Author: nina hovnanian

ARMENIAN ORGANIZATIONS SUGGEST NATO SECRETARY GENERAL TO SUSPEND AZERBAIJAN’S MEMBERSHIP FROM PARTNERSHIP FOR PEACE PROGRAMME

Mediamax
Sept 5 2012
Armenia

Yerevan /Mediamax/. Armenian Atlantic Association (AAA) and Harvard
Alumni Club of Armenia (HACA) addressed a letter to NATO Secretary
General Anders Fogh Rasmussen who will arrive to Yerevan later today.

“75 members of Harvard Alumni Club of Armenia (HACA) and Armenian
Atlantic Association (AAA), an Armenian member of Atlantic Treaty
Association, express their concern regarding the extradition of a
convicted murderer and Azeri officer Ramil Safarov to Azerbaijan, his
pardon by the Azeri President, his glorification as a national hero.

There are even more troublesome reports in the media, stating that
it is only the first step of the plan of the Azerbaijani leadership,
which is preparing to kill Safarov, blame Armenians for the murder
and using it as a justification to re-start the war over Nagorno
Karabakh/Artsakh.

We also call upon to You to officially and vocally condemn the pardon
and glorification of Safarov by Azerbaijan in order to reiterate the
principles of NATO’s Partnership for Peace Programme. We also believe
that the North Atlantic Council must convene a meeting at the level
of Ministers or Ambassadors to discuss the suspension of Azerbaijan’s
membership from NATO’s Partnership for Peace Programme as well as
to question the reasons and circumstances of the extradition of the
murderer by its Ally Hungary and to examine the reported mediation
role of its another Ally Turkey in facilitating the deal between
Hungary and Azerbaijan”, the letter reads.

SPARK IN THE SOUTH CAUCASUS?
Hayes Brown

UN Dispatch
Sept 5 2012

Azerbaijan and Armenia could be set for another flare-up after the
pardon of a convicted murderer. The two Caucasus states have been at
each others’ throats for almost 90 years, but have managed to keep a
relative, though highly strained, peace for the last two decades. The
release of Ramil Safarov, an Azeri military officer, may be what sets
the two down the path to war once more.

Lt. Safarov was convicted in Hungary following the axe-murder of
Armenian Lt. Gurgen Makarian during a NATO training course in 2004. In
exchange for his return, the Azeri government promised to keep Safarov
imprisoned – instead he found himself released and promoted to Major.

The news was not received well in Armenia, where protests against
Hungary broke out. Nor was the reasoning given by Azerbaijan:
Nagorno-Karabakh. The small region, contained entirely within
Azerbaijan, is composed of ethnic Armenians, a legacy of Stalin’s
‘divide and conquer’ tactics in the Soviet Union. Following the
dissolution of the USSR, Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a full-scale
war over who would take control of the enclave.

Since a cease-fire in 1994, the region has been held by Armenian troops
and local ethnic Armenian fighters. The Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe has had the lead on the diplomatic side
via their Minsk Group, hosting talks between the two to attempt to
determine a final status of the Nagorno-Karabahk region. So far no
settlement has been reached.

A renewed fighting between the two states would be troubling for
several reasons. First, the ethnic conflict between the two has shades
of the 1990s Balkans Wars within them, and once released could be hard
to contain. The second, Azerbaijan has since the end of the war become
a supplier of oil and natural gas for Europe and the region. A surge
in conflict could reduce its flow to Turkey and the European Union,
raising energy prices. Third, both are of strategic importance,
considering that they border Iran, something that Israel has taken
note of.

Finally, renewed conflict would likely bring Russia onto the scene
in a big way. The Russian Federation is the regional hegemon and has
profited off of the tense status quo between the two states. Per a
report from the International Peace Institute’s Global Observatory:

Russia, while not interested in war in the region, profits by
maintaining instability in the South Caucasus, playing off the
interests of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkey, and making itself
look like a more reliable source and transit country for natural
gas than Azerbaijan (which exports its gas to Europe via Georgia and
Turkey). Russia appears to be more of an arms broker than an honest
broker. Despite being one of the chief negotiators in the peace
process, Russia, according to a recent SIPRI report, supplied 55% of
Azerbaijan’s arms imports and 96% of Armenia’s between 2007 and 2011.

Any break in that balance could provoke Russian intervention, a
prospect that neither side would likely relish. It is also uncertain
how the conflict would play out in the UN Security Council. When the
issue was last raised, the newly minted Russian Federation’s foreign
policy was markedly different than today’s and the OSCE was given
free-reign diplomatically to end the fighting. Also, it is worth
noting that Azerbaijan current holds a non-permanent seat on the
Council as well.

There have been several skirmishes since the cease-fire, but the rise
of Azerbaijan’s fortunes due to it’s energy exports may be shifting
the balance that has kept the two in check. The Caucasus has managed
to avoid the horrors that the Balkans suffered in the 1990s. Strong,
timely diplomatic intervention by the OSCE and United Nations is
needed to prevent that from changing.

EU EXPRESSES CONCERN ABOUT AZERBAIJANI RAMIL SAFAROV’S PARDON

New Europe

Sept 5 2012

Article | September 4, 2012 – 3:01pm | By Stanislava Gaydazhieva

The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy,
Catherine Ashton, and her colleague the European Commissioner for
Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy, tefan Fule, issued a joint
statement in relation to the pardon which the President of Azerbaijan
granted the Azerbaijani army officer Ramil Safarov.

Safarov was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the
murder of the Armenian Army officer, Gurgen Margaryan, in Budapest
in 2004. However, he was transferred from Hungary to Azerbaijan on 31
August on the basis of an Azerbaijani request to serve the rest of his
sentence in his country of origin. The request was in the framework
of the Convention of Strasbourg on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons
of 21 March 1983.

Immediately after his return to Azerbaijan, Ramil Safarov was pardoned
by the president of the country and welcomed as a national hero.

Ashton and Fule expressed concern over this act of the president,
while reiterating 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.

In connection to the pardon of Safarov, the co-chairs of the OSCE
Minsk Group which includes American, Russian and French ambassadors
and aims at finding a political solution to the conflict in and around
Nagorno-Karabakh involving Armenia and Azerbaijan, met separately on
2 September with the foreign minister of Armenia, Edward Nalbandian,
and on 3 September with the foreign minister of Azerbaijan, Elmar
Mammadyarov. The purpose of the meeting was to address and discuss
the recent events and to once again reiterate the obligations which
the two countries have internationally.

FOR MONEY, WHAT ELSE? – THE BAKU OPPOSITION SAYS THAT IT IS A PITY THAT HE IS CONSIDERED A HERO, BUT THE HUNGARIAN VERDICT WAS TOO SEVERE

Nepszabadsag
Sept 4 2012
Hungary

Interview with Sardar Calaloglu, chairman of the Azerbaijan Democratic
Party

[Translated from Hungarian]

Sardar Calaloglu, head of the non-parliamentary Azerbaijan Democratic
Party (ADP), has told this daily that “Ramil Safarov’s return home and
his reception may become a spark in explosive Azerbaijani-Armenian
relations.” In the opposition politician’s view, it is unfortunate
that the officer, who was convicted for murdering an Armenian fellow
student in Budapest, was welcomed in a ceremony after his transfer
and it was especially sad that the Azerbaijani leadership presents the
extradition approved by Budapest as a success in foreign policy and a
“victory over Armenia.”

“Ilham Aliyev [Azerbaijani president] needs this more than a year
before the presidential election because he cannot achieve any
genuine result in the Nagorno-Karabakh matter,” said Calaloglu, who
was arrested several times for his opposition activities. He also
added that the Hungarian court’s decision to sentence Safarov to life
imprisonment had been excessive. “It did not consider the fact that
he had come from an area that was still occupied by Armenians these
days and that the victim had mocked him and Azerbaijan. In such a
situation, the perpetrator would receive 15 years’ imprisonment in
our country. Safarov served more than half of his sentence; therefore,
the presidential pardon was neither illegal nor unworthy. It did not
mean that we did not consider murder a crime; instead, it meant that
the court had not considered all circumstances when it handed out its
verdict,” Calaloglu explained; he also added that Armenia had also
handed down lenient punishments for the murder of Azerbaijanis. He
pointed out that Yerevan was criticizing Safarov’s release on a
national basis, not on a legal one.

