Tweet
PRISONER'S RELEASE COULD SPARK WAR IN CAUCASUS
Vancouver Sun, BC
Sept 5 2012
Canada
Europe is buzzing with rumours of a secret deal
By Jonathan Manthorpe, Vancouver SunSeptember 5, 2012
At first it seems a little far-fetched, but Washington, Moscow and
the European Union are all warning of renewed war in the Caucasus
following Hungary's decision to send a convicted murderer home to
Azerbaijan to serve out his sentence.
The Budapest government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban insists it
had assurances that Azerbaijani army officer Ramil Safarov, who
hacked an Armenian officer to death in Hungary in 2004, would serve
the rest of his 30-year sentence in his home country. But instead,
Safarov was greeted as a national hero when he arrived by plane in
the Azerbaijani capital Baku on Friday.
Not only that, Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev pardoned Safarov
for the axe murder of Armenian officer Gurgen Margarjan, promoted him
to major, said he would receive his eight years of back pay and gave
him an apartment.
In Armenia the welcome of Safarov is being seen as a purposeful taunt
by the Aliyev government and perhaps a prelude to the resumption of
the 1988-1994 war over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Hungary insists the return of Safarov was a simple humanitarian
gesture. But Europe is alive with rumours that it was part of a deal
by which Azerbaijan would invest up to the equivalent of $4 billion
of its oil revenue in a special Hungarian bond issue.
Hungary has been unable to get money from the international markets
because of lack of confidence in the government's economic management.
But both the Hungarian and Azerbaijani governments have described
the stories of a secret deal as "nonsensical."
There have been large demonstrations outside the Hungarian diplomatic
mission in the Armenian capital of Yerevan, with protesters burning
Hungarian flags and pelting the building with eggs.
Armenia's President Serzh Sarki-sian has responded to the public
anger by cutting diplomatic ties with Budapest.
"We don't want war, but if we have to, we will fight and win," said
Sarki-sian on Monday. "We are not afraid of killers, even if they
enjoy the protection of the head of state."
And on Tuesday, a bill was tabled in the Armenian parliament that
would recognize Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent country.
Nagorno-Karabakh, a landlocked mountainous enclave of about 140,000
people in Azerbaijan, but controlled by Armenia, is at the heart of
this whole story and the threats of renewed war.
Indeed, in his chilling 2004 confession to Hungarian police, Safarov,
an Azeri native of Nagorno-Karabakh, said he killed Margarjan and
planned to kill another Armenian soldier in revenge for the alleged
massacre of women and children, including many of his relatives,
by Armenian forces in 1992.
Safarov was in Budapest on a North Atlantic Treaty
Organization-arranged English language course for European and allied
soldiers.
He said he was driven to buy an axe and plan the killing after
Margarjan and the other Armenian taunted him about the 1992 atrocities.
Safarov said he went to Margarjan's room in the military dormitory
at 5 a.m. one day in February 2004, and decapitated him with the axe.
Safarov said he was stopped by other soldiers from killing the second
Armenian before he could find the man's room.
In his confession, Safarov said he joined the Azerbaijani army at
age 14 with the express purpose of killing Armenians in revenge for
the 1992 slaughter of his relatives.
But he had not had the chance to kill any Armenians on the battlefield,
so he seized the opportunity presented by the Budapest language course.
This passion for revenge and the almost daily skirmishes between
Armenian and Azerbaijani forces despite a 1994 ceasefire and continuing
peace talks vividly displays why Moscow, Washington and the EU have
been quick to warn of renewed war.
The prospects of a collapse of the ceasefire and peace talks are
present every day. Troops on both sides are killed in regular
skirmishes that always have the potential to escalate into general
fighting.
The seeds of the modern tension were sowed at the end of the First
World War when Azerbaijan and Armenia emerged from the collapsed
Ottoman Empire only to be swallowed up by the Soviet Union.
In what appears to have been a divide-and-rule policy, Moscow approved
the incorporation of Nagorno-Karabakh into Azerbaijan even though
its population was 94 per cent Armenian.
By the time of the pending collapse of the Soviet Union in 1988, the
pro-portion of Armenians in the disputed enclave had been significantly
reduced by the officially promoted immigration of Azerbaijanis.
Early in 1988, there were skirmishes and killings amid often wild
and inaccurate stories of the rape of women and other atrocities by
both sides.
The situation became increasingly chaotic in the following months and
years. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev made ineffective attempts to
control the situation and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 put
massive sup-plies of heavy and light weapons as well as helicopters and
warplanes into the hands of both Armenian and Azerbaijani loyalists.
About 30,000 people, including untold numbers of civilians, are
thought to have died in this particularly brutal war, which ended in
1994 with a porous ceasefire, left Armenia in effective control of
Nagorno-Karabakh and nothing resolved.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Prisoner+release+could+spark+Caucasus/7191707/story.html
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Vancouver Sun, BC
Sept 5 2012
Canada
Europe is buzzing with rumours of a secret deal
By Jonathan Manthorpe, Vancouver SunSeptember 5, 2012
At first it seems a little far-fetched, but Washington, Moscow and
the European Union are all warning of renewed war in the Caucasus
following Hungary's decision to send a convicted murderer home to
Azerbaijan to serve out his sentence.
The Budapest government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban insists it
had assurances that Azerbaijani army officer Ramil Safarov, who
hacked an Armenian officer to death in Hungary in 2004, would serve
the rest of his 30-year sentence in his home country. But instead,
Safarov was greeted as a national hero when he arrived by plane in
the Azerbaijani capital Baku on Friday.
Not only that, Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev pardoned Safarov
for the axe murder of Armenian officer Gurgen Margarjan, promoted him
to major, said he would receive his eight years of back pay and gave
him an apartment.
In Armenia the welcome of Safarov is being seen as a purposeful taunt
by the Aliyev government and perhaps a prelude to the resumption of
the 1988-1994 war over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Hungary insists the return of Safarov was a simple humanitarian
gesture. But Europe is alive with rumours that it was part of a deal
by which Azerbaijan would invest up to the equivalent of $4 billion
of its oil revenue in a special Hungarian bond issue.
Hungary has been unable to get money from the international markets
because of lack of confidence in the government's economic management.
But both the Hungarian and Azerbaijani governments have described
the stories of a secret deal as "nonsensical."
There have been large demonstrations outside the Hungarian diplomatic
mission in the Armenian capital of Yerevan, with protesters burning
Hungarian flags and pelting the building with eggs.
Armenia's President Serzh Sarki-sian has responded to the public
anger by cutting diplomatic ties with Budapest.
"We don't want war, but if we have to, we will fight and win," said
Sarki-sian on Monday. "We are not afraid of killers, even if they
enjoy the protection of the head of state."
And on Tuesday, a bill was tabled in the Armenian parliament that
would recognize Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent country.
Nagorno-Karabakh, a landlocked mountainous enclave of about 140,000
people in Azerbaijan, but controlled by Armenia, is at the heart of
this whole story and the threats of renewed war.
Indeed, in his chilling 2004 confession to Hungarian police, Safarov,
an Azeri native of Nagorno-Karabakh, said he killed Margarjan and
planned to kill another Armenian soldier in revenge for the alleged
massacre of women and children, including many of his relatives,
by Armenian forces in 1992.
Safarov was in Budapest on a North Atlantic Treaty
Organization-arranged English language course for European and allied
soldiers.
He said he was driven to buy an axe and plan the killing after
Margarjan and the other Armenian taunted him about the 1992 atrocities.
Safarov said he went to Margarjan's room in the military dormitory
at 5 a.m. one day in February 2004, and decapitated him with the axe.
Safarov said he was stopped by other soldiers from killing the second
Armenian before he could find the man's room.
In his confession, Safarov said he joined the Azerbaijani army at
age 14 with the express purpose of killing Armenians in revenge for
the 1992 slaughter of his relatives.
But he had not had the chance to kill any Armenians on the battlefield,
so he seized the opportunity presented by the Budapest language course.
This passion for revenge and the almost daily skirmishes between
Armenian and Azerbaijani forces despite a 1994 ceasefire and continuing
peace talks vividly displays why Moscow, Washington and the EU have
been quick to warn of renewed war.
The prospects of a collapse of the ceasefire and peace talks are
present every day. Troops on both sides are killed in regular
skirmishes that always have the potential to escalate into general
fighting.
The seeds of the modern tension were sowed at the end of the First
World War when Azerbaijan and Armenia emerged from the collapsed
Ottoman Empire only to be swallowed up by the Soviet Union.
In what appears to have been a divide-and-rule policy, Moscow approved
the incorporation of Nagorno-Karabakh into Azerbaijan even though
its population was 94 per cent Armenian.
By the time of the pending collapse of the Soviet Union in 1988, the
pro-portion of Armenians in the disputed enclave had been significantly
reduced by the officially promoted immigration of Azerbaijanis.
Early in 1988, there were skirmishes and killings amid often wild
and inaccurate stories of the rape of women and other atrocities by
both sides.
The situation became increasingly chaotic in the following months and
years. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev made ineffective attempts to
control the situation and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 put
massive sup-plies of heavy and light weapons as well as helicopters and
warplanes into the hands of both Armenian and Azerbaijani loyalists.
About 30,000 people, including untold numbers of civilians, are
thought to have died in this particularly brutal war, which ended in
1994 with a porous ceasefire, left Armenia in effective control of
Nagorno-Karabakh and nothing resolved.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Prisoner+release+could+spark+Caucasus/7191707/story.html
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress