Author: nina hovnanian

Trend, Azerbaijan
Sept 2 2012

Hungarian government reacts to Azerbaijani officer’s release

Azerbaijan, Baku, Sep. 3 /Trend/

Hungary’s government condemned Azerbaijan on Sunday over the release
of a military officer who was earlier extradited to his home country
by Hungarian authorities, Dow Jones reported.

Azerbaijani officer Ramil Safarov, who was convicted in Hungary,
returned on Friday to Azerbaijan. The same day, under the order of the
head of state, he was pardoned.

Ramil Safarov was born on August 25, 1977 in Jabrail region of
Azerbaijan. Safarov, 34, who participated in NATO exercises in 2004 in
Hungary, was charged with the murder of the Armenian officer Gurgen
Margaryan, who insulted the Azerbaijani flag. By the verdict of the
Budapest court, Safarov was sentenced to life imprisonment without the
right of pardon during 30 years.

Earlier, the Head of the Department on Work with Law-Enforcement
Agencies of the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration Fuad Alasgarov
told local media that Safarov was pardoned in line with the
Constitution and laws of Azerbaijan, and the European Convention on
the Transfer of Sentenced Persons.” The Convention provides that each
Party may grant pardon, amnesty or commutation of the sentence in
accordance with its Constitution or other laws,” Alasgarov said.

Hurriyet, Turkey
Sept 3 2012

Baðýþ invites Christofias on condition

ISTANBUL

Turkey’s EU minister and chief accession negotiator, Egemen Baðýþ, has
unofficially invited Greek Cyprus President Demetris Christofias to
Istanbul – albeit with one condition: He must sit at the same table as
his Turkish Cypriot counterpart.

Baðýþ told the Hürriyet Daily News yesterday that Christofias was
“looking for a reason to come to Istanbul” and that he should talk to
Turkish Cypriot President Derviþ Eroðlu about the possibility of
coming to Istanbul to watch a Europa League game between Fenerbahçe
and Greek Cypriot club AEL Limassol scheduled for Nov. 8.

“I will be happy to be the host provided that they will come together
and sit at the same table,” Baðýþ said in a phone interview.

Football has played a significant role in Turkish foreign diplomacy in
the past, with national team matches against Armenia in 2008 and 2009
paving the way for failed reconciliation efforts between the two
countries.

Fenerbahçe, which was relegated to play in the Europa League after
being knocked out of the Champions League playoff round on Aug. 29,
was drawn in Group C of the competition along with AEL Limassol,
France’s Olympic Marseille and Germany’s Borussia Mönchengladbach.

Fenerbahçe is scheduled to travel to Greek Cyprus on Oct. 25 and the
experience might be difficult when considering Turkish clubs’ earlier
visits to the island.

Baðýþ also highlighted the possibility of protests against the Turkish
club. “When Galatasaray went there, they had major troubles,” Baðýþ
said. “The problems they faced were the result of a non-state. Maybe
they should seek help from Turkish Rep. of Northern Cyprus for the
Fenerbahçe game.”

Last year, Galatasaray women’s volleyball team was subjected to debris
thrown from the stands during a game with Apollon Limassol, and there
were similar attacks during Pýnar Karþýyaka’s basketball match against
APOEL.

The minister made assurances that the Greek Cypriot team would not
face such troubles in the game in Istanbul.

“They should not be worried, they will be hosted in Istanbul in the
best way possible,” Baðýþ said. “I personally guarantee that there
will not be any problem.”

It is too early to speculate whether the Europa League games between
the Turkish and Greek Cypriot clubs could lead to a kind of “football
diplomacy” similar to the one between Turkey and Armenia.

In September 2008, Abdullah Gül became the first Turkish president to
visit Armenia when he traveled to Yerevan for a World Cup football
qualifier. In the aftermath, the two countries agreed on a road map to
re-establish diplomatic relations, including a plan to reopen the
border.

An accord was signed by the foreign ministers of the two countries,
Ahmet Davutoðlu and Eduard Nalbandian, on Oct. 10, 2009, in Zurich,
and President Serzh Sargsyan subsequently returned the favor,
traveling to Turkey to watch the teams’ second qualifier against each
other four days later.

However, the reconciliation efforts were damaged in subsequent months
when Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan said Turkish
ratification of the protocols depended on a peace deal in
Nagorno-Karabakh. Sargsyan announced the suspension of the
ratification process in April 2010 on a request from the ruling
coalition.
September/03/2012

Glendale News Press, CA
Sept 2 2012

Start the Presses: An Armenian chief, French food and a side of homesickness

By Dan Evans

September 2, 2012 | 1:00 a.m.
The L’Eden Restaurant & Bar sits on the corner of Tampa and Madison
streets in downtown Tampa, about five blocks away from where the
Republican National Convention was held this week.

