Author: Babajanian Karo

AXE MURDERER’S HOMECOMING STOKES CAUCASUS FEUD

Updated News
Sept 6 2012
Canada

Ramil Safarov is a convicted axe murderer, but to Elnur Gasymov,
a university student in Azerbaijan, he is a hero.

“He killed a military officer of our enemy,” Gasymov said of his
countryman, sent home last week after serving eight years of a
life sentence in Hungary for killing an Armenian classmate during a
NATO-sponsored English-language course in Budapest.

Gasymov entered Lieutenant Gurgen Markaryan’s room as he slept, stabbed
him several times with a knife and struck him repeatedly with an axe,
nearly severing his head.

“He will always be a hero for me,” said Gasymov.

Instead of sending Safarov to prison, President Ilham Aliyev pardoned
and freed him, drawing angry protests from Armenia and expressions
of concern from the United States, Russia and the Organisation for
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

The 35-year-old officer was also promoted to major and given back
pay of 45,000 manats ($56,000) for his years in jail.

For nearly two decades, the “frozen conflict” between Christian
Armenia and Muslim Azerbaijan has been punctuated by heated rhetoric
and deadly skirmishes across a cease-fire line in a disputed patch
of the Caucasus Mountains.

Now the 2004 murder and the hero’s homecoming of the killer has
returned to haunt the neighbours, stirring rumblings of war in a
strategic region at the intersection of Europe and Asia.

Armenia has even suspended diplomatic relations with Hungary for
sending Safarov back to Azerbaijan. People on the streets of the
Armenian capital Yerevan are furious.

“Aliyev has given a very bad example of how to become a hero in
Azerbaijan: just murder a sleeping Armenian with an axe and you become
a hero,” said housewife Lusineh Avdalyan, 32.

“The international community has now seen Azerbaijan’s real face
and it’s now up to it to decide what to do,” said Emma Vardanyan,
a 75-year-old pensioner.

Cast in Azerbaijan as a triumph of justice and in Armenia as an
unthinkable provocation, it has severely damaged efforts to end
a territorial dispute that has resisted years of mediation led by
Russia, France and the United States.

NATO Secretary General Andres Fogh Rasmussen added his voice to those
criticizing Azerbaijan.

“When I meet the Azeri president tomorrow, I’ll convey to him a very
clear message that I’m deeply concerned by Azerbaijan’s decision to
pardon the army officer Safarov, because that decision damages trust,”
he told a news conference during a visit to Armenia on Thursday.

“The terrible and tragic incident that happened eight years ago was
a crime and such crimes should not be glorified.”

Nevertheless, he was greeted with chants of “Shame!” by a few hundred
protesters near the university where he gave a speech, and a smaller
protest was held outside the headquarters of President Serzh Sargsyan.

Demonstrators said NATO had not done enough to demand justice.

FOES

Azerbaijan and Armenia have been foes since the last days of the
Soviet Union, when ethnic Armenian forces defeated Azeri troops
and wrested control of the mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh region from
Azerbaijan’s control.

A 1994 ceasefire halted the conflict with 30,000 people killed and
about a million, overwhelmingly Azeris, driven from their homes.

Countless meetings between presidents and prodding by mediators has
brought no deal to end the dispute.

“We should not return to the conflict. On the contrary, there is a need
to reduce tension, to promote peace, reconciliation and cooperation,”
Rasmussen said.

That just got a lot harder, said Thomas de Waal, author on
Nagorno-Karabakh and analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace in Washington.

“It’s a really deadly blow to the negotiating process or what’s left
of it,” de Waal said. “You need two sides to negotiate. I cannot see
how the Armenian side will for the foreseeable future want to sit
down at the table with the Azerbaijani side after what is a strong
provocation.”

Azerbaijan has dismissed criticism from Europe, Russia and the United
States and a Foreign Ministry spokesman called Armenia’s reaction
“hysterical”. Azeri authorities contend the pardon was justified,
saying that Safarov’s family was driven from Nagorno-Karabakh and that
he faced harassment from Armenians during the NATO English-language
course in Hungary.

“His native village was occupied by Armenian forces. His psyche was
damaged,” said Ganira Pashayeva, a member of the parliament from the
ruling Yeni Azerbaijan party.

“The Armenian officer offended his dignity, offended the Azeri national
flag,” she said, repeating claims Safarov made at trial.

“That’s why he did what he did.”

The court found no evidence to support Safarov’s claim that Markaryan
had insulted the flag, according to Amnesty International. It said
Safarov was seeking revenge for deaths in the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict and had said he was sorry he had not had the opportunity to
kill Armenians earlier.

Energy-rich Azerbaijan, which is host to oil majors including BP,
Chevron and ExxonMobil and is courted by Western countries but
criticized over human rights, has spent heavily on its armed forces.

Aliyev has repeatedly assured Azeris that the government will not
wait forever for a negotiated solution and will take control of
Nagorno-Karabakh by force if necessary.

Appealing to refugees and other Azeris angry about the lost territory
and frustrated with the lack of redress, the tough talk is also meant
to warn Armenia and put the international mediators on notice that
Azerbaijan’s patience is limited.

Hungarian authorities say they acted in compliance with international
law and that Azerbaijan had promised to uphold Safarov’s sentence.

Opponents of Prime Minister Viktor Orban say the decision to free
Safarov is suspicious at a time when he sought closer economic ties
with energy-rich Azerbaijan.

Some 2,000 people protested outside parliament on Tuesday. The biggest
opposition party, the Socialists, wants to see documents to determine
who made the decision – and why.

“For the time being, it seems there is a serious chance that Hungary’s
prime minister has let loose a convicted criminal … for economic
gains,” Socialist lawmaker Gergely Barandy said on Thursday in comments
quoted by national news agency MTI.

ARMENIA WILL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR PROVOCATIONS AGAINST AZERI DIPLOMATS – DIPLOMAT

Interfax
Sept 5 2012
Russia

Yerevan will be entirely responsible for any possible provocation
against Azeri diplomats and citizens outside their country,
Azerbaijan Foreign Ministry spokesman Elman Abdullayev told reporters
on Wednesday.

Azerbaijan has asked all the countries where it has a diplomatic
mission to step up security at its embassies, the official recalled.

Armenian terrorist organizations were threatening Azeri diplomatic
missions and citizens in foreign countries, Azeri state media outlets
said earlier.

According to a document received by the Azerbaijan Embassy in Hungary
from an Armenian terrorist organization, ASALA Fighters, on September
3, the organization is targeting Azeri diplomats, Azeri students
studying abroad, business people and diaspora activists, and claims
they will be killed.

The latest spat in the relations between Baku and Yerevan was caused
by the extradition by Hungarian authorities to Azerbaijan of officer
Ramil Safarov sentenced by a court in Budapest to life in prison for
killing Armenian officer Gurgen Markarian.

On August 31, 2012, Safarov was extradited by Hungary to Azerbaijan
and pardoned by his country’s President Ilham Aliyev on the same day.

IRAN RELEASES AZERI NATIONALS ACCUSED OF SPYING

Global Insight
September 5, 2012

BYLINE: Jamie Ingram

In a statement released yesterday (4 September), Iranian Foreign
Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast announced that two Azeri citizens
accused of espionage had been released. The two were arrested in
July and accused of having links with Azerbaijan’s secret service
and seeking to recruit Iranian nationals. The announcement came as
Iran’s Vice President in charge of Cultural Heritage and Tourism,
Hassan Mousavi, arrived in the Azerbaijani capital Baku, where he
will hold talks with a number of dignitaries and deliver a message
from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to his counterpart President Ilham
Aliyev. The visit comes swiftly after Deputy Foreign Minister for
Asian and Pacific Affairs Seyed Araqchi held talks in Baku last month
with Azerbaijani officials on enhancing bilateral ties. Despite their
shared espousal of Shia Islam, relations between the two countries have
traditionally been strained. Azerbaijan is increasingly vocal about
its territorial claims to the homonymous region of Northern Iran,
while Iran’s links with neighbouring Armenia remain a barrier to
the normalisation of bilateral relations (seeArmenia – Azerbaijan –
Iran: 12 July 2012:) given the ongoing Armenian-Azeri dispute over
the status of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Furthermore, Azerbaijan has repeatedly detained alleged Iranian spy
rings, and in March arrested 22 citizens on suspicion of having been
recruited by Iran. Perhaps most worryingly for Iran, Azerbaijan retains
close relations with Israel and in March rumours escalated that Israel
had been granted the use of air bases in the country for a potential
attack on Iran; rumours that were swiftly rejected by Azerbaijan
(seeAzerbaijan – Iran – Israel: 29 March 2012: Iran:).

