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Ukraine Vows To Seek To Narrow Rift Between Armenia, Azerbaijan Duri

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  • Ukraine Vows To Seek To Narrow Rift Between Armenia, Azerbaijan Duri

    UKRAINE VOWS TO SEEK TO NARROW RIFT BETWEEN ARMENIA, AZERBAIJAN DURING OSCE CHAIRMANSHIP

    Interfax
    Sept 4 2012
    Russia


    Ukraine is worried by the recent escalation of tensions between
    Armenia and Azerbaijan and is urging the parties to look for mutual
    understanding.

    "We understand how much this conflict undermines stability on the
    former Soviet territory, the CIS area and the OSCE area. And we, as
    a country located nearby, would like the parties to be guided not by
    emotions but by reasonable arguments and not torpedo the negotiating
    process that has been underway between them in the past several years,"
    Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleh Voloshyn told journalists
    in Kyiv on Tuesday.

    The latest incident between Armenia and Azerbaijan is causing too much
    tension between them, and there are enough instruments in international
    law to reach a mutually acceptable solution, provided that the parties
    are truly willing to reach one, he said.

    Mutual enmity should not prevail in the relationship between the two
    countries, Voloshyn said.

    Ukraine has very good relations with Azerbaijan and fairly good
    ones with Armenia, and so Kyiv will try to do all it can to help
    settle the conflict, Voloshyn said. In particular, the conflict over
    Nagorno-Karabakh will be among the priorities for Ukraine during its
    OSCE chairmanship, he said.

    In addition, Ukraine has energy interests in the region, namely it
    is interested in oil and gas supplies from Azerbaijan, and therefore
    it is interested in peace and stability there, he said.

    The already hostile relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan had been
    aggravated even worse last week, after Hungary extradited to Baku an
    Azeri officer serving a life sentence for killing an Armenian officer
    in Budapest 2004. Ramil Safarov, a senior lieutenant of the Azeri
    army, murdered Armenian army lieutenant Gurgen Margarian in 2004 in
    Budapest, where both had been attending an English language course
    as part of NATO's Partnership for Peace program.

    Safarov killed Margarian with an axe in his sleep, reportedly in a fit
    of rage at the Armenian officer's alleged defiling of the Azeri flag.

    In 2006, a Budapest court gave Safarov a life sentence without the
    right to appeal for pardon for the first 30 years of his term.

    Hungary extradited Safarov to Azerbaijan last Friday. The same day,
    Azeri President Ilham Aliyev pardoned him and Defense Minister Safar
    Abiyev had a meeting with him, promoting him to major, giving him
    keys to a new apartment and returning him his pay for eight and a
    half years.

    Safarov's repatriation and pardon sparked an outrage in Armenia. The
    country announced on Friday that it was severing its diplomatic
    relations with Hungary, which argued that its extradition move was
    based on the Council of Europe's 1983 Convention on the Transfer of
    Sentenced Persons and presented Azerbaijan with a note protesting
    Safarov's pardon.

    Azeri Foreign Ministry spokesman Elman Abdullayev said Safarov's
    repatriation was "a matter of relations between Azerbaijan and
    Hungary that stays within the limits of law and does not contradict
    any standards or principles of international law."

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