The owner and executive chief, Gerard Jamgotchian, sat down with me on
Thursday in his nearly empty establishment.

`Business has been terrible, just terrible,’ he said as two-dozen
khaki-clad police officers walked by the large picture windows. `There
is no access, no parking.’

Jamgotchian, whose grandparents fled the Armenian Genocide near the
turn of the century, is from Marseille, France. The 55-year-old has
lived and worked in New York, the Caribbean, California and all across
Europe. The menu – unique in the Tampa area – has dishes inspired from
all of those places.

He said with a smile that neither he nor his parents have ever been to
Armenia, but said his love of cooking was inspired by his
grandparents.

`My grandparents, their priority was cooking,’ he said. `From the time
they woke up, cooking. All day. I loved it.’

His mother was not nearly as keen on the idea, Jamgotchian said,
saying she forbade him from entering the field.

`She wanted me to be a doctor or something,’ he said. `So, I got my
degree in optometry, threw it back on the table and went back to
culinary school.’

The business, which he has owned since 2004, has been successful, and
he has been able to open a second location. That one, however, is
behind the secure perimeter near the Tampa Bay Times Forum – the site
of the RNC – and has been closed this entire week.

Despite this material success – Jamgotchian lives in one of Tampa’s
nicer neighborhoods and rives around in a 1965 Citroen Traction Avant
– he says he’s completely and utterly homesick.

`What’s missing is family, friends, a social life,’ said Jamgotchian.

`You’ve been here for years, though,’ I pressed. `No friends here?’

`Acquaintances,’ he said. `No one I would really call friends.’

According to ArmenianDisapora.com, a Glendale-based website, there are
slightly less than 4,000 people of Armenian dissent living in the
Tampa Bay area. I asked Jamgotchian if he spends any time with other
Armenians.

He said a beautiful church – St. Hagop Armenian Church – was recent
built in nearby Pinellas Park, `But, I’m sad to say, I never go.’

Despite all this, Jamgotchian doesn’t see himself headed back to France soon.

`If I head back, after a couple weeks, I’d be homesick for America,’
he said. `I don’t think I’d be able to have a restaurant in France.
Too many taxes, too much. It would be so much harder to do my
passion.’

Besides, Jamgotchian said he loves America, despite its social challenges.

`I have the best of everything,’ he said. `Full-blooded Armenian, born
in France and naturalized American. So, yes, I chose to be American.’

With that opening, I decided to ask him how he stood in the election.
Jamgotchian gave me a look.

`As French people, we really tend not to say these things,’ he said.
`That being said, I think Obama is doing a good job.’

He said Mitt Romney, his wife Ann and one of their children – he isn’t
sure which one – stopped by the restaurant for breakfast about six
months ago.

`I didn’t even know it was him,’ he laughed, `I guess he didn’t make a
big impression. One of my waiters had to point him out.’

,0,2539886.story

The Moscow Times, Russia
Sept 3 2012

Armenia Furious After Azerbaijan Pardons Convicted Killer

03 September 2012

BUDAPEST – Armenia broke off diplomatic ties with Hungary after an
Azeri military officer sentenced to life in prison for killing an
Armenian officer was sent back to his homeland and, despite
assurances, immediately pardoned and freed.

Lieutenant Ramil Safarov was given a life sentence in 2006 by the
Budapest City Court after he confessed to killing Lieutenant Gurgen
Markarian of Armenia while both were in Hungary for a 2004 NATO
language course.

In response to Safarov’s release, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan
said his country was “halting diplomatic relations and all official
ties with Hungary.”

Protesters in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, threw tomatoes at the
building housing Hungary’s honorary consulate and tore down the
Hungarian flag Friday, while on Saturday about 150 demonstrators set a
Hungarian flag ablaze.

While Armenians were livid over Safarov’s release, he is considered a
hero by many in Azerbaijan for having killed an Armenian.

Hungary returned Safarov, 35, to Azerbaijan only after receiving
assurances from the Azeri Justice Ministry that Safarov’s sentence,
which included the possibility of parole after 25 years, would be
enforced.

“The Ministry of Justice of Azerbaijan has further informed the
Ministry of Public Administration and Justice of Hungary that Ramil
Sahib Safarov’s sentence will not be modified but will immediately
continue to be enforced, based on the Hungarian judgment,” the
Hungarian ministry said in a statement issued before the news of
Safarov’s release was known.