Significance:Iran is making a concerted effort to court regional
states in a bid to enhance trade relations and evade punitive western
sanctions (seeIran: 22 August 2012:).Senior Iranian officials have
confessed that the sanctions are damaging Iran’s economy, with
Ahmadinejad admitting in an interview on state television yesterday
that Tehran is encountering difficulties in selling its oil. However,
it is doubtful that these developments will presage a significant
warming of bilateral relations, given Baku’s territorial claims over
parts of Northern Iran and Tehran’s close relations with Armenia.

Moreover, Azerbaijan’s links with Israel make it even more unlikely
that the government would risk attracting the United States’ ire by
aiding Iran.

HUNGARIAN GOVERNMENT’S ACTION UNACCEPTABLE – ARMENIAN PRESIDENT (PHOTO)

news.am
September 06, 2012 | 15:11

YEREVAN. – The extradition of Azerbaijani murderer to Azerbaijan by the
Hungarian government is simply unacceptable, the President of Armenia
Serzh Sargsyan said at a joint briefing with the NATO Secretary General
Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Photo coverage of the story is available here.

“Hungarian Government could not have been unaware about how the
murderer Safarov was being made a hero in Azerbaijan and could not have
predicted that he will be released,” Sargsyan said. “We have for many
times warned our colleagues that formulations in official documents on
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which are one-sided and do not reflect
the real content of the negotiation process, are first of all dangerous
because they encourage Azerbaijan’s non-constructive approach.”

NATO HAS A BIG RESPONSIBILITY IN THIS ISSUE

16:16 . 06/09

After the meeting with students at the yard of the Yerevan State
University, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmusen was also
met by a protest near the Armenian presidential seat. Following the
call of the ARF-D Youth and Student Unions, hundreds of young people
gathered in front of the presidential seat like yesterday.

The protesters, sharing the fair anger of the public over Safarov’s
extradition and release urged to come up with a clear position. NATO
had to seek fair trial of the murderer of its trainee killed during
the organisation’s training courses. What happened was a terrorist
act, murder on ethnic grounds, a crime which was not only directed
against Armenians, but also against the international community.

Therefore, NATO has to express its rigid position on Hungary and
Azerbaijan. But as long as the structure condemning terrorism in the
world doesn’t demand the complete enforcement of Safarov’s verdict,
unintentionally it becomes the accomplice of the criminal deal.

“We think NATO has a big responsibility in this issue. As long as NATO
hasn’t expressed its rigid position on Hugnary and Azerbaijan, hasn’t
suspended NATO’s Individual Partnership Action Plan with Azerbaijan,
doesn’t demand the complete enforcement of the criminal’s verdict,
NATO becomes the accomplice of the criminal deal,” the head of ARF-D
Youth Union Artur Ghazaryan said.

SEN. KERRY ‘SHOCKED AND APPALLED’ BY SAFAROV PARDON

Armenian Weekly
September 5, 2012

WASHINGTON-On Sept. 5, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman
John Kerry (D-Mass.) condemned President Ilham Aliyev’s release of
Ramil Safarov, the Azerbaijani army lieutenant who was convicted of
brutally axing to death Armenian soldier Gurgen Margaryan in his sleep,
during a 2004 NATO English-language training course.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.)
“I am shocked and appalled that Azerbaijan not only welcomed Safarov
home, but pardoned, promoted, and treated him as a hero,” noted
Chairman Kerry, in a statement issued earlier today. “This needlessly
provocative act endangers the fragile peace between these countries
and damages the government of Azerbaijan’s credibility.”

