Author: Babajanian Karo

TURKEY ISSUES DIPLOMATIC NOTE TO FRANCE OVER GENOCIDE INITIATIVE

Today’s Zaman
Sept 4 2012
Turkey

Turkey has issued a diplomatic note to France over its move to include
the so-called “Armenian Genocide” in history and geography books used
in French secondary schools.

Turkey’s embassy in Paris issued a diplomatic note in the form
of official letters to the French Foreign Ministry and Education
Ministry to protest the inclusion in French textbooks of a two-page
section that details mass killings of Armenians in 1915 using what
the embassy says are “fake documents.”

Relations between Paris and Ankara had begun to thaw after a decision
in February by France’s constitutional court to strike down the
genocide denial law as contrary to free speech. But the ties of the two
countries could see a winter again as newly elected President Francois
Hollande said in July that he will stand by a campaign pledge to make
it illegal to deny that the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in
1915 was genocide.

Turkey had canceled all economic, political and military meetings with
France in December after the French parliament voted in favor of the
draft law. At a joint news conference early in July, French Foreign
Minister Laurent Fabius said the law was unlikely to be resurrected
and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu hailed the opening of
a warmer phase in relations with France.

Armenia, backed by many historians, says that about 1.5 million
Armenians were killed in what is now eastern Turkey during World War
I in a deliberate policy of genocide ordered by the Ottoman government.

Turkey says there was heavy loss of life on both sides during the
fighting, in which Armenian partisans supported invading Russian
forces. The Ottoman Empire collapsed after the war. Successive Turkish
governments and the vast majority of Turks have taken the charge of
genocide as an insult to their nation.

Ankara had hoped the Socialist Hollande’s election might mean France
is now more open to Turkey’s joining the European Union than it was
under his conservative predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy, but has so far
received no public support for its EU bid from Paris.

Ankara demanded in the letters that the French authorities revise
allegedly “objective” data provided in the textbooks. The letters
also criticized telegrams allegedly sent by then Ottoman minister
Talat Pasha that prove the mass killings of Armenians were done in
a systematic and deliberate way. The embassy said the telegraphs
are fake.

The letters also warned that the section in the French textbook will
inflame hatred between the two nations.

Chairman of the Turkish Parliament’s powerful education committee
Navi Avcı told Today’s Zaman in a recent interview that “the erosion
of French culture and the shift towards the radical right in French
politics that started with Sarkozy continues to have a negative
impact on the French education system.” “I just hope that sensible
French intellectuals will raise their voices against this kind of
provocative move that will plant seeds of hate in the minds of young
people in France,” he added.

The embassy also attached a detailed historical report on the 1915
events in its letter to the French Education Ministry. It claimed
that two books published by the Hachette and Hatier publishing houses
include fake historical documents and Armenian activists whose academic
credentials are unknown.

The Turkish Embassy stressed in the letters that French citizens
of Turkish descent will be negatively affected by the inclusion of
the section.

The section in the French textbook uses a book by Aram Andonian,
an ethnic Armenian from Ä°stanbul, titled “The Memoirs of Naim Bey:
Turkish Official Documents Relating to the Deportation and the
Massacres of Armenians,” which is also known as the “Talat Pasha
telegrams” and was originally published in 1920.

Andonian is an exiled Armenian, who was, according to his memoirs,
assisted by Naim Bey in Aleppo in publishing the telegrams of Talat
Pasha, which the Ottoman minister authored and which supposedly prove
the authenticity of the so-called “Armenian Genocide.”

Prominent historians Eric Jan Zurcher, Andrew Mango and Guenther
Lewy have downplayed evidence provided in the book while in-depth
research by Å~^inasi Orel and Sureyya Yuca in 1986 revealed that
the book has many fallacies and inconsistencies. The latter two also
could not find any traces of Naim Bey in Aleppo archives and argued
that Andonian might have constructed the man.

RED DOG HOWLS, WITH KATHLEEN CHALFANT, ALFREDO NARCISO AND FLORENCIA LOZANO, DAWNS SEPT. 5

Playbill.com
Sept 5 2012

By Kenneth Jones
05 Sep 2012

New York Theatre Workshop’s 2012-13 season-launching production of
Red Dog Howls, Alexander Dinelaris’ drama about family secrets shaken
loose, begins Sept. 5 toward a Sept. 27 opening. The cast includes Tony
Award nominee Kathleen Chalfant, Florencia Lozano and Alfredo Narciso.

Ken Rus Schmoll directs the play, billed this way by Off-Broadway’s
NYTW: “A box of old letters and a father’s dying wish leads Michael
Kiriakos to dig up the buried memories of his hidden family history.

After meeting Rose, his father’s now-elderly, Armenian pen pal,
Michael slowly learns of a past he never knew existed – one of exile,
sacrifice and, ultimately, redemption.”

Written by the author of MCC Theater’s Still Life, Red Dog Howls
“explores the horrors of human atrocities, the enduring strength of the
human spirit, and how the choices we make as husbands, sons, wives, and
daughters will – for better or worse – reverberate for generations.”

The production team includes scenic designer Marsha Ginsberg; costume
designer David C. Woolard; lighting designer Tyler Micoleau; sound
designer Jane Shaw; fight coordinator Scott Barrow; vocal coach Ginger
Eckert; production stage manager Megan Smith.

Dinelaris is currently working in the West End on the stage adaptation
of The Bodyguard. His Off-Broadway credits include Still Life (MCC);
The Chaos Theories (Shotgun Theatre); In This, Our Time; Big Kids;
Zanna Don’t! (two Drama Desk nominations).

Chalfant is a 1993 Tony nominee for Angels in America: Millennium
Approaches. She won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress for
Wit in 1999. Her credits include Farmyard, Investigation of the Murder
in El Salvador, Far Away (NYTW), Dance with Me, Angels in America,
Racing Demon, Wit, 9 Armenians, Talking Heads, Stories Left to Tell,
Guantanamo, Painting Churches, Endgame and Savannah Bay.

Narciso appeared at NYTW in The Misanthrope. Broadway credits include
Motherf***er with the Hat and A Streetcar Named Desire. Off-Broadway
includes Chimichangas and Zoloft (Atlantic), The Ugly One (Soho
Rep/Play Co.), and The Drunken City (Playwrights Horizons).

Lozano has appeared at NYSF (Macbeth), LAByrinth (Dirty Story),
LAB/MTC: (Where’s My Money?), MCC (Last Easter), National Actors’
Theatre (Right You Are…), Second Stage (Privilege), Summer Play
Festival (Mimesophobia).

NYTW, on East 4th Street in the East Village, was the pre-Broadway
launchpad for such works as Once, Rent, Dirty Blonde and Peter and
the Starcatcher.

New York Theatre Workshop is led by artistic director James C. Nicola
and managing director William Russo.

PEACE TEAM REBUKES AZERBAIJAN

The New York Times
September 4, 2012 Tuesday
Late Edition – Final

MOSCOW (Reuters) — International mediators from the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe said on Monday that Azerbaijan’s
decision to pardon an Azeri soldier who killed an Armenian officer
had damaged the peace process in the region.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been at odds since a war between ethnic
Azeris and Armenians erupted in 1991 over the mainly Armenian
Nagorno-Karabakh enclave. A cease-fire was signed in 1994, but
cross-border clashes this year have prompted worries of a resumption
of fighting.

Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, last week pardoned Ramil
Safarov, who had been sentenced to life in prison in Hungary for the
2004 killing of an Armenian officer during NATO training but was sent
back to Azerbaijan.

Armenia suspended diplomatic relations with Hungary, calling Hungary’s
decision to send Mr. Safarov back to Azerbaijan “a grave mistake.”

Mr. Safarov was given a hero’s welcome in Azerbaijan, where thousands
of people took to the streets to greet him in his native city,
Sumgait. The government promoted him to the rank of major and paid
his salary for the eight years he was in custody.