The ministry said it based its decision on the 1983 Strasbourg
Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons.

In a brief statement posted in English on his website, Azeri President
Ilham Aliyev decreed Friday that Safarov “should be freed from the
term of his punishment.”

Hungary’s Justice Ministry did not immediately respond to a request
for comment on Safarov’s release.

Hungary, which depends on Russia for most of its energy imports, has
been seeking to expand its economic relations with oil-rich
Azerbaijan.

Laszlo Borbely, the deputy director of Hungary’s Government Debt
Management Agency, last week told daily newspaper Magyar Nemzet that
talks between the two countries about a possible purchase by
Azerbaijan of up to 3 billion euros ($3.77 billion) in Hungarian bonds
were only at an “exploratory phase” for now.

Moscow issued no public comment on the decision to free Safarov, but
Washington said it was “communicating to Azerbaijani authorities our
disappointment.”

“This action is contrary to ongoing efforts to reduce regional
tensions and promote reconciliation,” National Security Council
spokesman Tommy Vietor said in a statement, adding that Hungary was
also being asked to explain its decision to send Safarov home.

Tensions are strong between Armenia and Azerbaijan over
Nagorno-Karabakh, a region of Azerbaijan that has been under the
control of Armenian troops and ethnic Armenian forces since 1994.

During his trial in Budapest, Safarov claimed that the conflict was at
the root of his actions and that he used an ax to kill Markarian while
the victim was sleeping in a dormitory room after the Armenian
repeatedly provoked and ridiculed him.

“My conscience was clouded as a result of the insults and humiliating
and provoking behavior, and I lost all control,” Safarov told the
court in April 2006.

Safarov’s lawyers said that his parents and relatives were exiled from
Nagorno-Karabakh during the war and that two of his relatives were
killed by ethnic Armenian separatists.

Nanaimo Daily News (British Columbia)
September 1, 2012 Saturday
Final Edition

Hungary, Armenia in a row over Azeri soldier

Armenia said it was suspending diplomatic relations with Hungary on
Friday because it had allowed an Azeri soldier who killed an Armenian
officer in 2004 to return home, where he was immediately pardoned and
freed.

“Hungarian authorities should understand that they have made a grave
mistake,” President Serzh Sarksyan said in a statement posted on his
website. “They de-facto made a deal with the Azeri authorities.”

The row erupted after Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev pardoned Ramil
Safarov, who had been sentenced to life in prison for the 2004 killing
of an Armenian officer.

ITAR-TASS, Russia
September 1, 2012 Saturday 02:38 AM GMT+4

Hungary’s repatriation of convicted Azerbaijani officer legitimate – Baku

BAKU September 1

Hungary’s repatriation of Azerbaijani officer Ramil Safarov, jailed
for life, was carried out on the basis of the European convention on
the extradition of convicts, Azerbaijani presidential staff official
told the local media on Friday.

Fuad Aleskerov, the chief of law enforcement agencies relations
department, recalled that Azerbaijan had joined the convention back in
2000.

“Under the clauses of that convention contacts were established with
the Hungarian government agencies concerned and intensive negotiations
held on Ramil Safarov’s repatriation,” Aleskerov said. He said that
under the convention “any signatory is free to pardon or amnesty the
extradited person or to ease punishment in accordance with its own
constitution or other legal acts.”

Ramil Safarov has already served more than eight years of his term.
Under item 22 of article 109 of the Azerbaijani constitution the
question of his pardon is the exclusive prerogative of the head of
state. The president displayed great humanism to use this power of
his,” Aleskerov said.

He acknowledged that there had existed certain problems over Hungary’s
decision to repatriate Safarov, because “the process was politicized
by the Armenian side from the outset.” Besides, as follows from what
Aleskerov said, Safarov’s trial was accompanied by great procedural
violations.

“During the investigation he had to testify in Russian, although his
knowledge of the language is poor. During the preliminary questioning
he had no lawyer, and the bill of indictment was presented in
Turkish,” he said.

While undergoing instruction at NATO’s courses in Budapest in 2004,
senior lieutenant Safarov killed Armenian army serviceman Gurgen
Markarian, who, he claimed, had insulted the Azerbaijani flag. In
April 2006 a court in Budapest sentenced Safarov to the life
imprisonment. On Friday he was extradited to Baku, where he was
pardoned and set free.

Earlier, Armenia’s president Serzh Sargsyan said that Yerevan had
suspended diplomatic relations and all official contacts with Hungary
in response to Budapest’s decision to repatriate Safarov.

Arsen Julfalakyan got married

2012-09-01 18:26:31

On August 27 Arsen Julfalakyan left the list of the wanted grooms. The
athlete of Greko-Roman style wrestler, vice-champion of Olympic Games
Arsen, which doesn’t want to talk on his private life, got married
with Hermine in St Gevorg Church (Mughni). After the ceremony the
newlyweds immediately left for Europe on a wedding trip.

Armenian delegation participates in Karabakh Independence Day
celebrations (photos)

16:19 – 02.09.12

Armenian delegation headed by the National Assembly Chairman Hovik
Abrahamyan participated today in the events dedicated to the 21st
anniversary of independence of Nagorno Karabakh Republic.

According to the Armenian National Assembly press release, the
delegation comprises Armenia’s vice prime minister Armen Gevorgyan,
deputy parliament speaker Eduard Sharmazanov, Yerevan mayor Taron
Margaryan, MPs and other officials.

In the morning the Armenian delegation marched from the Artsakh’s
capital Revival Square to Stepanakert memorial and put a wreath to the
monument dedicated to the victims of the Karabakh liberation war.

The Armenian delegation also visited Shushi, put flowers at Commander
Vazgen Sargsyan memorial. Speaking to reporters, Hovik Abrahamyan
congratulated the people of Karabakh on the Independence Day. The
Armenian delegation will be back to Armenia today.

Focus News, Bulgaria
Sept 2 2012

BBC: Armenians hold anti-Hungary rally over Azeri killer pardon
02 September 2012 | 01:54 | FOCUS News Agency

London. Hundreds of Armenians have protested outside Hungary’s
consulate in Yerevan in a row over a convicted killer, BBC informs.

The demonstrators burned Hungarian flags and pelted the mission with eggs.

Earlier this week Hungary allowed an Azeri soldier who murdered an
Armenian to return to Azerbaijan to serve the remainder of his
sentence. But Baku pardoned him and set him free.

Armenia, a long-time enemy of neighbour Azerbaijan, severed
diplomatic ties with Hungary in response.

Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a bitter war over the Nagorno-Karabakh
enclave in the early 1990s.

Killer Ramil Safarov was flown to Baku and freed, despite
Azerbaijan’s assurances that his life sentence would be enforced.

Trend, Azerbaijan
Sept 1 2012

U.S. President expresses concern on fact of Ramil Safarov’s pardon

Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept 1 /Trend/

U.S. President Barack Obama expressed “deep concern” about the fact of
pardon of Azerbaijani officer Ramil Safarov, convicted earlier in
Hungary, the press service of the White House said.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed an order on Friday pardoning
a citizen of Azerbaijan Ramil Safarov, born in 1977, who was sentenced
by the decision dated April 13, 2006 of the Court of Budapest
(Hungary) to life imprisonment.

This order shall enter into force on the date of publication.

Ramil Safarov was born on August 25, 1977 in Jabrail region of
Azerbaijan. Safarov, 34, who participated in NATO exercises in 2004 in
Hungary, was charged with the murder of the Armenian officer Gurgen
Margaryan, who insulted the Azerbaijani flag. By the verdict of the
Budapest court, Safarov was sentenced to life imprisonment without the
right of pardon during 30 years.

“Ramil Safarov, a native of the Jabrail region occupied by the
Armenians, is an IDP. He lost a lot of close friends, and these
tragedies took place before his eyes, ran into his childhood memories.
One can imagine the emotional state of a person who lived through all
these tragedies as a child, as a result of permanent provocations
against him by the Armenian officers, insults to the flag and the
people of Azerbaijan at NATO exercises in which he participated as an
officer of the Azerbaijani army,” the representative of the
Presidential Administration said.

Alasgarov noted that Safarov’s lawyers during the trial repeatedly
petitioned for violation of his right to defense. Thus, in the course
of the investigation, his testimony was taken in Russian, which he
knew not well, during the preliminary hearing the officer was not
provided with a lawyer, and the indictment was presented in the
Turkish language. The lawyers filed complaints and petitions regarding
other serious procedural violations as well.

Alasgarov said under the provisions of the European Convention on the
Transfer of Sentenced Persons, any country that is a party to the
agreement may apply amnesty or reduce sentences, in accordance with
its constitution or other legislation pardon extradited person.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian
armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992,
including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 surrounding districts.

Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The
co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Russia, France, and the U.S. – are
currently holding the peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council’s four
resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the
surrounding regions.