Author: nina hovnanian

N. ZOHRABYAN: AZERBAIJAN’S MESSAGE IS ONE

01:52 pm | Today | Politics

Member of the Armenian delegation in PACE and EuroNest Ms. Naira
Zohrabyan sent a letter to President of the European Parliament Matin
Schulz, President of PACE Jean-Claude Mignon, and Co-Chairman of the
Euronest Parliamenatry Assembly Christian Vigenin.

Below is the text of the letter:

“Respected gentlemen.

The whole civilized world and the European community are shocked
by the Azerbaijani-Hungarian shameful deal, when, in the specific
interests, EU and NATO member country Hungary, putting up European
values and justice for sale, sold to Azerbaijan the monster who
axe-murdered an Armenian officer during the 2004 NATO exercises held
in Budapest. Statements have been issued by presidents and heads of
various countries and international organizations recently. Of course,
it is not always that these statements are adequate to the monstrous
deal conducted, and an attempt is made in some statements to call on
totalitarian Azerbaijan and especially Armenia to show the so-called
restraint, which is definitely incomprehensible and inadmissible.

However, as a deputy of the PACE and EuroNest, I want to call your
attention to the shameful fact that the monster Safarov was officially
met in the airport by members of Azerbaijani delegation in PACE and
EuroNest. It was an action organized by totalitarian Azerbaijan. It
has one simple message:

“To Azerbaijan, the opinion of the international community, other
European structures where this country is represented, is nothing.

Respected gentlemen, the European values are not a piece of rag so
that we could allow every scum to wipe his feet on these values and
rejoice. I share the opinion of Secretary General of the Council
of Europe Yagland that he expressed after the extradition of the
Azerbaijani monster: ‘This is not the Europe we are striving to build.

Unless we give a definite assessment of what happened and unless
we take concrete steps, no country – member of our family will be
guaranteed that one day it will not become a target of a similar
shameful deal.

I expect your definite response and assessment and I hope that this
issue will become a subject of open and public discussion in the PACE,
the European Parliament, and the EuroNest Parliamentary Assembly”.

ARMENIAN ENVOY: IT IS UP TO HUNGARIAN AUTHORITIES TO FIND OUT HOW TO REPAIR DAMAGED RELATIONS WITH ARMENIA

Panorama.am
05/09/2012

The government of Azerbaijan has spent the last eight years trying
to convince Budapest to release from its custody Ramil Safarov, an
Azeri soldier who in 2004 murdered his Armenian roommate in Budapest,
purely out of hate for Armenia. Ferenc Gyurcsany, Hungary’s former
socialist prime minister, denied repeated requests from Baku, as he
was not convinced that the Azeri counterparts would honour their end
of the deal, by ensuring that Safarov remains in custody to serve
his life sentence. Current Prime Minister Viktor Orban was much
less circumspect than his predecessor, and seemingly had no qualms
releasing the axe murderer to Azerbaijan on August 31st, 2012, where
fans greeted him as a hero and where he received a presidential pardon,
only to be released immediately upon arrival. The Canadian Hungarian
Journal contacted Armenian Ambassador Armen Yeganian, in Ottawa, and
the diplomat did not mince his words when expressing his outrage at
Hungary’s careless handling of this situation.

– Does the Armenian government expect that its diaspora communities
(including those in Canada) will likely protest Safarov’s transfer
to Azerbaijan by Hungarian authorities and is this an issue which
has really captured the interest of Armenians living abroad?

– We are all terribly outraged about this deal. These kinds of grave
political, diplomatic mistakes happen very rarely in our history. This
issue really captured the interest of Armenians living abroad. Yes,
the President of the Republic of Armenia said, that “our people abroad
ought to speak out on this”. Armenian communities around the world,
and particularly here in Canada, are very good citizens of their host
counties, but at the same time are very dedicated Armenians.

– We understand that this has caused serious consternation for the
Armenian government and we, along with many other newspapers and
individuals in Hungary and in Hungarian communities abroad, were both
surprised and deeply disturbed to witness such careless, unethical and
irresponsible behaviour on the part of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s
government. What can Hungarian authorities do to make amends and help
restore the diplomatic ties between Hungary and Armenia?

– It is up to Hungarian authorities to find out how to repair the
damaged relations with Armenia, long standing friend, how to reconsider
their relations with Azerbaijan and finally how to save the terribly
damaged image of Hungary itself in the international arena.

As you probably know, President Obama, Russian, French, Swedish and
many other high authorities has spoken already about this in unison,
harshly criticizing both Azerbaijan and Hungary.

Hungary attempts to present itself as a cheated side. We can not
believe it, because the Armenian side warned the Hungarians over
the course of all these 8 years against such an action and recently
informed them about the inevitability of the release of that criminal
after his transfer.

EU TO SEEK EXPLANATIONS FROM BAKU OVER MURDERER’S PARDON
ATTILA KISBENEDEK

RIA Novosti
05/09/2012
YEREVAN

The European Union will seek explanations from Baku on why it violated
agreements with Hungary on the extradition of a Azerbaijani national,
convicted for murder, a spokeswoman for the EU foreign policy chief
said on Wednesday.

Ramil Safarov had been serving a life sentence with a possibility
of parole only after 25 years for hacking Gurgen Margaryan to death
with an ax during a NATO training event Budapest in 2004. He attacked
Margaryan as the Armenian slept, striking him an alleged 16 times.

On August 31 Safarov was extradited to Azerbaijan, where he was
pardoned by President Ilham Aliyev and promoted to the rank of major.

Hungary said it had agreed to return Safarov to Azerbaijan after
receiving assurances that his sentence would be enforced.

“According to what we know now, on the basis of the information
gathered, it would appear that certain conditions and commitments
that were agreed between Hungary and Azerbaijan on the transfer of
Ramil Safarov have not been met,” Maja Kocijancic, a spokeswoman for
EU Foreign Affairs chief Catherine Ashton, said in an interview with
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

“In that respect we will continue or we will try to be in touch with
the Azeri side to hear the explanation why this has happened and why
the behavior that is endangering the fragile situation in the region
is continuing,” she went on.

The EU foreign action service spokeswoman called on both sides to
show restraint in their public statements.

When asked about possible EU actions in connection with the dispute,
Kocijancic said that “we follow the situation, and we will see
accordingly whether there is a need for additional steps.”

She said that the issue might be discussed by EU foreign ministers, who
will gather for an informal meeting on Friday and Saturday in Cyprus.

Parliamentary State Secretary of the Hungarian Foreign Ministry Zsolt
Nemeth on Sunday handed over a note of protest to the Azerbaijani
ambassador to Hungary. The Hungarian foreign ministry accused
Azerbaijan of breaching the extradition agreements and described
Safarov’s pardon as “inadmissible.”

Armenia has suspended diplomatic relations with Hungary over the
extradition. Defense Minister Seiran Oganyan ordered Armenian troops
to be put on higher alert.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been at odds since fighting a bitter war
over the mainly Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh enclave in the early 1990s.

A ceasefire was signed in 1994, but relations continue to be strained.

EU FOREIGN MINISTERS COULD DISCUSS SAFAROV’S ISSUE DURING THEIR UPCOMING TALKS

news.am
September 05, 2012 | 14:59

The European Union foreign ministers could discuss, when they
gather for an informal meeting in Cyprus on Friday, Ramil Safarov’s
extradition by Hungary to Azerbaijan and his being granted pardon
there, RFE/RL reports, referring to its Brussels correspondent.

Armenian News-NEWS.am reported earlier that Ramil Safarov, a lieutenant
in the Azerbaijani military, was extradited on August 31 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 in Budapest back in 2004.

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 on August 31 that
Armenia is suspending its diplomatic ties with Hungary.

BAKO SAHAKYAN RECEIVED ”LOUDING” COMPANY FOUNDER

ARMENPRESS
5 September, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 5, ARMENPRESS: President of Artsakh Republic
Bako Sahakyan received the entrepreneur and philanthropist, founder
of “Louding” company Arthur Varjapetyan on September 5. As central
information department of the office of the Artsakh Republic President
told Armenpress, the head of country 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 the Republic. 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.

ARMENIA AND HUNGARY MUST RAISE THE ISSUES OF EXPELLING AZERBAIJAN FROM UN SECURITY COUNCIL. HERITAGE PARTY

17:47, 5 September, 2012

The Heritage Party considers that Armenia and especially Hungary must
raise the issues of expelling Azerbaijan from the UN Security Council
and transmitting Ramil Safarov to the Hague International Court at
UN General Assembly. In regard to extradition of the life-sentenced
murderer Ramil Safarov from Hungary to Azerbaijan and the regional
and international developments generated by the move the Heritage
Party states:

In result of extraditing the life-sentenced criminal Ramil Safarov
from Hungary to Azerbaijan the Azerbaijani President got the chance and
deliberately ceased the administration of justice towards a notorious
criminal. The step taken by Ilham Aliev is unlawful in essence, it’s
a provocation threatening to regional stability and is an expression
of fanatic enmity and hatred towards Armenians.

The country leaded by a President giving that sample of unlawful,
provocative and xenophobic conduct can’t be considered a bearer of
values declared by the United Nations and take a seat at UN Security
Council.

The Heritage Party values the responses of all international
structures, governments and leaders who condemned the illegitimate and
willful misconduct of Azerbaijani President. We also regret that some
other players at international scene simply called the both parties to
pursue quietude – demonstrating a superficial approach to the problem.

Still in both cases an insufficient attention was paid to
anti-democratic and corrupted essence of Azerbaijani statehood revealed
in full nudity.

According to some publications in Hungary the Azerbaijan had offered
2-3 billion dollars veiled bribe to Budapest for extraditing Safarov.

If a President may dismiss the needs of millions of citizens,
including the refugees, and entitle himself to waste three billion
dollars to make his crazy longing become true then it’s a thorough
proof of absence of state order in the country.

The Heritage Party invites her sister-parties within EPP and especially
the governing Fidesh party of Hungary, as well as the Governments of
EU countries to attach attention to this unveiled reality and assumes
there’s a ground to discuss the suspension of EU Association Agreement
negotiations with Azerbaijan, until a control over the budget and
an end to the arbitrariness of the leaders will be established in
that country.

Regretfully since the 1988 pogroms in Sumgait the anti-Armenian lunacy
in Azerbaijan rarely attracted that much international attention
and had that illustrative expression as the developments around the
Safarov case did. The Heritage Party considers that the emerged
situation is an appropriate ground to introduce the core essence
of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to the new generation entered to
political-diplomatic circles, to reinstate the necessity of engaging
the NKR representatives into the Minsk group peace negotiations
and to argue the imperativeness of recognizing the independence of
Nagorno Karabakh.

At the same time under the light of the ongoing developments the
Heritage party considers rightful for the Armenian Parliament to
discuss and recognize the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh first and
therefore proposed the relating bill at National Assembly.

COMANDOS DOESN’T WANT TO BE IN GENERAL MANVEL’S POSITION (VIDEO)

September 4, 2012 17:00

Hripsime JEBEJYAN

Major General Arkadi Ter-Tadevosyan (Comandos) said during a
conversation with in response to our question whether he
had taken offense at the current government, they hadn’t appreciated
him, didn’t take care of him, “You know what, I volunteered, I don’t
need anything. There was a saying at the time ‘we have fought, we
have to rule.’ A fighter cannot rule, a fighter, a businessman cannot
rule, everyone should be in his place. If one volunteered, why did
one volunteer? One performed his duty. I think I performed my duty;
I don’t want anything from anyone. If I was sent on a business trip,
I served, I had to go, get a salary, get travel allowance, get a medal,
get a title, get this or that. You understand, don’t you?”