The international mediators, including representatives of the United
States, Russia and France, met with the foreign ministers of Armenia
and Azerbaijan after the pardon threatened to inflame tensions.

The mediators “expressed their deep concern and regret for the damage
the pardon and any attempts to glorify the crime have done to the peace
process and trust between the sides,” the group said in a statement.

Azerbaijan said its president had acted in line with the law and
dismissed criticism from Europe, Russia and the United States, as
well as Armenia’s reaction.

“The hysterical approach of the Armenian leadership was targeted at
the local population and was meant to be a populist political show,”
said Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Elman Abdullayev.

A White House statement on Friday said that President Obama was “deeply
concerned” by the pardon, and that the action was “contrary to ongoing
efforts to reduce regional tensions and promote reconciliation.”

URL:

NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT TO BE PRIORITY ISSUE ON AGENDA DURING UKRAINE’S CHAIRMANSHIP AT OSCE, SAYS FOREIGN MINISTRY

Interfax
Sept 4 2012
Russia

Ukraine is concerned about the strained atmosphere in relations
between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and is calling on the countries to
seek mutual understanding.

“We realize that this conflict undermines stability in post-Soviet
territory, in the CIS, and in the OSCE. And we, as a country located
close to them, wish that both of the sides to be guided by rational
arguments, and not emotions. They should not disrupt the negotiation
process they’ve been holding in previous years,” the head of the
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry’s information policy department, Oleh
Voloshyn, told journalists in Kyiv on Tuesday.

According to him, there is excessive tension in relations between
Armenia and Azerbaijan. Voloshyn also said that there are enough
instruments in the international law to find a mutually acceptable
solution provided that the sides want to find it.

The diplomat added that mutual international animosity should not
prevail between the two countries.

Voloshyn also said Ukraine has good relations with both Azerbaijan and
Armenia, and it will do everything possible to settle the conflict. In
particular, the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will be a
priority issue on the agenda during Ukraine’s chairmanship of the OSCE.

The diplomat mentioned that Ukraine has energy-related interests in
the region, in particular it is interested in oil and gas supplies
from Azerbaijan, thus, Ukraine is interested in there being a peaceful
and stable atmosphere in both countries.

The issue of Armenia’s need to officially recognize the independence
of Nagorno-Karabakh was raised at the end of last week, when Hungary
extradited to Azerbaijan Ramil Safarov, who was sentenced to life
imprisonment in 2006 for the murder of an Armenian officer.

In 2004, Safarov killed Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan in Budapest.

The servicemen were visiting Budapest to participate in a
NATO-sponsored course to study English. The murder was committed in
a dormitory for students of the course.

At his trial, Safarov said that he committed the murder to take
revenge for the Azerbaijanis that were killed by Armenians and that
had to become refugees during the Nagorno-Karabakh War. Later on,
he changed his evidence and said that he killed the Armenian officer
because he allegedly insulted the Azerbaijani flag.

In addition, by initiative of the secretary of the Heritage
parliamentary faction at the National Assembly of the Republic
of Armenia, Zaruhi Postanjyan, a bill on the recognition of the
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic was submitted for consideration by the
parliament.

The Nagorno-Karabakh War started in 1988 following the declaration
by Nagorno-Karabakh, which was populated mostly by Armenians, of its
intention to separate from Azerbaijan.

On December 10, 1991 a referendum was held in Nagorno-Karabakh,
during which 99.89% of the population supported complete independence
of their territory from Azerbaijan.

An armed conflict was initiated by Azerbaijan and lead to its loss
of control over Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as seven more areas.

On May 12, 1994 a trilateral armistice agreement took effect and the
war ended. Around 25,000-30,000 people from each side were killed
during the war, and around a million people had to leave their homes.

Negotiations on a peaceful settlement of the conflict have been held
since 1992 by the OSCE’s Minsk Group, co-chaired by the United States,
Russia, and France.

EU CONCERNED BY RELEASE OF ARMENIAN OFFICER’S KILLER IN AZERBAIJAN

ITAR-TASS
September 3, 2012 Monday 11:05 PM GMT+4
Russia

Catherine Ashton, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign
Affairs and Security Policy, and Stefan Fule, European Commissioner
for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy, voiced concern about the
release of Azerbaijani army officer Ramil Safarov, who was convicted
and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Armenian Army
officer Gurgen Margaryan in Budapest in 2004.

“The High Representative and Commissioner Fule are concerned by
the news that the President of Azerbaijan has pardoned Azerbaijani
army officer Ramil Safarov, who was convicted and sentenced to life
imprisonment for the murder of Armenian Army officer Gurgen Margaryan
in Budapest in 2004,” their spokespersons said in a statement on
Monday, September 3.

Ramil Safarov was transferred from Hungary to Azerbaijan on August
31 on the basis of an Azerbaijani request, in the framework of the
Convention of Strasbourg on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons of March
21, 1983, to serve the rest of his sentence. “EU representatives are
in contact with the relevant authorities and will continue to follow
the situation closely,” the statement said.

“In the interest of regional stability and on-going efforts towards
reconciliation, the High Representative and Commissioner Fule
reiterate their call on Azerbaijan and Armenia to exercise restraint,
on the ground as well as in public statements, in order to prevent
an escalation of the situation,” the document said.

HUNGARY DISCUSSES SUSPENSION OF DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS WITH AZERBAIJAN

Mediamax
Sept 5 2012
Armenia

Yerevan/Mediamax/. Hungary discusses the issue of suspending diplomatic
relations with Azerbaijan.

A source at OSCE Secretariat in Vienna informed Mediamax about this
referring to the meeting of a member of the Hungarian mission to OSCE
with an American official over a working lunch.

Budapest hasn’t made the final decision, but Hungarian diplomat told
his U.S. colleague that suspending the relations with Azerbaijan is
seen as an option to overcome the difficult situation that has aroused
after Hungary’s decision to transfer the murderer of Armenian officer
to Baku where he was immediately pardoned and glorified. Hungarian
diplomat also noted that such a decision could become a symbolic
message for recovering relations with Armenia.

On September 4, thousands of protesters rallied outside Hungary’s
Parliament in Budapest against the government’s decision to extradite
Ramil Safarov.

Last week, U.S. suggested Hungary and Azerbaijan to present
explanations regarding Ramil Safarov’s extradition and pardon.

According to Trend news agency, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar
Mamedyarov had a telephone conversation with U.S. Deputy Secretary
of State William Burns earlier this week and said that “Azerbaijan
can’t understand the U.S. position”.

On August 31, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan announced the
suspension of diplomatic relations and official contacts with Hungary.

COE COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS DEPLORED THE FACT THAT RAMIL SAFAROV HAS BEEN GLORIFIED AND REWARDED BY AZERBAIJAN

Mediamax
Sept 4 2012
Armenia

Yerevan/Mediamax/. Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights
Nils Muižnieks deplored the fact that the convicted murderer Ramil
Safarov has been glorified and rewarded by Azerbaijan.

Nils Muižnieks expressed today his deep concerns about Azerbaijan’s
decision to pardon and honour Ramil Safarov, an Azerbaijani army
officer who in 2004 brutally murdered Armenian officer Gurgen
Markaryan.

“Racist crimes must not go unpunished. Violent offences motivated
by bias, such as racial or inter-ethnic hatred, are a particularly
pernicious form of criminality. Apart from the destructive effects
on the victims and those close to them, they can be devastating to
whole communities and unravel the very fabric of society. States are
under an obligation to apply strongly dissuasive sanctions against
those who have perpetrated bias-motivated crimes”, he said.

Moreover, the Commissioner deplored the fact that the convicted
murderer has been glorified and rewarded by Azerbaijan.

“It is already highly regrettable if someone who commits a gruesome
murder motivated by the victim’s ethnicity or nationality is treated
with a leniency not displayed towards others convicted of crimes.

However, to glorify and reward such a person flies in the face of all
accepted standards for human rights protection and rule of law. Such
glorification of hate crimes can only send a message that others
belonging to the same ethnic group as the victim, or indeed other
members of vulnerable groups, are “fair game”. This is an extremely
dangerous message”, Commissioner for Human Rights stressed.

MURDERER’S RELEASE UPSETS FRAGILE PEACE

WA today
Sept 5 2012

MOSCOW: Ramil Safarov stepped uncertainly off the plane in his native
Azerbaijan on Friday, returning home after spending eight years in
a Hungarian prison for a gruesome murder. But it took only a few
minutes for celebrations honouring Safarov, an Azeri serviceman,
to begin. He was given a pardon, a new apartment, eight years of
back-pay and a promotion.

Safarov is a hero in Azerbaijan because of the nationality of his
victim: an Armenian man, a fellow student in a NATO-sponsored English
class in Hungary who was sleeping in his dormitory room one night in
2004 when Safarov, carrying an axe, crept in and nearly decapitated
him.

It’s almost like a matter of physics. For every action there is
a reaction.

The backlash to Safarov’s reception has embarrassed Hungary, which
agreed to extradite him on the assumption he would serve at least 25
years of a life sentence. It has set off protests in Budapest and
enraged Armenia, where activists pelted the Hungarian embassy with
eggs and burned Hungarian flags.

And it threatens to end the long peace process that has kept Azerbaijan
and Armenia from sliding back into bloody conflict over the disputed
territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, which sparked a war between the two
in the early 1990s.

Safarov told the police his Armenian classmate, Gurgen Markarian,
had insulted him and that he had grown angry, finally buying an axe
and waiting until night, according to a transcript of the interview
published by Armenian activists.

After Safarov was arrested, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry released a
statement describing his family’s losses during the war with Armenia,
and suggesting Mr Markarian had goaded him.

Unhappy with the outcome … a protester in Budapest. Photo: Reuters

“There are indications that the Armenian servicemen repeatedly insulted
the honour and dignity of the Azerbaijani officer and citizen,”
the statement said. “All this would have inevitably influenced the
suspect’s emotional state.”

It is not clear how the Armenian government will respond to Safarov’s
release. An opposition party on Tuesday proposed formally recognising
Nagorno-Karabakh as independent – a step that would signal the final
collapse of peace talks that have long been encouraged by Russia and
the West.

Richard Giragosian, an analyst based in the Armenian capital, Yerevan,
said neither side was seeking war, but the unfolding events risked
“a war by accident”.

“Each side is escalating,” Mr Giragosian said. “It’s almost like a
matter of physics. For every action there is a reaction.”

Last week’s homecoming – the result of years of lobbying by Azerbaijan
– elevated Safarov to a new status. President Ilham Aliyev chose
to send a provocative message when he met Safarov at the airport
and issued the pardon. In recent years Mr Aliyev has spent lavishly
to build up Azerbaijan’s international prestige, underwriting soft
projects such as the Eurovision Song Contest.

Zerdusht Alizadeh, an opposition politician and analyst at the Helsinki
Citizens Assembly, said Mr Aliyev was looking ahead to elections next
year, and had little to show for the drawn-out efforts to mediate
the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. Safarov’s homecoming, she said,
was a much simpler way to declare victory.

“Giving so much support to a hero – a person who killed an Armenian –
makes the President a hero, too,” she said.

But by Tuesday, condemnation of Safarov’s pardon had come to dominate
news coverage. In Budapest, protesters marched chanting “We are sorry,
Armenia” and singling out Hungary’s Prime Minister for agreeing to
the extradition. Armenia’s President appealed to citizens to stop
burning Hungarian flags.

Azerbaijani news outlets warned that its citizens and diplomatic
buildings were under threat. Safarov has made no further public
appearances.

THE SAFAROV TRIANGLE: A PRIMER, PART I

ianyan Magazine
Sept 5 2012

Caucasus – By Liana Aghajanian on September 5, 2012 4:29 pm

Anger, shock and tomato pelting erupted this week after Hungary
coordinated the extradition of Ramil Safarov, who was serving a life
sentence after beheading an Armenian soldier while they both attended
NATO’s “Partnership for Peace” program in Budapest, to his native
Azerbaijan. Safarov was given a hero’s welcome, promotion and was
pardoned. Armenia responded by severing diplomatic ties with Hungary.

Safarov beheaded 26-year-old Margaryan in his sleep with an axe,
according to court testimony, in an act of revenge stemming from the
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Safarov’s release has seen international press coverage, protests
as well as international social media activism. Here is the first
part of a handy primer into the initially 2004 incident, a timeline
of recent developments and commentary that gives the release heard
around most of the world some context.

A Murder in the Night

On Thursday, February 19, 2004, at the Hungarian University o National
Defense, during a NATO Partnership for Peace program, Lt.

Ramil Safarov of Azerbaijan hacked to death Lt. Gurgern Margaryan of
Armenia as he slept, using an ax and knife. Thanks to a series of
posts highlighting media coverage after the incident made possible
by Katy Pearce, he was detained without any resistance after the
murder that Budapest Police described as unusually cruel. “We say
‘unusual cruelty because beside the number of knife wounds on his
chest, the victim’s head was practically severed from his body,”
said Budapest Police Maj. Valter Fulop.

The Armenian Defense Ministry called it a “direct consequence of
the policy of aggression, hatred and animosity towards the people of
Armenia,” citing another recent incident where Azerbaijani authorities
refused to allow Armenian officers to attend a NATO conference in Baku.

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry called on Armenia to “refrain from
accusative statements and judgement,” and noted that Safarov “comes
from a family of refugees in the Cebrayil district of Azerbajain,
which was occupied by Armenia.” The ministry goes on its statement
to say that “the family was robbed of all its property and several
of their relatives were killed,” which would have impacted Safarov’s
current emotional state during which he committed the murder.

More Details Emerge

Details about the motivation behind the murder begin to emerge
soon after. According to Safarov’s first interrogation, posted and
translated by Armenian sources, Safarov does not deny what he will
later be convicted of, though the posting does preface the transcript
by saying that Safarov later rejected this testimony, claiming a
communication error.

“I would like to say that whole thing goes back to 1988
Armenian-Karabahi War,” says Safarov in the opening lines of his
confession, outlining that his close relatives died in the war.

This motivates him to join the Azerbaijani army, where he does not
kill anyone from the Armenian opposition, but just helps injured
soldiers gets to the hospital. With no casualties under his belt,
his animosity grows, boiling over at the NATO training, where he has
to face Margaryan and another Armenian officer.

Despite claims that Margaryan insulted Safarov and the Azerbaijani
flag, Safarov says the trio were friendly to each other.

“In the beginning we were greeting each other, rather to say they
said hi to me, but I didn’t accept it and curiosity in the whole thing
was that when they walked close to me they were mumbled something in
Armenian and laughed at me. That was the time when I decided that I
will kill these two persons, the Armenians, I will cut their head off.”

Safarov buys an axe in Budapest, in addition to the knife he already
has. “If I hit their head by the axe,” he reasons, “they loose [sic]
their consciousness and will not be able to shout for help.”

He took care of some English homework, had a cigarette and a bath and
decided to leave his room at 5 a.m. with the intent of killing both
Armenian participants. He makes his way to Margaryan’s room first,
striking him three times on the neck with the axe, hitting him in
the face with the axe’s flat side and also puncturing his arm and legs.

“When I went out then the plaintiff was still alive, but I know what
I caused him is a death injury, because I almost separated his head
from his body,” says Safarov.

He then goes looking for the second Armenian participant, Hayk
Makuchyan, shouting “Come out, wherever you hid, I find you,”
in Russian.

Makuchyan, later says in an interview with local Armenian media that
neither him nor Gurgen had any contact with the Azerbaijani officers.

“They were not of a communicative type. Usually, after classes,
they went straight to their rooms”, said Hayk.

Other students who find him in the hall try to calm him down, while
Safarov says another Azerbaijani participant wakes up and upon seeing
the axe and blood on it, begins to cry in shock.

He is eventually arrested by police.

In the Caucasus, Revenge Runs Deep

After his arrest, media reports site that Safarov’s mother, Nubar
Safarova, does not believe her son committed the murder, commenting
that he wanted to “wreak vengeance on enemies at the front.”

The Nagorno-Karabakh war, which took place between Armenia and
Azerbaijan during and after the collapse of the Soviet Union saw
upwards of 35,00o dead and over 80,000 wounded. Armenian forces
eventually captured and retained control of the mountains Caucasus
region. The conflict however, which has roots go all the way back
to the 1900s over boundaries, still simmers today with deaths on the
front lines every year.

The national rhetoric both countries have been engaged in over the
years since the 1994 cease fire has bred animosity and hatred on
both sides.

In one of his closing statements in his first testimony, Safarov
outlines his mentality in one succinct statement:

“My job is to kill all, because until they live, we suffer.”

Kuti Balazs, Margaryan’s roommate, said that Safarov left the room
after killing Margaryan with an expression that he had “completed
something important well enough.”

Balazs, who was a Hungarian citizen, said he did not notice any strain
in their relationship before the events took place.

Ramil Safarov was sentenced to life imprisonment in Hungary in 2006,
with a 30-year minimum sentence.

Stay tuned for more current details and commentary roundup in Part II

ARMENIA AGAIN PROTESTS PARDON FOR AXE-KILLER

Gulf Times
Sept 5 2012
Qatar

Armenia yesterday stepped up criticism of Hungary and Azerbaijan for
the extradition from Budapest to Baku and subsequent pardoning of a
Azerbaijani soldier who axed an Armenian to death.

“We condemn the behaviour of the Hungarian authorities and suspend
official relations at the parliamentary level,” said a statement
endorsed by the Armenian parliament at an extraordinary session.

The statement said that Hungary’s move, which has inflamed tensions
between ex-Soviet foes Yerevan and Baku, could “create a precedent
encouraging crimes against Armenians on ethnic grounds”.

Yerevan has already cut diplomatic ties with Budapest after Azerbaijani
serviceman Ramil Safarov was extradited last week from Hungary,
where he had been serving a life sentence for hacking an Armenian
officer to death in 2004.

Safarov was immediately pardoned and promoted to the rank of major
after returning home last Friday to a hero’s welcome, in defiance
of assurances from Baku to Budapest that he would serve out his term
in Azerbaijan.

Parliament in Yerevan said Baku had threatened regional security amid
the ongoing conflict over the disputed territory of Nagorny Karabakh,
which Armenia-backed separatists seized from Azerbaijan in a war in
the 1990s that killed some 30,000 people.

“The atmosphere of hatred towards Armenians, rooted at a state level
in Azerbaijan, again proves that Nagorny Karabakh cannot be part of
Azerbaijan in any form,” the parliament statement said.

The president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe,
Jean-Claude Mignon, added his voice to concerns raised by the US, the
European Union and Russia over the case, saying it risked destabilising
the region.

“I join the international condemnation of the ‘glorification’ of the
terrible crime which Mr Safarov has committed,” he said in a statement.

Armenia meanwhile appeared to reject an offer from Switzerland to
assist in relations with Hungary.

“I do not think that mediation is needed. What are needed here are
precise steps from the Hungarian authorities,” Armenian foreign
ministry spokesman Tigran Balaian told AFP.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have not signed a peace deal since the 1994
Karabakh ceasefire and there are still frequent gun-battles along
the frontline.