ANCA Eastern Region Executive Director Michelle Hagopian welcomed
Chairman Kerry’s statement, noting “We join with Armenian Americans
from throughout the Commonwealth in welcoming Senator Kerry’s
condemnation of Azerbaijan’s pardon of convicted axe-murderer Ramil
Safarov. We thank the Senator for his principled stand against
this injustice, and urge him and his legislative colleagues, in the
interest of peace, to act now to cut off all U.S. military aid, sales,
or transfers to Azerbaijan.”

Sen. Kerry echoes statements issued by a number of U.S. Representative
this week decrying Azerbaijan’s release and subsequent glorification
of Safarov.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Democrat Henry Waxman
(D-Calif.) noted that he is “deeply disturbed by the President of
Azerbaijan’s decision to pardon Ramil Safarov, an Azerbaijani military
lieutenant who gruesomely murdered Armenian lieutenant Gurgen Margaryan
while the two soldiers were participating in the 2004 NATO Partnership
for Peace program in Hungary. It is an appalling demonstration of the
Azerbaijani government’s continued refusal to reconcile with Armenia
and its unwillingness to uphold the rule of law.”

House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Democrat Howard Berman
(D-Calif.) called Safarov’s release “contemptible,” noting,
“that Safarov in a premeditated fashion killed Margaryan at a NATO
Partnership for Peace event underscores the cynical brutality of his
act. For the Hungarian Government to have demonstrated leniency in
this matter is of grave concern. . . . The Azerbaijani government’s
decision to free Safarov is contemptible and a serious blow to hopes
for Armenian-Azerbaijani peace.”

Central California Congressman Jim Costa (D-Calif.) told The Fresno
Bee on Sept. 5 that “This injustice of international law committed
by the government of Azerbaijan is an outrage, plain and simple.” In
a longer statement issued to his constituents, he noted that “We
in the United States stand firm with our friends in Armenia during
these trying times because of our steadfast commitment to justice,
peace and mutual respect. The actions of the Azeri government stand
in stark contrast to these values and underline the need for the U.S.
government to strongly support Armenia and its people.”

Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), one of two Members of Congress of Armenian
origin, called for the immediate reincarceration of the Safarov.

“Safarov’s release dangerously undermines the rule of law and peace
throughout the region. The Azerbajani government should immediately
reverse its decision to pardon Safarov.”

Earlier, Congressional Armenian Genocide Resolution architect Adam
Schiff (D-Calif.) commented that “Hungary, where Safarov was supposed
to be serving a life sentence, and Azerbaijan owe the international
community an explanation for this terrible subversion of justice. This
is an appalling result in the case of a confessed killer.”

The ANCA reported last week on statements issued by Congressional
Armenian Caucus co-Chair Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) and senior House
Foreign Affairs Committee Member Brad Sherman’s condemnation of
the Safarov release. White House and State Department condemnation
was swift last week, following thousands of calls and emails from
Armenian Americans across the U.S. expressing outrage. The White House
statement, issued in the name of National Security Council Spokesman
Tommy Vietor, underscores the President’s view that, “This action is
contrary to ongoing efforts to reduce regional tensions and promote
reconciliation.” Vietor goes on to note that “The United States is
also requesting an explanation from Hungary regarding its decision
to transfer Safarov to Azerbaijan.”

POLITICIAN SLAMS INTERNATIONAL REACTION TO SAFAROV RELEASE AS INADEQUATE

PanARMENIAN.Net
September 6, 2012 – 16:45 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – ARF Dashnaktsutyun’s Armenian Cause Political Affairs
Office Director Kiro Manoyan slammed the international response to
extradition and release of Azeri assassin Ramil Safarov as inadequate.

“None of the international assessments reflected full scope of the
problem,” Manoyan said.

“The problem lies not only in the extradition and pardon of a murderer,
but also in the fact that the international community failed to
characterize the killing of an Armenian officer as a hate murder,
with Baku’s heroization of the criminal to follow.

