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ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT BREAKS TIES WITH HUNGARY
Sydney Morning Herald
Sept 7 2012
Australia
Armenia's Parliament has terminated all ties with Hungary's legislators
to protest the country's decision to repatriate an Azerbaijani military
officer who murdered an Armenian soldier in 2004.
The officer, Lt. Ramil Safarov, was sentenced to life for killing the
Armenian while both were attending a NATO course in Hungary. After
being freed, the officer was pardoned upon returning home Friday.
Hours later, Armenia broke diplomatic relations with Hungary.
Armenia's Parliament voted 96-1 on Wednesday night to end ties with
Hungary's Parliament, saying in a statement that Hungarian authorities
"are also responsible" for the pardoning.
Tensions are strong between Armenia and Azerbaijan over
Nagorno-Karabakh, a region of Azerbaijan controlled by Armenian troops
and ethnic Armenian forces since 1994. International negotiators said
the pardoning harms peace efforts there.
On Thursday U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon implicitly criticized
Azerbaijan for pardoning and freeing Safarov, despite having promised
Hungary that his life sentence would be enforced. U.N. spokesman
Martin Nesirky expressed Ban's concern in New York. Nesirky quoted
Ban as saying all U.N. members have a responsibility "to adhere to
international standards and principles of rule of law in criminal
cases in order to ensure accountability and fight impunity."
The spokesman said the U.N. hopes the incident won't damage the peace
process regarding Nagorno-Karabakh.
Meanwhile, an Armenian security expert said that Armenia's government
and media websites were under cyber-attacks Thursday that originated
from thousands of infected computers located outside the country.
Ruben Muradian said the DDoS, or Denial of Service, attacks came from
some 80,000 computers located "in Asia."
Armenian political analyst Samwel Martirosian claimed that Azeri
authorities "undoubtedly" were behind the attacks conducted by hackers
hired in Turkey, Pakistan, India and Vietnam.
DDoS attacks occur when a website is overwhelmed by malicious messages
carried out by thousands of followers, usually with easily downloadable
software.
___
Edith M. Lederer contributed from the United Nations.
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-technology/armenian-parliament-breaks-ties-with-hungary-20120907-25hrj.html
Sydney Morning Herald
Sept 7 2012
Australia
Armenia's Parliament has terminated all ties with Hungary's legislators
to protest the country's decision to repatriate an Azerbaijani military
officer who murdered an Armenian soldier in 2004.
The officer, Lt. Ramil Safarov, was sentenced to life for killing the
Armenian while both were attending a NATO course in Hungary. After
being freed, the officer was pardoned upon returning home Friday.
Hours later, Armenia broke diplomatic relations with Hungary.
Armenia's Parliament voted 96-1 on Wednesday night to end ties with
Hungary's Parliament, saying in a statement that Hungarian authorities
"are also responsible" for the pardoning.
Tensions are strong between Armenia and Azerbaijan over
Nagorno-Karabakh, a region of Azerbaijan controlled by Armenian troops
and ethnic Armenian forces since 1994. International negotiators said
the pardoning harms peace efforts there.
On Thursday U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon implicitly criticized
Azerbaijan for pardoning and freeing Safarov, despite having promised
Hungary that his life sentence would be enforced. U.N. spokesman
Martin Nesirky expressed Ban's concern in New York. Nesirky quoted
Ban as saying all U.N. members have a responsibility "to adhere to
international standards and principles of rule of law in criminal
cases in order to ensure accountability and fight impunity."
The spokesman said the U.N. hopes the incident won't damage the peace
process regarding Nagorno-Karabakh.
Meanwhile, an Armenian security expert said that Armenia's government
and media websites were under cyber-attacks Thursday that originated
from thousands of infected computers located outside the country.
Ruben Muradian said the DDoS, or Denial of Service, attacks came from
some 80,000 computers located "in Asia."
Armenian political analyst Samwel Martirosian claimed that Azeri
authorities "undoubtedly" were behind the attacks conducted by hackers
hired in Turkey, Pakistan, India and Vietnam.
DDoS attacks occur when a website is overwhelmed by malicious messages
carried out by thousands of followers, usually with easily downloadable
software.
___
Edith M. Lederer contributed from the United Nations.
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-technology/armenian-parliament-breaks-ties-with-hungary-20120907-25hrj.html