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ARMENIA NATIONALISTS: TALKS WITH AZERBAIJAN SENSELESS AFTER MURDERER'S RELEASE
Interfax
Sept 3 2012
Russia
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutiun), a nationalist
party, has proposed ending internationally brokered conflict settlement
talks with Azerbaijan in protest at Friday's pardoning of an Azeri
army officer who murdered an Armenian counterpart in 2004 and at his
earlier extradition from Hungary.
Lt. Gurgen Markarian, who was attending an English language course in
Budapest under NATO's Partnership for Peace program was axed to death
by Azeri Senior Lt. Ramil Safarov, who was attending the same course,
in February 2004.
In April 2006, a Budapest court sentenced Safarov to life imprisonment
without the right to appeal for pardon for the first 30 years of his
term. A Hungarian appeal court upheld the sentence in February 2007.
On Friday, Safarov was extradited to Azerbaijan and pardoned by
Azeri President Ilham Aliyev the same day. On Saturday, Azeri Defense
Minister Safar Abiyev had a meeting with Safarov at which he conferred
the rank of major on him, handed him keys to a new apartment and
returned him pay for eight and a half years.
In response, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said at a meeting with
foreign ambassadors that Armenia was suspending diplomatic relations
and all other official contacts with Hungary.
Dashnaktsutiun issued a statement arguing it would be senseless to
continue talks with Armenia in a bid to settle the two countries'
two-decade conflict over Azerbaijan's breakaway Armenian-speaking
enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
"We demand revising the need for further negotiations with Azerbaijan
on the Nagorno-Karabakh issue in the format of the Minsk Group of
the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. We also
demand practical measures to form a military and political alliance
between the Republic of Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic,"
the party said in its statement.
"Historical experience has long brought it home to us that states base
their actions purely on their political and economic interests. They
are happy to trample over such things as international law, humanism
and moraility if this serves their needs. We must solve our problems by
ourselves, we must by ourselves break the hand that is raised against
us. To accuse others, ask others for justice, demand compliance with
proclaimed international law is a necessary but by and large hopeless
exercise," Dashnaktsutiun said.
Interfax
Sept 3 2012
Russia
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutiun), a nationalist
party, has proposed ending internationally brokered conflict settlement
talks with Azerbaijan in protest at Friday's pardoning of an Azeri
army officer who murdered an Armenian counterpart in 2004 and at his
earlier extradition from Hungary.
Lt. Gurgen Markarian, who was attending an English language course in
Budapest under NATO's Partnership for Peace program was axed to death
by Azeri Senior Lt. Ramil Safarov, who was attending the same course,
in February 2004.
In April 2006, a Budapest court sentenced Safarov to life imprisonment
without the right to appeal for pardon for the first 30 years of his
term. A Hungarian appeal court upheld the sentence in February 2007.
On Friday, Safarov was extradited to Azerbaijan and pardoned by
Azeri President Ilham Aliyev the same day. On Saturday, Azeri Defense
Minister Safar Abiyev had a meeting with Safarov at which he conferred
the rank of major on him, handed him keys to a new apartment and
returned him pay for eight and a half years.
In response, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said at a meeting with
foreign ambassadors that Armenia was suspending diplomatic relations
and all other official contacts with Hungary.
Dashnaktsutiun issued a statement arguing it would be senseless to
continue talks with Armenia in a bid to settle the two countries'
two-decade conflict over Azerbaijan's breakaway Armenian-speaking
enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
"We demand revising the need for further negotiations with Azerbaijan
on the Nagorno-Karabakh issue in the format of the Minsk Group of
the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. We also
demand practical measures to form a military and political alliance
between the Republic of Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic,"
the party said in its statement.
"Historical experience has long brought it home to us that states base
their actions purely on their political and economic interests. They
are happy to trample over such things as international law, humanism
and moraility if this serves their needs. We must solve our problems by
ourselves, we must by ourselves break the hand that is raised against
us. To accuse others, ask others for justice, demand compliance with
proclaimed international law is a necessary but by and large hopeless
exercise," Dashnaktsutiun said.