Author: Badalian Vardan

ARMENIA HAD RECEIVED CONFIRMATIONS FROM THE HUNGARIAN SIDE ABOUT THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF SAFAROV’S TRANSFER
Lusine Vasilyan

“Radiolur”
05.09.2012 19:03

Azerbaijan has been working intensively ever since 2004 to transfer
Ramil Safarov to Azerbaijan, and Armenia has been drawing the attention
of the Hungarian authorities to the unacceptability of transfer of
the criminal and has received confirmations on many occasions that it
is impossible, Armenian Foreign Minister said at the special sitting
of the National Assembly.

“On August 24 we sent a written inquiry to the Hungarian authorities
to get a confirmation. On August 28 the Armenian side initiated
meetings at the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and received
the confirmation of the Hungarian side that the extradition was
impossible,” Minister Nalbandian said.

The subsequent developments are known, and according to the Foreign
Minister, today the Hungarian government is unable to provide any
reasonable explanation of the abrupt change in its position and its
trust in the assurances of the Azerbaijani side.

Also, the Hungarian side is unable to explain why it acted secretly.

According to Nalbandian, the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs were also
unaware of the ongoing talks.

Minister Nalbandian stressed that the Azerbaijani-Hungarian deal caused
a serious damage to the peace process on the settlement of the Karabakh
conflict and the efforts to establish peace and security in the region.

As for the future steps, Armenia will continue its balanced and
constructive policy acceptable to the international community and will
add to the efforts targeted at the settlement of the issue through
the realization of the right of the people of Nagorno Karabakh.

PRESIDENT OF ARMENIAN NATIONAL ASSEMBLY HOSTED IRAQI DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

ARMENPRESS
5 September, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 5, ARMENPRESS: President of Armenian National
Assembly Hovik Abrahamyan hosted Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq Rowsch
Nuri Shaways with his delegation.

As Armenpress was informed from the Public and Media Relations
Department of National Assembly, greeting the visit of Deputy Prime
Minister Hovik Abrahamyan hoped that it would be a significant
contribution in strengthening and development of relations between
Armenia and Iraq.

According to National Assembly’s president, Armenia is willing to
deepen relations with Iraq in political, economic and parliamentary
spheres. Hovik Abrahamyan highlighted the importance of legal
field creation in the development of cooperation. Head of Armenian
parliament assured that Armenian-Iraqi economic relations had
a great potential and might open up new horizons in promoting
mutually beneficial cooperation in the future. Hovik Abrahamyan
volunteered to support any initiative concerning the development of
Armenian-Iraqi relations. Deputy Prime Minister Rowsch Nuri Shaways
expressed his thankfulness for hospitality and conveyed the greetings
of Iraqi President, Prime Minister and head of the Parliament to
Hovik Abrahamyan. He noted that Armenian-Iraqi relations had its
historical roots.

According to Deputy Prime Minister the aim of this visit is to
develop cooperation between the two countries, to try to fill in
the gap which has occurred in recent years. Rowsch Nuri Shaways has
assured that there are wide prospects for cooperation in all spheres.

He shared his plans concerning the opening of Iraqi Embassy in
Yerevan. He highlighted the importance of Armenian community in Iraq.

“BATTLE ACCEPTED” DOCUMENTARY AWAITS SCREENING

PanARMENIAN.Net
September 5, 2012 – 14:49 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – According to the director, the idea of shooting
such a film matured long ago, when he decided to tell people about
the 79 soldiers killed in the Leninavan-Hasanghaya battle in Artsakh’s
Martakert province on June 29,1992.

Hovhannisyan who filmed the whole course of the war, told that the
first film is dedicated to Hamlet Galstyan, a 40-year-old warrior,
who enjoyed respect among his brothers-in-arms.

Hovhannisyan, who was a member of “Arabo” detachment, filmed the
heroes half an hour before their deaths and gave those exclusive
shots to their relatives.

The film lasts 32 minutes; the date and venue of the screening is
not known yet.

AZERBAIJAN PRESENTS MURDERER AS ROLE MODEL – EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT MEMBER

news.am
September 05, 2012 | 15:18

Elmar Brok, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European
Parliament, criticised the decision by Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev to pardon Ramil Safarov, who has confessed to the murder of
Armenian soldier Gurgen Margaryan in Hungary in 2004.

“I am deeply concerned about the decision to pardon Ramil Safarov upon
arrival in Baku, to publicly glorify him, promote him to Major rank,
pay him 8 years of salary and offer him an apartment. Azerbaijan had
given a written promise to the Hungarian authorities that Mr. Safarov
would continue to serve his life sentence for at least 25 years when
he arrives in Azerbaijan. Now Azerbaijan has broken this promise.

Safarov is an Azerbaijani soldier who murdered the Armenian officer
Gurgen Margaryan at their NATO training camp in Budapest in 2004. With
the decision to set him free, Azerbaijan is circumventing the valid
conviction of the court of an EU Member State and is presenting a
murderer as a role model to cheering children in Baku,” Elmar Brok
commented.

ARAVOT: AZERBAIJAN DECEIVES HUNGARY

tert.am
05.09.12

Unlike ex-prime minister Hrant Bagratyan, leader of the Armenian
Democratic Party Aram Sargsyan believes the decision of the Armenian
authorities to suspend diplomatic relations with Hungary was a right
thing to do.

“If the president gets assurances from Hungarian authorities that such
thing [extradition of Ramil Safarov] will not happen but does it, the
suspension of relations is a right response,” daily Aravot quoted him
as saying. “Diplomatic relations with a country with which we did not
have any issues in this case are not comprehensible. Hungary should
held accountable for what it has done and explain its step. If the
issue was the three billion that Azerbaijan even does not intend to
give it, it was a right step [suspension of relations] Why should we
tolerate such attitude toward us,” he told the daily.

INTEL INTERESTED IN EXPANDING ITS ACTIVITY IN ARMENIA

armradio.am
05.09.2012 18:12

Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan received the Regional Director of the
Intel Company Christian Morales. “Armenia provides good conditions
for Intel’s activity in Armenia and we are ready for bilateral
cooperation,” PM Tigran Sargsyan said.

Christian Morales highly appreciated the pace of development of the
IT sphere in Armenia and noted that Intel is interested in expanding
its activity in our country.

The parties discussed the process of establishment of Intel’s research
center in Armenia. A task force has already been set up d to develop
the common conceptual approaches of the initiative, determine the
volume of necessary investments and define the involvement format of
each of the sides.

It was stated that the center would be a research laboratory, based
on Intel’s R&D technologies.

The sides also discussed issues related to the development and signing
of a memorandum of cooperation within the framework of the 5th annual
Armenian “ArmTech Congress-12” that will take place on November 14-15
in Silicon Valley, U.S.

TURKEY ISSUES DIPLOMATIC NOTE TO FRANCE OVER GENOCIDE INITIATIVE

armradio.am
05.09.2012 13:24

Turkey has issued a diplomatic note to France over its move to include
the Armenian Genocide in history and geography books used in French
secondary schools, Today’s Zaman reported.

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.”

Ankara demanded in the letters that the French authorities revise the
data provided in the textbooks. 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 Istanbul, 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.

ALEPPO ARMENIAN ORGANIZATIONS PROVIDE $35 CARE PACKAGES TO THE NEEDY; IS IT ENOUGH?
By Vahakn Keshishian

hetq
11:28, September 5, 2012

Amidst the tumult in Syria, particularly Aleppo, a number of Armenian
organizations are working to meet the daily basic needs of hundreds
of needy Armenians.

Alongside the activities of the Central Council, a sort of coordinating
umbrella structure, the AGBU is also carrying out charitable work.

Families in need come to the office and fill out a detailed
questionnaire in order to receive assistance. The care package they
are given includes sugar, wheat, oil and canned meat – about $35
worth of goods.

In these troubled times, I was encouraged to see the flurry of work
being carried out by members and administration of the AGBU and the
Armenian Youth Association. The young scouts were loading cars full
of provisions for delivery to needy families.

I asked those responsible if they would be continuing their work if
the situation on the ground got worse.

– The AGBU will always be ready to assist our compatriots, was
the answer.

– What about assisting Arabs?

– If they ask for our help, yes.

Today, there are hundreds of families in Aleppo receiving such help
and the number can easily double. Other organizations are assisting
a similar number of families.

Many are in need because they no longer work. Others are not getting
paid.

One week later, the number of people receiving aid from the Central
Assistance Council had surpassed 900. Add this to the 700 receiving
assistance from the AGBU and one can get a picture of the worsening
situation.

Assistance is also being provided by the Armenian Catholic benevolent
committee and that of the Armenian Protestant community.

It should be noted that the funds collected by the Central Committee
were earmarked to be spent in case the situation reached emergency
proportions. That’s to say if a portion of Armenians were forced
to leave their homes and seek refuge in Armenian schools, churches
and clubs.

In reality, the funds invested by Armenian organizations is a drop
in the bucket – -some 500-600,000.