The politician expressed concern over the recent statement of Foreign
Minister Edward Nalbandian. “I’m afraid, that Armenian authorities
will find current international response to be satisfactory to further
halt the wave of international protest,” Manoyan said.

“DEATH WOULD BE A PRESENT FOR SAFAROV”

04:16 pm | Today | Social

The leader of the Jewish community does not welcome the calls for
killing Ramil Safarov.

“There are more terrible means of punishment than an instant death. It
would be a great present for him. He must suffer.” Rima Varzhapetyan
said.

She at the same time welcomes the actions taken by Israel in
retaliation for the massacre of Jewish sportsmen in Munich in 1972,
as a result of which both the participants and organizers of the
terrorist act were killed.

She is in favor of Israel’s’ official stance, according to which each
Jew’s life is greatly valuable. “You know numerous cases of swapping
several persons for one Jew”.

In the opinion of Ms. Varzhapetyan, Armenia should take the opportunity
in terms of the Genocide’s recognition.

“If Armenia manages to achieve Safarov’s deserved punishment, it will
be one of the most serious steps related to the recognition of the
Armenian Genocide,” she told A1+.

By the way, Ms. Varzhapetyan believes that only two countries –
Azerbaijan and Hungary – are to blame for Safarov’s extradition. But
she also expressed an opinion that those who encouraged his pardon
should be punished as well. Asked what punishment should be imposed
on them, she replied: “I will not tell that to anyone, you will see
it yourselves”.

WHAT WERE MFA AND NSS DOING?

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 15:35:59 – 05/09/2012

Today the secretary of the PAP parliamentary group Naira Zohrabyan
criticized heavily the Armenian authorities, in particular the foreign
minister in regard to Ramil Safarov’s extradition and pardoning.

She said her criticism of Azerbaijan could leave everyone astonished
but it is necessary to discuss whether Armenia could prevent what
happened. According to Zohrabyan, all the international TV channels
showed in the morning how Azeris greeted Safarov in the airport,
while the deputy foreign ministry of Armenia said in the afternoon
that they had sent a letter to the Armenian embassy in Hungary to
find out whether rumors on Safarov’s extradition were true.

Moreover, according to her, the vice-chairman of the Armenian
community of Hungary says besides informing the relevant Armenian
bodies in Budapest about Safarov’s extradition he also shared it at
the meeting with high-ranking officials of the ministries of Diaspora
and foreign affairs in Yerevan. Naira Zohrabyan wonders where the
foreign ministry and the National Security Service were and what
they were doing. She repeated her idea that the Armenian ambassadors
only attend ceremonies of dedication of monuments to April 24,
genocide commemoration events, organize receptions on September 21,
the Independence Day, and greet Armenian officials at the airport
and accompany them during their visits.

MAKING A HERO OUT OF A MURDERER, AZERBAIJAN PRESENTED ARMENIA WITH A PSYCHOLOGICAL VICTORY

16:06 . 05/09

Psychologist Samvel Khudoyan thinks Ramil Safarov’s pardon brought a
psychological victory to Armenia, while it zeroed Azerbaijan’s rating.

The psychologist is sure we should make use of this incident and the
NKR recognition issue must be set forth as an adequate response.

During these days, the conflict also went on in the cyber territory.

Armenian hackers attacked a number of Azerbaijani official and news
websites. IT security expert Samvel Martirosyan says the issue will
not be settled by attacking websites but, for example, the information
that Azerbaijani’s president’s website was attacked once more gives
an opportunity to draw the international community’s attention to the
issue. The expert says Azerbaijan was unable to have heroes in the
Karabakh war, therefore it has to create heroes like Ramil Safarov
for bringing up youth.

“For a moment, the whole world started to perceive Armenia in a very
positive aura. That is, this worked for us. We have said for 1000
times, they are false, they are immoral, and now this was confirmed,
proved, there is no doubt,” Samvel Khudoyan said.

IT security specialist Samvel Martirosyan adds: “Azerbaijani hackers
mainly attacked whatever websites they could. For Armenian hackers,
on the contrary, the president’s website, ministry websites and news
websites were the main target. They didn’t attack many websites but
had special targets”.