women - his mother and wife - and asked if he was guilty of a crime. Stepan Zatikyan replied:
"․․․I’m not guilty of anything, except for making my children orphans.․․". He also added: “In the whole 15 months I didn’t say a word to them".
The death sentence was announced on January 24, 1979, and a few days later - on January 30, it was carried out. 
On 31 January 1979 the following report was published:In the Supreme Court of the USSR.
The Judicial Board for Criminal Cases of the Supreme Court of the USSR has examined in open session the criminal case against the specially dangerous recidivist S.S. Zatikyan and his two accomplices, charged with causing an explosion in January 1977 in a carriage of the Moscow underground, as a consequence of which there were human victims. In the course of the court examination the guilt of the accused was fully proven by witnesses’ testimony, by the report of a commission of experts and by other case materials. Zatikyan and his accomplices were sentenced to the highest measure of punishment — the death penalty. The sentence was carried out.
The three men who were convicted and executed were Stepan Zatikyan, Akop Stepanyan and Zaven Bagdasaryan.Unaware of the execution, Andrei Sakharov sent a letter to Leonid Brezhnev demanding that the verdict be overturned pending a new trial.
""...There are good reasons to fear that there is a miscarriage of justice or willful falsification in this case. Zatikyan was not in Moscow at the time of the metro explosion - many witnesses can confirm his alibi; the investigation did not show any interest in clarifying this and other important circumstances. The trial, unnecessarily, was completely closed and secret, even the relatives did not know anything about it. Such a court, in which the principle of publicity is completely violated, cannot establish the truth ...".
Sakharov did not receive an official answer from Brezhnev, but he was attacked by the people, particularly by the relatives of the victims .
On 1 February 1979 the Moscow Helsinki Group’s Document No. 81 was published:File:Stepan_Zatikyan-2.jpg|thumb|Stepan Zatikyan during trials“The death sentence — imposed in an unknown place, on an unknown day. in circumstances full of secrecy and mystery — has been carried out on three young people by the Judicial Board of the USSR Supreme Court. The event is without precedent in legal practice, but the surname of only one of those sentenced to death was given; the two others were not even named. All three were sentenced to death on a charge of causing an explosion on the underground, in which there were human victims, in January 1977. It is impossible to understand why a trial on such a charge had to be held in complete secrecy, without even informing the closest relatives of the accused. After all, the underground explosion aroused general indignation, and convincing proof of the guilt of the accused, if the prosecution has such proofs at its disposal, would contribute to the general condemnation of the criminals responsible. The absence of publicity and all the circumstances of secrecy gives grounds for doubting that there were valid grounds for the charge and for doubting the objectivity and impartiality of the court. A number of people assert, for example, that S. Zatikyan was not even in Moscow at the time of the explosion. Can such a trial be called a trial in the generally understood meaning of the word?"
Some episodes from the shooting of the trial can be found on the Internet. In one episode, Stepan Zatikyan says. "I have stated several times that I renounce your farce and I do not need any lawyer. I am the accuser, not the accused. You have no power to judge me, because the Russian-Jewish Empire is not a state governed by the rule of law. This must be firmly remembered. Because today Armenia has absolutely no benefit from the Russians and Russia, and you have. So, if there is trouble, there will be trouble only for you, it will not be for us, because we have nothing to lose. I want to say a few words to my friends. Guys, goodbye. Tell people that these were Stepan's last words - revenge, revenge and revenge again"․
From the point of view of the KGB, it was very reasonable to choose the Armenian National Movement, as Armenia was the only state in the USSR where there was a party that had set itself the goal of leaving the USSR. This facilitated the discrediting of the Armenian national movement within and outside the USSR by presenting it as a force using terrorist methods
There are different opinions about Zatikyan's complicity in the famous explosion of the Moscow metro, but no matter how contradictory they are, they cannot overshadow the fact that he lived for the sake of his homeland and died for the Armenian cause.
== See also ==
* 1977 Moscow bombings
* National United Party (Armenia)
* Paruyr Hayrikyan
Category: Armenian people
Category: Dead people