Author: Baghdasarian Karlen

MODERN MEANS OF TRANSPORT ALLOCATED IN NKR

On 5 September President of Artsakh Republic Bako Sahakayan received
the entrepreneur and philanthropist, founder of “Louding” company
Arthur Varjapetyan. Central Information Department of the Office of
Artsakh Republic President informs about this.

The Head of State expressed his gratitude to the philanthropist for the
participation at the social-economic development of Artsakh noting that
for years his patriotic activity has been highly evaluated in Artsakh.

After the meeting the President and Arthur Varjapetyan partook at
the festive ceremony of allocating modern means of transport to the
NKR Rescue Service at the Stepanakert Veratsnund square.

Primate of the Artsakh Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church
Archbishop Pargev Martirosyan, National Assembly speaker Ashot Ghulyan,
Prime Minister Ara Haroutunyan and other officials were present at
the event.

From: Baghdasarian

ARMENIAN SOLDIER DEAD. HUGE PROTEST ACTION IN ISTANBUL

ARMENPRESS
5 September, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 5, ARMENPRESS: A protest action was organized
in Istanbul’s Taksim square by ,,Nor Zartonq” organization against
the murder of Armenian solder Sevak Balikci on April 24. Sayat Pekir
representative of ,,Nor Zartonq” mentioned that there are more than
250 people at Taksim and they are going to join another group in
other district. So we can say that about 1000 protestors “will come
together for justice”. He has also mentioned that the majority of
protestors are foreigners; the family of Sevak is present as well.

About year and a half passed after Sevak’s death but the murderer is
still in freedom.

Balikci, who was killed in the military unit on April 24, had 23
days to complete his service. Official sources suggested that a
bullet released from a fellow servicemen’s gun accidentally caused
the death of Sevak. Turkish Ministry of Defense declared that the
serviceman died accidentally when joking with a fellow . But later
Turkish media spread news concerning the murderer of Balikci Kıvanc
Agaoglu as he was related to national forces. Nevertheless, the 2nd
Court of Diyarbakır decided to release the murderer on August 1, 2011
after 3 months of imprisonment coming to the conclusion that Agaoglu
who ,,accidentally” killed Armenian soldier had no reason to escape,
though the case is still not closed.

From: Baghdasarian

ARMENIA FURIOUS OVER AZERBAIJAN KILLER

Sky News

Sept 4 2012
Australia

Armenia has warned Azerbaijan it is ready for war as tensions soared
between the ex-Soviet foes after Baku pardoned and promoted an
Azerbaijani officer who axed an Armenian soldier to death.

Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev last week immediately pardoned
Ramil Safarov after he was extradited from Hungary, where he had been
serving a life sentence for the 2004 killing.

Safarov was also promoted to the rank of major, given a house and eight
years’ worth of back-pay after returning home to a hero’s welcome,
in defiance of assurances from Baku to Budapest that he would serve
out his term in Azerbaijan.

‘We don’t want a war, but if we have to, we will fight and win. We are
not afraid of killers, even if they enjoy the protection of the head
of state,’ Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian fumed in a statement
late on Sunday.

‘They (Azerbaijanis) have been warned,’ he said, calling Azerbaijan
a country where ‘illicit orders set free and publicly glorify every
bastard who kills people only because they are Armenians’.

Safarov hacked Armenian officer Gurgen Margarian to death at a
military academy in Budapest where the servicemen were attending
English-language courses organised by NATO.

His lawyers claimed in court that he was traumatised because some of
his relatives had been killed during Azerbaijan’s war with Armenia,
and alleged that Margarian had insulted his country.

Armenia and Azerbaijan are locked in a long-running conflict over
the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, where they fought a war in
the 1990s.

Armenia-backed separatists seized Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijan
in the war that left some 30,000 people dead.

The two sides have not signed a final peace deal since the 1994
ceasefire and there are still regular firefights along the front line.

Analysts warn the frozen conflict risks slipping again into full-scale
war.

Russia, which is part of the OSCE Minsk Group that is mediating in
negotiations to find a peaceful solution to the Karabakh conflict,
expressed ‘deep concern’ over the extradition and pardon.

Yerevan on Friday cut diplomatic ties with Hungary over the pardon,
while US President Barack Obama said he was ‘deeply concerned’ about
the incident.

Hungary summoned Azerbaijan’s ambassador on Sunday to protest at
Baku’s decision after earlier saying it had been assured Safarov
would serve out his term.

From: Baghdasarian

AZERBAIJAN DENIES PLAN TO BUY HUNGARIAN DEBT

portfolio.hu
Sept 4 2012
Hungary

The State Oil Fund of The Republic of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) is not
planning to purchase Hungarian bonds or any other financial assets
in Hungary, it said in a statement on Monday.

No bond purchase planned

“Regarding the news about the purchase of Hungarian debt obligations,
the State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan publicly reveals
that SOFAZ is not considering any investment into debt obligations
or other financial tools in Hungary,” the fund said.

“SOFAZ suggests clarification of such wrong information with the Fund
prior to publishing,” it added.

The first reports about Azerbaijan’s possible debt purchase in Hungary
occurred in early August. Reuters reported about a month ago that
Hungary was in talks with Turkey and Azerbaijan to issue sovereign
bonds in local currencies.

Later last month Government Debt Management Agency (Ã~AKK) Deputy
CEO László András Borbély said the Ã~AKK was not planning on a
public government bond issue denominated in foreign currency until
an agreement with the IMF is reached.

The issuer also said, however, that in line with the government’s plan
to open towards the East the Ã~AKK was examining funding opportunities
on several fixed-income markets where it has not issued debt before.

On 23 August Hungarian weekly FigyelÅ’ reported, citing an Economy
Ministry source, that Azerbaijan was looking to buy Hungarian
government bonds of 2 to 3 year maturity, on a scale of EUR 2 to
3 billion.

The next day Borbély rejected the report. “As we have already stated
two weeks ago, the State Debt Management Agency is not planning on
a public government bond issue denominated in foreign currency until
an agreement with the IMF is reached.”

When last Friday Hungary sent home an Azeri soldier serving a life
sentence in Hungary for killing an Armenian soldier in Budapest in 2004
and he was pardoned and release, speculation began that the oil and
gas-rich country will express its gratitude for the extradition of a
“national hero” by buying EUR 2-3 bn worth of Hungarian government
bonds.

From: Baghdasarian

HUNGARY RED-FACED AFTER AZERBAIJAN FREES MURDERER

The Budapest Times
Sept 4 2012
Hungary

Questions over strongman’s alleged pledge to buy billions in Hungarian bonds

Posted on 04 September 2012

Armenia severed all diplomatic relations with Hungary last Friday
following the extradition of the Azerbaijani army officer Ramil Sahib
Safarov, who was convicted of murder in Hungary. Safarov killed
an Armenian roommate in 2004 during a course of studies organised
by NATO in Budapest and was given a life sentence in Hungary. Back
in his homeland Safarov was immediately pardoned by the country’s
president and has been celebrated as a national hero.

The Hungarian government has since been at pains to explain itself
and limit the damage. According to the Hungarian Foreign Ministry, the
extradition was in line with the European Convention on the Transfer
of Sentenced Persons signed in Strasbourg. The state secretary for
foreign affairs and foreign trade at the prime minister’ office
Peter Szijjarto said that on Sunday the foreign ministry had given
the Azerbaijani ambassador in Budapest a diplomatic note, describing
the events following the extradition of the murderer as “unacceptable”
and “condemning” them. The Hungarian government was dismayed to learn
that Safarov had been pardoned, Szijjarto said.

The state secretary also described the events leading up to the
extradition: Safarov’s legal representative had appealed to the
Hungarian justice minister to allow Safarov to serve his sentence in
Azerbaijan. The Hungarian justice ministry subsequently made contact
with the Azerbaijani authorities, which had pledged that the crime for
which Safarov was sentenced would also quality as a crime in accordance
with the Azerbaijani criminal code and be subject to a life sentence,
Szijjarto said. The Azerbaijani authorities had also assured Hungary
that Safarov would serve the remaining part of the sentence that
he had begun in Hungary in his homeland. The diplomatic note also
refers to a promise made in a letter by the deputy justice minister
of Azerbaijan dated 15 August 2012, according to which the convicted
murder could hope to be released on conditional parole no earlier
than 25 years after commencing his prison sentence, Szijjarto said.

The reality was very different: on day of his extradition, Safarov,
described in Hungary as an “axe murderer”, was pardoned by Azerbaijani
president Ilham Aliyev, promoted as a soldier and given a rapturous
welcome by the people. What is more, he was granted a new flat and
the assurance that he would receive his pay retroactively. That did
not go unnoticed in the neighbouring country Armenia. The same day
Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan announced that his country was
severing relations with Hungary. Irate Armenians protested outside
the Hungarian consulate in Yerevan and burnt a Hungarian flag.

There were also protests in Hungary itself. By Sunday evening
the Facebook group “Hey Armenia, sorry about our Prime Minister”
had already amassed almost 9,000 members. The organisation “One
million for Hungarian press freedom” also announced a demonstration of
solidarity with Armenia on Kossuth ter, and called for an explanation
from Viktor Orban.

The largest opposition party, the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP)
said that it was also waiting for an explanation of the events. At a
Socialist party event on Sunday in Siofok Socialist MP Zsolt Molnar
called for foreign minister Janos Martonyi to resign. Molnar, who
is chairman of the parliamentary committee for national security,
also demanded that Martonyi give answers at the next meeting of the
committee as to why and how the extradition came about and whether
consideration had been given to the safety of Hungarians living
in Armenia.

Former prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsany’s party, the Democratic
Coalition (DK), went one step further and took to the streets. It
swiftly repurposed a demonstration taking place in any case against the
government’s education policy and marched from the state secretariat
for education to the justice ministry. DK party chairman Gyurcsany
adroitly linked the two topics: “A government that is willing to
hawk the honour of the country for 30 pieces of silver and release a
murderer from deserved execution of a prison sentence, is hardly in a
position to introduce ethics teaching in schools”, Gyurcsany said. His
remark was an allusion to reports in the weekly news magazine HVG
that Azerbaijan had pledged to buy Hungarian government bonds with a
value of as much as EUR 3 billion in exchange for handing over Safarov.

Gyurcsany told journalists that the Azerbaijani authorities had also
appealed to his government to hand over Safarov. However, since it had
been clear that Safarov would immediately be released in his homeland
and celebrated as a hero, his government had refused the request,
Gyurcsany said. He noted that Orban must have been aware of the
likely consequences in the absence of guarantees that the convicted
murderer would continue to serve his sentence in his homeland, such
as a promise from the Azerbaijani president.

Democratic Coalition deputy chairman Csaba Molnar accused the
government of having “turned the honour of the Hungarians into goods
for sale” and “brought shame on the country”. He accused Prime Minister
Viktor Orban of “preferring to beg money from the devil” than to reach
an agreement with the European Union and the International Monetary
Fund. Candles were lit at the end of the demonstration in memory of
the Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan, who was axe murdered in his
bed in 2004.

Far-right party Jobbik took a more laid-back view of events. Deputy
parliamentary party group leader and deputy chairman of the
parliamentary commission for foreign affairs Marton Gyongyosi said
that the extradition was fully in line with international law. He told
state news agency MTI that the Armenian reaction was “over the top and
hysterical”. Gyongyosi also commented that his party had announced a
policy of opening up to the East, in which Azerbaijan was identified
as a strategic partner, ahead of the last general elections.

Regardless of the current case, Azerbaijan would continue to be
regarded as a such a partner, he said.

From: Baghdasarian

SOCIALISTS CALL FOR FOREIGN MINISTER’S RESIGNATION OVER AZERI DIPLOMATIC DEBACLE

Politics.hu
Sept 3 2012
Hungary

The main opposition Socialists called for the resignation of Foreign
Minister Janos Martonyi on Sunday, stating that the events that
followed the transferral home of life-sentenced Azerbaijani Ramil
Sahib Safarov in the past two days have created an “impossible”
situation for Hungarian diplomacy.

Socialist lawmaker and head of parliament’s national security committee
Zsolt Molnar said he had initiated at the committee’s next meeting
hearings for Martonyi, Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Minister
Tibor Navracsics and the head of the Information Office, which is in
charge of gathering intelligence in connection with foreign countries.

It must be clarified whether the Information Office had been aware
of the possible consequences of the extradition and whether it had
informed the government about this, Molnar said.

Safarov was convicted in Hungary for murdering Armenian fellow-soldier
Gurgen Margaryan with an axe in 2004 in Budapest. On returning to
Azerbaijan on Friday, Safarov requested and got a pardon from his
country’s president Ilham Aliyev. Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan
said in Yerevan later in the day that Armenia had decided to break
diplomatic ties with Hungary.

From: Baghdasarian

SERZH SARGSYAN’S REQUEST

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 16:44:16 – 04/09/2012

Serzh Sargsyan’s answers to questions of the media

Question: Mr. President, the release of the Azerbaijani killer caused
sharp reactions in Armenia. Would you tell what developments are in
place now?

Answer: The work is underway and it will be consistent, prudent,
sober. We will take each step properly both in our relations with
our partners and in international organizations. Our society will
regularly be informed about the work done. Using the opportunity I
would like to ask our society and especially our youth not to burn
Hungary’s flag because the flag does not belong to the ruling party and
is not the symbol of the prime minister. We have been friends with the
Hungarian people for centuries. Many Armenian people sacrificed their
life for Hungary’s freedom and independence, many have significant
achievements there and an inhuman step of the government cannot be
the reason for ruining relations with the Hungarian people.

This is my request to our society and young people. Sure, we may
express our protest but we don’t need to betray ourselves and our
values.

Question: Mr. President, mayoral election will be held Sunday in
Gyumri. As we know, the Republican Party supports PAP member Samvel
Balasanyan. Why didn’t the RPA nominate its own candidate?

Answer: Who said Samvel Balasanyan is a stranger? What does it mean
‘one’s own candidate’? I would like to speak about different articles
using different slang words. I want it to be clear to everyone that
parties are created to participate actively in the political life.

People join parties to participate in politics. There can’t be
more political events than elections. Yes, the press reports that
I proposed Samvel Balasanyan to run for mayor. First, I think the
Prosperous Armenia Party is not our enemy and he is not a stranger. We
try to make effective decisions, to choose the optimal way and if we
nominate someone in any election, we discuss all the pros and cons. In
this case, Samvel Balasanyan can solve the problems of the town. The
atmosphere in Gyumri needs to change and I think Samvel Balasanyan
can do that.

From: Baghdasarian

NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHURCHES USA JOINS ECUMENICAL LEADERS TO PROTEST PARDON OF AZERI KILLER

ARMRADIO.AM
04.09.2012 16:34

The National Council of Churches president and a former NCC president
have joined international ecumenical leaders to protest Hungary’s
release of an Azerbaijani army officer convicted in 2006 of killing
an Armenian officer.

Archbishop Vicken Aykazian, a former National Council of Churches
president and a member of the World Council of Churches Central
Committee, said Hungary “has fallen victim to the continued
anti-Armenian policies and actions of Azerbaijan.”

The release of an officer convicted of killing an Armenian on
Hungarian soil “does nothing to further our quest for peace and
stability for all people in the region,” said Aykazian, legate of
the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church in America.

National Council of Churches President Kathryn M. Lohre, also a member
of the WCC Central Committee, said the amnesty “threatens to undermine
justice and peace in the region through the cessation of diplomatic
ties, and the strain on human relationships. We commit ourselves to
pray for and stand in solidarity with all those who strive for human
rights, peace, and understanding.”

The Rev. Dr. Olav Fykse Tveit, in a letter to Prime Minister Viktor
Orban of Hungary, said the release of Safarov “appears as an action
that was not properly considered on the part of the Hungarian
government. Safarov’s release by the Azerbaijan government, despite
his life sentence, runs counter to normative practices of justice.”

Tveit condemned “actions that severely undermine justice and
reconciliation for the peoples of Armenia and Azerbaijan and the
region, who have a right to live side by side with dignity, respect
for human rights and in freedom.”

From: Baghdasarian

HIS HOLINESS ARAM I EXPRESSES HIS PROTEST TO THE PRESIDENT OF HUNGARY

armradio.am
04.09.2012 16:24

In a letter to H.E. Janos Áder, the president of Hungary, His Holiness
Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, expressed his
deep concern and dismay concerning the extradition of Azeri murderer
Ramil Safarov (who murdered an Armenian Lieutenant Gurgen Margaryan in
Budapest, back in 2004 and was serving a life sentence) to Azerbaijan,
and for the pardon he was granted by the Azerbaijani president.

Catholicos Aram I said that this act is a “flagrant violation of the
international law and principles of justice” and it has “generated a
huge wave of frustration and protest among the Armenians in Armenia
and the world-wide Diaspora”.

His Holiness reminds the president of Hungary that “political interests
must not undermine the imperative of justice and human dignity”
and that “such a behavior does not help to promote good relations
and close co-operation among nations and states”.

The letter of His Holiness was presented to the Ambassador of
Hungary to Lebanon by a delegation of clergy representing the Holy
See of Cilicia.

From: Baghdasarian

ARMENIA, ARGENTINE INTERESTED IN THE DEEPENING OF BILATERAL RELATIONS

armradio.am
04.09.2012 13:44

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian received his Argentinean
counterpart Hector Marcos Timerman.

“This year we mark the 20th anniversary of Armenian-Argentinean
diplomatic relations, and we can state that we have had rather
intensive contacts with Argentine over these years,” Minister
Nalbandian said.

The Argentinean Foreign Minister said, in turn, that his country is
interested in deepening the cooperation with friendly Armenia and
raise the level of inter-state relations.

The Ministers attached importance to the role of the Argentinean
Armenian community in the development of bilateral relations.

The parties discussed a wide range of bilateral issues. They agreed
to continue the cooperation towards expanding the legal framework,
reinforcing the cooperation within international organizations and
in the fields of trade, culture, education and science.

The Armenian Foreign Minister briefed his Argentinean counterpart on
the recent developments in the process of settlement of the Karabakh
conflict. The interlocutors agreed that the issue should be solved
exceptionally in a peaceful way and on the basis of the principles
of international law.

Following the meeting the Ministers signed an agreement on cooperation
between the Armenian Ministry of Sport and Youth affairs and the
Argentinean Sport Secretariat.

From: Baghdasarian