ARMENIAN PRESIDENT CALLS HORRIBLE RELEASE OF AZERI OFFICER WHO MURDERED ARMENIAN IN HUNGARY
Interfax
Sept 2 2012
Russia
Armenian President Serzh Sargsian has made harsh comments in relation
to the release in Azerbaijan of a serviceman sentenced for the murder
of an Armenian officer saying that Armenia does not want war but is
ready for it.
"We don't want war but if it is imposed on us, we will fight and win.
We are not afraid of murderers, even if they enjoy the patronage of
the top leader. But a deaf ear is again turned on us. So let them
blame themselves," he said in a message on the 21s anniversary of
self-proclaimed Nagorno Karabakh.
"These days we have witnessed a horrible event. He who butchered a
sleeping Armenian officer with an axe has been freed," he said.
"We expect response from international institutions and also cochairman
of the Minsk Group in relation to this. But irrespective of the
response, on behalf of the people of Artsakh [the Armenian name
for Nagorno Karabakh] and the entire Armenian world I want to ask:
will there be a single person on earth who will suggest that the
people of Artsakh become part of Azerbaijan after everything that
happened?" the Armenian presidential press service quoted Sargsian
as saying for Interfax.
It was reported earlier that Gurgen Margarian, an Armenian army
lieutenant, who was taking an English language course in Budapest
under NATO's Partnership For Peace program, was killed with an axe in
his sleep by Azeri officer Ramil Safarov attending the same course on
February 19, 2004. A Budapest court sentenced Safarov to life without
the right to parole during the first 30 years of his imprisonment on
April 13, 2006. However, Hungary extradited Safarov to Azerbaijan on
Friday, and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev immediately pardoned
him.
On Saturday, Azerbaijani Defense Minister Safar Abiyev had a meeting
with Safarov at which he conferred the rank of major on the officer,
handed him keys to a new apartment and returned him pay for eight
and a half years.
The Armenian president said that it is difficult to imagine greater
discreditation of European justice.
"There have been plenty of aggressors in the history of Artsakh," he
said. "We know that. We also know where to send them - to the dump
of history which is the right place for them. We do that from time
to time. If need be, we will do it again," he sad.
Sargsian said that the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh is an existing
state, developing and democratic. "The whole world is witness to
that, even those who don't like it. Almost every day and especially
in recent times we get increasingly convinced how right the choice
of the people of Artsakh 21 years ago was," he said.
On Friday Armenia announced the severance of diplomatic ties with
Hungary. "I am declaring officially that we are severing diplomatic
relations and all official ties with Hungary starting from today,"
President Sargsian said at a meeting with ambassadors from UN countries
accredited in Armenia on Friday.
Meanwhile, Budapest announced that Hungary transferred Safarov to
Baku in line with the 1983 Strasbourg Convention on the Transfer of
Sentenced Persons.
"Both Azerbaijan and Hungary are parties to the Convention, which
was promulgated by Act No. of 1994 by the Hungarian Parliament. Under
the Convention, a person sentenced in the territory of a Party may be
transferred to the territory of another Party, in accordance with the
provisions of the Convention, in order to serve the sentence imposed
on him. To that end, such a person may express his interest to the
sentencing State or to the administering State in being transferred
under the Convention," the Hungarian Justice Ministry said in an
official statement.
"The repatriation of Ramil Safarov is a matter that belongs to
relations between Azerbaijan and Hungary, stays within the limits
of law and does not contradict any standards or principles of
international law," Azeri Foreign Ministry spokesman Elman Abdullayev
said on Saturday.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Interfax
Sept 2 2012
Russia
Armenian President Serzh Sargsian has made harsh comments in relation
to the release in Azerbaijan of a serviceman sentenced for the murder
of an Armenian officer saying that Armenia does not want war but is
ready for it.
"We don't want war but if it is imposed on us, we will fight and win.
We are not afraid of murderers, even if they enjoy the patronage of
the top leader. But a deaf ear is again turned on us. So let them
blame themselves," he said in a message on the 21s anniversary of
self-proclaimed Nagorno Karabakh.
"These days we have witnessed a horrible event. He who butchered a
sleeping Armenian officer with an axe has been freed," he said.
"We expect response from international institutions and also cochairman
of the Minsk Group in relation to this. But irrespective of the
response, on behalf of the people of Artsakh [the Armenian name
for Nagorno Karabakh] and the entire Armenian world I want to ask:
will there be a single person on earth who will suggest that the
people of Artsakh become part of Azerbaijan after everything that
happened?" the Armenian presidential press service quoted Sargsian
as saying for Interfax.
It was reported earlier that Gurgen Margarian, an Armenian army
lieutenant, who was taking an English language course in Budapest
under NATO's Partnership For Peace program, was killed with an axe in
his sleep by Azeri officer Ramil Safarov attending the same course on
February 19, 2004. A Budapest court sentenced Safarov to life without
the right to parole during the first 30 years of his imprisonment on
April 13, 2006. However, Hungary extradited Safarov to Azerbaijan on
Friday, and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev immediately pardoned
him.
On Saturday, Azerbaijani Defense Minister Safar Abiyev had a meeting
with Safarov at which he conferred the rank of major on the officer,
handed him keys to a new apartment and returned him pay for eight
and a half years.
The Armenian president said that it is difficult to imagine greater
discreditation of European justice.
"There have been plenty of aggressors in the history of Artsakh," he
said. "We know that. We also know where to send them - to the dump
of history which is the right place for them. We do that from time
to time. If need be, we will do it again," he sad.
Sargsian said that the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh is an existing
state, developing and democratic. "The whole world is witness to
that, even those who don't like it. Almost every day and especially
in recent times we get increasingly convinced how right the choice
of the people of Artsakh 21 years ago was," he said.
On Friday Armenia announced the severance of diplomatic ties with
Hungary. "I am declaring officially that we are severing diplomatic
relations and all official ties with Hungary starting from today,"
President Sargsian said at a meeting with ambassadors from UN countries
accredited in Armenia on Friday.
Meanwhile, Budapest announced that Hungary transferred Safarov to
Baku in line with the 1983 Strasbourg Convention on the Transfer of
Sentenced Persons.
"Both Azerbaijan and Hungary are parties to the Convention, which
was promulgated by Act No. of 1994 by the Hungarian Parliament. Under
the Convention, a person sentenced in the territory of a Party may be
transferred to the territory of another Party, in accordance with the
provisions of the Convention, in order to serve the sentence imposed
on him. To that end, such a person may express his interest to the
sentencing State or to the administering State in being transferred
under the Convention," the Hungarian Justice Ministry said in an
official statement.
"The repatriation of Ramil Safarov is a matter that belongs to
relations between Azerbaijan and Hungary, stays within the limits
of law and does not contradict any standards or principles of
international law," Azeri Foreign Ministry spokesman Elman Abdullayev
said on Saturday.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress