  We present a 3-dimensional study of the local (< 100 kpc) environment of Sy1,
Sy2 and Bright IRAS Galaxies. For this purpose we use three galaxy samples
(Sy1, Sy2, BIRG) located at high galactic latitudes as well as three control
sample of non-active galaxies having the same morphological, redshift and
diameter size distributions as the corresponding Seyfert or BIRG sample. Using
the CfA2 and SSRS galaxy catalogues as well as our own spectroscopic
observations, we find that the fraction of BIRGs with a close neighbor is
significantly higher than that of their control sample. We also find that Sy2
galaxies demonstrate the same behaviour with BIRG galaxies but not with Sy1s
which do not show any excess of companions with respect to their control sample
galaxies. An additional analysis of the relation between FIR colors and
activity type of the BIRG's shows a significant difference between the colors
of strongly-interacting and non-interacting starbursts and a resemblance
between the colors of non-interacting starbursts and Sy2s.Our results support
an evolutionary scenario leading from Starbursting to a Sy2 and finally to an
unobscured Sy1 galaxy, where close interactions play the role of the triggering
mechanism.