The Central Committee confesses that it is inexperienced in such
matters…

ANC AUSTRALIA CALLS FOR HUNGARY AND AZERBAIJAN CONDEMNATION

ARMENPRESS
5 September, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 5, ARMENPRESS: The Armenian National Committee
of Australia has written to Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard,
calling on Australia to add its voice to international condemnation of
the recent actions by the governments of Hungary and Azerbaijan for
extraditing and pardoning a convicted murderer, reports Armenpress
citing ANC Australia. In 2006, Azeri lieutenant Ramil Safarov was
handed to a life sentence for the premeditated axe murder of Armenian
lieutenant Gurgen Margaryan, who was asleep at the time, while
they were both taking part in NATO’s Partnership for Peace program
in Hungary. In late August 2012, Hungarian authorities extradited
Safarov back to Azerbaijan after receiving “assurances” from Azeri
authorities that he would serve the remainder of his sentence in
Azerbaijan. However, upon his return to Baku, Azerbaijan president
Ilham Aliyev pardoned Safarov, and he is now being hailed as a national
hero. ANC Australia Executive Director Vache Kahramanian remarked:
“The Hungarian government, which justified its extradition decision
by referring to the 1983 Strasbourg Convention on the Transfer of
Sentenced Persons, failed to acknowledge that this same Convention
allows for receiving countries to pardon transferred prisoners.” “We
condemn the extradition action by the government of Hungary and call on
their government to apologise to Armenia and the Armenian people.” In
addition to the letter to Australia’s Prime Minister, ANC Australia
has written to Foreign Affairs Minister, Bob Carr and Australia’s NATO
Ambassador, Brendan Nelson, as well as to the Ambassador of Hungary
to Australia, Anna Maria Siko. Kahramanian said: “We condemn the
leadership of Azerbaijan, who have once again shown their unwillingness
to commit to peace in the Nagorno Karabakh region by rewarding and
parading a cold-blooded murderer. Our Armenian brothers and sisters
of Nagorno Karabakh have suffered enough.” He added: “Such actions
are an abhorrent violation of judicial norms and we call upon the
leaders of Australia to join in our condemnation of Hungary’s and
Azerbaijan’s actions.” “Australia has been an active Partner in NATO
and it has the moral obligation to publicly remark on these shocking
events.” ANC Australia has requested a meeting with the Hungarian
Ambassador to pass on the deep concerns of the Armenian-Australian
community. ANC Australia will make public details after the meeting
has been held. In coming days, ANC Australia will also release details
of how Armenian-Australians can add their voices of protest.

AZERBAIJAN STATE RUN AGENCY FABRICATES TERRORIST THREATS

ARMENPRESS
5 September, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 5, ARMENPRESS: Azertac, the state run news agency
of Azerbaijan is to appear in the epicenter of a new international
scandal for irresponsible reporting and fabrication of threats to
kill its own diplomats working abroad. Azerbaijani state news agency
reported yesterday on an anonymous letter in Turkish received by the
embassy in Budapest, which threatened to kill the embassy staff.

Agency attributed the letter to ASALA (Armenian Secret Army for
Liberation of Armenia) an Armenian militant organization that
operated from 1975 to early 1990s. Agency and other sources failed
to verify the letter independently. “Even a very simple content and
textual analysis of the letter, however, shows, that it could not
be attributed to an Armenian organization or an individual. First,
the letter decreases the number of victims of the Armenian Genocide
form 1.5 million to 600.000, which is the exact figure defended by
the official Turkish and Azerbaijani historiography. It contradicts
to the stated intention of ASALA (1975), which is “to compel the
Turkish Government to acknowledge publicly its responsibility
for the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians in 1915, pay reparations,
and cede territory for an Armenian homeland”, where the number of
Armenian victims is clearly articulated”, an unnamed former ASALA
member told Armenpress.The letter is written in Turkish, which is
not typical for ASALA’s communication and it reminds more a staff
list of Azerbaijan’s Embassy in Budapest, which could be known by
the staff of the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan. The above mentioned
facts indicate that the unverified letter is a simple fabrication
of Azertac, to mislead international media community. President of
Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev pardoned Ramil Safarov, a life sentenced
murderer, after his extradition from Budapest to Baku on August 31,
2012. Hungarian authorities made a decision to extradite an Azerbaijani
assassin Safarov to Azerbaijan where he was immediately pardoned
by the president of Azerbaijan Ramil Safarov. As a result of this
Hungarian-Azerbaijani deal Armenia suspended diplomatic relations
with Hungary. On February 19 of 2004 in Budapest Azerbaijani officer
Ramil Safarov slayed with an ax Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan when
the latter was sleeping. The two officers were taking part in English
language courses in framework of NATO program in Budapest. Hungarian
court sentenced Ramil Safarov to life imprisonment, without a right
to be pardoned during the first 30 years in jail.