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FRANCE CONCERNED AS ARMENIAN-AZERBAIJANI TENSIONS RISE
Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)
September 4, 2012 Tuesday
PARIS, Sept 4 (KUNA) -- The French government expressed concern
over the impact of the official pardon of an Azeri national after he
murdered an Armenian officer eight years ago, a crime for which he
was convicted in 2006.
The Azeri authorities announced August 31 that they were releasing
the individual who was initially tried and convicted in Hungary before
being extradited to Azerbaijan.
Armenia has vociferously protested the pardon and said "it is ready
to go to war" over the case.
The latest tensions follow on months of serious incidents on the
Azerbaijan-Armenian border, with violent clashes leaving a number of
dead, mainly among the Armenian armed forces.
France and the other co-presidents of the Minsk Group, which also
includes Russia and the United States, have undertaken active diplomacy
to try to defuse the crisis and brought Foreign Ministers from both
countries to Paris in July.
"France, which is strongly committed in favour of a peaceful solution
to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, as are the other co-presidents of
the Minsk group, considers that this (pardon) decision risk gravely
damaging the negotiations and the establishment of a climate of
confidence between the two parties," a statement said late Monday.
Armenia and Azerbaijan both claim the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave and
clash regularly in this dispute and have once gone to all-out war
over the territory. (end) jk.hb KUNA 040915 Sep 12NNNN
Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)
September 4, 2012 Tuesday
PARIS, Sept 4 (KUNA) -- The French government expressed concern
over the impact of the official pardon of an Azeri national after he
murdered an Armenian officer eight years ago, a crime for which he
was convicted in 2006.
The Azeri authorities announced August 31 that they were releasing
the individual who was initially tried and convicted in Hungary before
being extradited to Azerbaijan.
Armenia has vociferously protested the pardon and said "it is ready
to go to war" over the case.
The latest tensions follow on months of serious incidents on the
Azerbaijan-Armenian border, with violent clashes leaving a number of
dead, mainly among the Armenian armed forces.
France and the other co-presidents of the Minsk Group, which also
includes Russia and the United States, have undertaken active diplomacy
to try to defuse the crisis and brought Foreign Ministers from both
countries to Paris in July.
"France, which is strongly committed in favour of a peaceful solution
to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, as are the other co-presidents of
the Minsk group, considers that this (pardon) decision risk gravely
damaging the negotiations and the establishment of a climate of
confidence between the two parties," a statement said late Monday.
Armenia and Azerbaijan both claim the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave and
clash regularly in this dispute and have once gone to all-out war
over the territory. (end) jk.hb KUNA 040915 Sep 12NNNN