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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."
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."