In response to our question whether he did not get annoyed, when he
saw that some people were appreciated by the government, whereas being
engaged in the same activities, he was not appreciated, Comandos said,
“You have warm feelings for me; that is important for me. I don’t need
anything else.” In response to our question whether he didn’t want to
have the “advantages,” which General Manvel had, as he was a member
of the National Assembly, he had an immunity, the Major General said,
“No, I don’t want it. I don’t have any pretensions to the state,
I don’t want anything. It is not my modesty, it is my freedom not to
want anything from anyone, not to interfere with anything. I am sitting
here and I can express my opinion freely. It is the most important
thing. I don’t want to be in the state bodies.” We asked to clarify
whether he would be dependent on someone, Comandos said, “No doubt.”

Today Yerkrapahs are closely connected with politics. We inquired
whether it was right in his assessment or wrong, Arkadi Ter-Tadevosyan
said, “Yerkrapahs, in my opinion, have always been in politics,
have always maneuvered. Therefore, it is not worth talking about.”

Comandos also said that it was not like the government had not
remembered him and had not offered any help, “They came, said they
wanted to help me, I didn’t allow, I didn’t want it. Because, there are
people that live worse than me, it was not like I didn’t need it, we
all need help, but there were people who lived worse than me, besides,
I have comrades-in-arms who live in very bad social conditions. If they
knew that I had accepted help, whereas they were in those conditions,
how would it be, it wouldn’t be right. And besides, I think that it is
unacceptable жиÑ~BÑ~L богаÑ~Bо в бедной Ñ~AÑ~BÑ~@ане
(to be rich in a poor country), I don’t accept that.”

HUNGARIAN POLICY FULL OF HYPOCRISY – SERBIAN ORGANIZATION

news.am
September 05, 2012 | 02:34

President Aleksandar VeljiÄ~G of the The Holocaust Memorial Society
of Serbia issued a statement with respect to Armenia’s suspending its
diplomatic ties with Hungary, and expressed a support to Armenia’s
such move.

“The Holocaust Memorial Society agrees with that step by Armenia
because Hungarian policy is full of hypocrisy and secret plans against
the integrity and security of various European countries.

Hungary is known for the facts of deviating from international
justice. [Adolf] Hitler’s closest ally Miklós Horthy’s fate is
the best proof of this fact,” Aleksandar VeljiÄ~G’s statement reads
in particular.

Armenian News-NEWS.am reported earlier that Ramil Safarov, a lieutenant
in the Azerbaijani military, was extradited on August 31 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 in Budapest back in 2004.

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 on August 31 that
Armenia is suspending its diplomatic ties with Hungary.

FRANCE RESPONDS TO TURKEY

news.am
September 05, 2012 | 11:43

The Turkish Embassy in France sent an official note to the country’s
Education Ministry and required a review of the material, in connection
with the Armenian Genocide, which is included in France’s new history
textbooks.

The Turkish note claimed that the respective information in these
textbooks is not based on scientific facts, the Turkish Samanyolu
website informs.

And the French Education Ministry responded by noting that in 2001
France formally recognized the events in 1915 as genocide, and
therefore including them in the textbooks is very normal.

“The material included in the textbooks is prepared by scientists
and editors, and, in terms of scientific genuineness, we must note
that they were studied thoroughly,” the French Education Ministry’s
response stated.

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT PRESIDENT CALLS SAFAROV’S PARDON POLITICALLY MOTIVATED

ARMENPRESS
5 September, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 5, ARMENPRESS: European Parliament President
Martin Schulz made a statement after Ramil Safarov was pardoned by
Azerbaijan’s President.

As Armenpress was informed at the press center of the European
Parliament, President Schulz stated: “The convention on the transfer
of sentenced people should not be abused for political purpose. I
am disturbed by what appears to be a politically motivated pardon of
Mr Safarov by the President of Azerbaijan. At the same time, I urge
Azerbaijan and Armenia to avoid any moves and statements that might
exacerbate the situation.”

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. On August 31 of
2012 Hungarian authorities made a decision to extradite 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.