Calaloglu said that it was impossible that Budapest had not expected
an amnesty for Safarov. “They sent [diplomatic] notes only because of
international reactions, but the developments could not have caught
Hungarian politicians by surprise,” the 58-year-old politician, who
graduated from medical school, said. He also said that the Hungarian
step could be explained easily: “It did it for money, what else?

Hungary faced the same situation as Greece, but Azerbaijan had
substantial revenues from natural gas and crude oil. I, of course,
did not know whether the purchase of bonds would actually take place.”

He said that Azerbaijan was an important partner for the outside
world because of its strategic location and raw material reserves, so
nobody raised serious objections against the country’s anti-democratic
regime. Calaloglu explained the country’s international reputation as
follows: “Despite the fact that human rights were not guaranteed and
the regime was corrupt and dictatorial, Azerbaijan was a key player
in the region.” The politician, who was not allowed to run in the 2008
elections, said that “we were a pseudo-democracy and this was the most
dangerous thing.” (Finally, six opposition candidates ran and secured
a total of 11 per cent [of the votes] against Aliyev’s 89 per cent.)
The ADP chairman also went on to say that “they could not convene and
appear on television. The regime was a criminal gang and democratic
regulations were not implemented in practice. We were prisoners and
it was an achievement that our party existed at all.”

[Translated from Hungarian]

CANADIAN POLITICIAN: AZERI GOVERNMENT MUST BRING SAFAROV TO JUSTICE

tert.am
05.09.12

Below is a statement by Jim Karygiannis, a member of Parliament
for Scarborough-Agincourt (Canada), concerning the extradition and
release of Ramil Safarov, who was sentenced to life in prison in
2006 for hacking Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan to death during
a NATO-sponsored training in Budapest,

Pardon of Ramil Safarov by Azerbaijan Statement by the Honourable
Jim Karygiannis, Member of Parliament for Scarborough-Agincourt and
Liberal Critic for Multiculturalism

It is with great concern that I learned of Hungary’s extradition of
and the Government of Azerbaijan’s subsequent pardon of Ramil Safarov,
who was convicted of murdering Armenian soldier, Gurgen Margaryan,
in 2004, during a NATO exercise in Hungary.

Safarov was serving a life sentence in Hungary for the pre-meditated
murder of Armenian Lieutenant Margaryan in his sleep, during a
NATO Partnership for Peace program in Budapest in 2004. According to
reports, last week Safarov received a pardon; was promoted to the rank
of major; was given a flat; and, all the pay he lost since his arrest.

The Azeri government must bring Ramil Safarov to justice.

This situation has resulted in the suspension of diplomatic ties
between Armenia and Hungary and added strain to the sensitive
relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia. This action is contrary to
the ongoing efforts being made to reduce geo-political tensions and
promote reconciliation in the region.

Members of the international community, including Russia and the
United States of America, are worried that this situation could
adversely affect the peace negotiations between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

I find it very interesting that the Canadian Government has been
conspicuous by its silence with respect to these events.

I have worked closely with the Armenian Diaspora on many issues and
have traveled to Armenia. I know that the community is watching this
situation with great interest and concern.

ARMENIA ‘READY FOR WAR’ AFTER AZERBAIJAN PARDONS AXE-KILLER

The Beverly Hills Courier
Sept 3 2012
CA

Armenia warned Azerbaijan it was ready for war as tensions soared
Monday 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 Nagorny Karabakh, where they fought a war in
the 1990s.

Armenia-backed separatists seized Nagorny 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.

“We believe that these actions of the Azerbaijanis, as well as
the Hungarian authorities, go against the efforts agreed at an
international level primarily through the OSCE Minsk Group aimed at
reducing tension in the region,” Russian foreign ministry spokesman
Alexander Lukashevich said in a statement.

The OSCE Minsk Group said Monday its co-chairs had expressed “deep
concern and regret for the damage the pardon and any attempts to
glorify the crime had done to the peace process” at meetings with
both countries’ foreign ministers.

It stressed there was “no alternative to a peaceful settlement of
the Nagorny Karabakh conflict”.

The EU said Baku and Yerevan should refrain from exacerbating the
dispute.

In a statement, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and
Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele said they “are concerned by
the news” of the pardon, adding that EU officials were “in contact
with the relevant authorities”.

EU officials will “continue to follow the situation closely,” the
statement said.

“In the interest of regional stability and on-going efforts towards
reconciliation,” Ashton and Fuele said they “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.”

Baku on Monday accused Yerevan of launching a wave of attacks on
eight Azerbaijani websites including those of the president and
various news portals, sometimes posting photographs of the murdered
Armenian soldier.

“The very fact of this action speaks of the powerlessness of Yerevan,
resorting to the tactics of the weak,” Azerbaijani presidential
administration official Elnur Aslanov said in a statement.

The administration also published a series of letters from citizens
praising Aliyev for pardoning the convicted killer.

“I am grateful to you for the nationwide joy you have given us by
releasing Ramil Safarov, returning him to his homeland and, most
importantly, doing justice,” wrote one of them, Zamina Aliyeva.

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.

HUNGARIAN PARTIES SLAM GOVT OVER SAFAROV EXTRADITION

PanARMENIAN.Net
September 4, 2012 – 15:09 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Armenia severed all diplomatic relations with
Hungary last Friday following the extradition of the Azerbaijani
army officer Ramil Safarov, who was convicted of murder in Hungary,
The Budapest Times said.

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 Azerbaijani authorities had 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. 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.

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.

CSTO: DEFENSE INDUSTRY PLANT TO BE BUILT IN ARMENIA

PanARMENIAN.Net
September 4, 2012 – 15:57 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO)
members are in talks over construction of defense industry plants.

The plants will be built in Russia as well as CSTO member states’
territory (Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kirghizia), with the Russian side
processing documents for project implementation.

Russia’s ministry of industry and trade is currently preparing
a legislative base for cooperation between the enterprises and
organizations of SCTO members.

A document base for construction of new defense plants will be ready in
near future, with relevant propositions to be made soon, Izvestia said.

HUNGARY CAN STILL RETURN SAFAROV S SLOVAK POLITICIAN

tert.am
04.09.12

Hungary still has an opportunity to correct its error by demanding
the Azerbaijani murderer’s return to a Hungarian prison, FrantiÅ¡ek
Mikloško, the first president of the Slovak National Council has
claimed.

“I hope it isn’t yet too late for Hungary to correct its mistake, at
least partially, and demand Safarov’s return from Azerbaijan,,” the
politician said, according to an official statement by the Armenian
Unions of Europe Forum.

Ramil Safarov axed Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan to death in 2004
when both servicemen were in Hungary for a Nato-organized English
language training. The Budapest City Court sentenced Safarov to life
imprisonment in 2006, without any right to appeal against the ruling
for 30 years.

But after being transferred to Azerbaijan, the murderer was granted
pardon by the country’s president, Ilham Aliyev.

Commenting on the incident, Mikloško noted that the Armenian
government suspended its diplomatic relations with Hungary on the
grounds that such policies could undermine the peace efforts over
Karabakh.

“Those who have been to Karabakh realize well that its population
of 160,000 will be annihilated just within a day once the country
becomes part of Azerbaijan. As for the other states in Europe, they
might turn a blind eye to this thanks to the oil dollars.

It is necessary for Hungary today to urgently demand Safarov’s return
considering the failure to follow earlier agreements. And the European
states have to finally realize that only the recognition of Karabakh’s
independence is the sole guarantee for preventing the recurrence of
such incidents,” reads the statement.

NALBANDYAN EXCLUDES ANY INTERVENTION ATTEMPT BY TURKEY IN NKR ISSUE

ARMENPRESS
4 September, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 4, ARMENPRESS: Any mediation or intervention
attempt undertaken by Turkey in NKR conflict settlement issue is
excluded. Armenian Foreign Affair Minister Edward Nalbandyan came
forth with a statement in the course of the press conference with
Argentine Minister of Foreign Relations Hector Marcos Timerman. ” It
was stated for many times within NKR conflict settlement negotiations
and not only by Armenian side that Turkey cannot have any mediating
role in NKR settlement. Turkey~Rs mediating interference attempts in
neighboring countries’ issue have never succeeded.

“The number of meetings launched in various states within the frame
of Nagorno Karabakh issue settlement, lately launched in Russian
cities did not lead to expected results because they were not held
in Istanbul ?” Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian bewildered.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu lately has announced Turkey
was inviting to hold NKR conflict settlement negotiations in Ankara.