Author: Kalantarian Kevo

Agence France Presse
August 31, 2012 Friday 4:09 PM GMT

Azerbaijan sparks fury by pardoning killer of Armenian

BAKU, Aug 31 2012

Azerbaijan enraged Armenia on Friday by pardoning a soldier who was
jailed for life for hacking an Armenian officer to death with an axe
during a NATO training course in Hungary in 2004.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev issued an order that killer Ramil
Safarov, 35, “should be freed from the term of his punishment”
immediately after he was extradited from Hungary where he had been
serving his sentence.

Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian told an emergency meeting of his
national security council that Hungary had made a “grave mistake” in
extraditing the prisoner and that his country should make an
“appropriate response”.

“This is not a simple murder. It is murder on ethnic grounds,” he said
in comments released by his press service.

Safarov killed Armenian officer Gurgen Margarian at a military academy
in Budapest where the servicemen from the ex-Soviet neighbour states
were attending English-language courses organised by NATO.

His lawyers claimed in court that he was traumatised because some of
his relatives were killed during the war between Azerbaijan and
Armenia over the disputed region of Nagorny Karabakh in the 1990s, and
alleged that Margarian had insulted his country.

“I want to express my appreciation and gratitude to the president and
commander-in-chief Ilham Aliyev for this humane move,” Safarov was
reported as saying by Azerbaijani media after being greeted as a hero
when he arrived in Baku on a special flight.

Safarov then visited a memorial to those killed in the war accompanied
by a crowd of supporters who chanted slogans such as “We’ll liberate
Karabakh”.

Armenia-backed separatists seized Nagorny Karabakh from Azerbaijan in
the war that left some 30,000 people dead, and despite years of
negotiations since a 1994 ceasefire, the two sides have not signed a
final peace deal.

Azerbaijan has threatened to take back the region by force if peace
talks do not yield results, while Armenia has vowed massive
retaliation against any military action.

eg-mkh-emc/am/har

Hungary put up for sale on ebay

04:49 pm | Today | Social

“Hungary for Sale” announcement was posted on Hungary
is “sold” for 3 billion Euro. This is the price that Azerbaijani
authorities paid so that of the criminal Ramil Safarov who killed
Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan could be extradited to Azerbaijan.
It is also said in the notice: “If you have several billion Euro, you
can do anything you like in this country of the European Union”.

It should be mentioned that 28 people have already expressed a desire
to “buy” Hungary, but they offered very low prices.

Armenian youth chess team wins Azerbaijani team

`45
18:08 . 01/09

Armenia’s Under-16 chess team had a 3:1 win over the Azerbaijani team
in the 4th round of Under-16 World Chess Olympiad ongoing in Istanbul.
Our team is the 5th with 11 points.

Armenpress reported in this round Tigran Harutyunyan and Vladimir
Kanjaryan performed better.

In the 5th round the Armenian youth chess team will compete with the
Serbian team, which has also scored 11 points.

The Russian youth chess team is the sole leader of the tournament with
12,5 points.

39 teams are participating in this tournament.

Armenian politician calls on three presidents to unite

TERT.AM
20:58 – 01.09.12

The leader of the National Unity party has called on Armenia’s former
and incumbent presidents to join their efforts towards condemning a
recent decision to extradite and pardon Ramil Safarov, the Azerbaijani
officer who was sentenced to life imprisonment for brutally killing
Gurgen Margaryan, an officer of the Armenian army.

Speaking to Tert.am, the politician appealed to Levon Ter-Petrosyan
and Robert Kocharyan, as well as the incumbent president, Serzh
Sargsyan, to issue a joint statement in this connection.

`It is impossible to forget either Levon Ter-Petrosyan or Robert
Kocharyan’s contribution to the liberation of Artsakh. So it is time,
in this respect, to make our decisive voice heard. Foreign forces must
not try to split up the nation, profiting by the existing
disagreements,’ Artashes Geghamyan said.

Addressing President Sargsyan’s Friday speech, Geghamyan characterized
it as consolidating and influential.

`A foreign nation has to realize that there questions that make an
Armenian put aside his own interests. Once an Armenians genetic code
is united, the nation becomes invincible,’ he said.

An agreement is signed between Armenian Genocide Museum and Lidice
memorial complex

On August 28-31 director of the Armenian Genocide Museum Institute
Hayk Demoyan visited Prague. On August 29 Hayk Demoyan had a meeting
with the representatives of Armenian Community to present the program
of the 100th anniversary of Armenian Genocide. Press and information
department of Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs informs about this.

On August 31 Hayk Demoyan and Milosh Chervencel, head of the Lidice
memorial complex signed an agreement on cooperation between Armenian
Genocide Museum Institute. The document intends exchange of the
exhibitions and publications, presentation of the historical and
archive materials and exchange of the experts.

Before the signing ceremony the sides discussed concrete offers of cooperation.

Armenian Ambassador to Czech Republic Tigran Seyranyan, fellow-workers
of the Embassy and the memorial complex, representatives of the
Armenian Community and mass media attended the ceremony.

Then the participants of the meeting put flowers at the memorial
complex devoted to the 82 children who were perished in Lidice and
watched the presentations of the museum.

01.09.12, 15:46

Congressman Berman criticizes extradition and release of Ramil Safarov

12:42, 1 September, 2012

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 1, ARMENPRESS: US congressman Howard Berman issued
a statement on occasion of extradition and release of blood-mad Ramil
Safarov. Armenpress reports that in the statement is particularly
mentioned: “Hungary’s release of Azerbaijani officer Ramil Safarov,
the convicted murderer of Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan is a gross
miscarriage of justice. 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 Hungarian
government owes the Magaryan family, the Armenian nation, all its NATO
partners, and all participants in Partnership for Peace a sincere
explanation and a profound apology for its inexplicable act. The
Azerbaijani government’s decision to free Safarov is contemptible and
a serious blow to hopes for Armenian-Azerbaijani peace.”

Ramkavar Azatakan Party: Hungary sold its conscience

September 1, 2012 – 15:16 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Ramkavar Azatakan Party issued a statement on the
extradition of Gurgen Margaryan’s killer Ramil Safarov and the further
pardon by the Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev.

`The news on Safarov’s extradition to his homeland and further pardon
by president Aliyev aroused resentment of Armenians across the globe.
In an unprecedented move, a state leader acted as an ordinary
assassin,’ the party said. `Azerbaijan’s behavior is not surprising as
misanthropy is an ordinary lifestyle for them. Most surprising and
irritating is the behavior of Hungarian authorities who sold their
principles and violated all the acceptable values for some 2 billion
dollars.’

Ramkavar Azatakan Party condemns such an attitude towards this
disgusting criminal and urges all party members and supporters in
Diaspora to do their best to for the condemnation of the disgraceful
deal between Hungary and Azerbaijan’, the statement says.

Hunchakian Party welcomes President Sargsyan’s decision

September 1, 2012 – 15:18 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Social Democrat Hunchakian Party has made an
announcement concerning the extradition by Hungary and further pardon
by the Azerbaijani leader of Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan’s
assassin Ramil Safarov.

`Hungary, considered to be a devotee to the European values and the
protection of human rights, agreed to transfer a murderer throwing a
challenge to the whole civilized world and proving that Azerbaijani
dollars are more important than justice.

Social Democrat Hunchakian Party welcomes Armenian President Serzh
Sargsyan’s decision to suspend diplomatic relations with Hungary and
hopes that the process is not over and Safarov will be punished after
all.

The party is confident that organizations throughout Diaspora will
take action to make the international community give a worthy
assessment to Hungary’s treacherous behavior and Azerbaijani fascist
policy,’ the statement says.

`The Witness Had Been Beaten Before Giving a Testimony on the Armenian
National Congress (ANC) Activists’ Case,’ an ANC Activist Says (Photo
Series and Video)

August 31, 2012 15:41

The protest outside the prosecutor’s office demanding to release the
ANC activists condemned to imprisonment has ended a short while ago.

`To release Tigran Arakelyan who has been in jail for almost one year,
to acquit our youths who were condemned by a complaisant court up to 6
years in prison and to launch an investigation and punish all those
who tried to hush up the case, as well as representatives of the
law-enforcement bodies that committed unlawful actions against lawyers
and youths on August 9,’ Areg Gevorgyan, an ANC activist, pointed out
their demands.

Activist Zaruhi Hovhannisyan enumerated the violations committed by
the court regarding the case. According to her, Judge Gagik Poghosyan
didn’t allow defendant Sargis Gevorgyan to finish his defense speech
and make the last plea before going to his chamber and the

prosecution summation was based only on the testimonies of police
officers and all testimonies of the ANC activists were neglected.

In Z. Hovhannisyan’s words, one of the witnesses who was telling the
details of the incident stated in the courtroom that police officers
brought him to the court for different cases, in order that he
expressed their opinion and will and he had been beaten before being
brought to the courtroom.

Arpine SIMONYAN

Azerbaijan still praises the murderer

NEWS.AM
September 01, 2012 | 13:29

BAKU. – Azerbaijan continues to glorify the murderer. Ramil Safarov,
whom Hungary extradited to Azerbaijan and the latter’s president
pardoned, was granted the rank of army major.

Azerbaijani defense minister Safar Abiyev congratulated Safarov, in
connection with his return, and granted him the rank of army major,
1news.az reports, referring to the Azerbaijani MOD.

Armenian News-NEWS.am reported earlier that Ramil Safarov, a
lieutenant in the Azerbaijani military, was extradited on Friday from
Hungary, where he was serving a life sentence – and with no expression
of either regret or remorse – for the premeditated axe murder of
Armenian lieutenant Gurgen Margaryan, in his sleep, during a NATO
Partnership for Peace program.

As expected, Ramil Safarov’s return to Baku was welcomed, as was his
act of murder, by the officials of president Ilham Aliyev’s government
and much of Azerbaijani society, and the Azerbaijani president
immediately granted him a pardon.

And Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan announced Friday that Armenia
is suspending its diplomatic ties with Hungary.