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ARMENIANS PROTEST AZERBAIJANI 'AX KILLER' PARDON IN MOSCOW
RIA Novosti
14/09/2012
MOSCOW
Several hundred Armenians gathered at a Moscow square on Friday to
protest against Azerbaijan's pardon of an army officer who killed an
Armenian soldier in Hungary.
"We condemn in the strongest terms this provocative act, which was
designed to disturb the balance in the region," activist Yury Navoyan
told protesters at a central Moscow site commemorating Russia's failed
1905 revolution against tsarist-rule.
The demonstration came just two weeks after Azerbaijani President
Ilham Aliyev provoked an international outcry by pardoning Ramil
Safarov after the army officer was repatriated from Hungary on the
understanding that he would serve his life sentence in his homeland.
Safarov had been jailed for hacking Armenian soldier Gurgen Margaryan
to death with an ax during a NATO training event in Budapest in 2004.
The 35-year-old was treated to a hero's welcome upon his return to
Baku, promoted and given a flat and payback for the years he had
spent in prison.
The move has exacerbated already high political tensions between the
two former Soviet republics, which have been at odds since fighting
a bitter war over the mainly Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh enclave in
the early 1990s.
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said Hungary had made a "grave
mistake" in sending Safarov back to Baku and announced that Yerevan
was severing its ties with Budapest.
"With their joint actions, Azerbaijan and Hungary opened the door to
the recurrence of such crimes," Sargsyan said in televised comments
earlier this month. "I cannot put up with this. The republic of
Armenia cannot put up with this."
But Azerbaijani President Aliyev has defended his decision to pardon
Safarov, saying it was "in accordance with Azerbaijan's constitution."
At the rally on Friday, Navoyan, head of the Russian-Armenian
Commonwealth group, hit out at a "cynical" Hungary for concluding the
"bloody" deal to return Safarov to Azerbaijan, but was careful to
highlight Russia's efforts to resolve the crisis.
Armenia's economy has been in decline since the collapse of Communism
in 1991, and the small South Caucasus nation is heavily dependent on
Russia for commodity supplies.
Russia, which has been seeking firmer trade relations with Azerbaijan
in recent years, was one of the last world powers to denounce Safarov's
pardoning.
President Vladimir Putin has yet to comment on the controversy -
a fact picked upon by a lone banner reading, "Why is the Russian
president keeping quiet?"
Friday's rally was also attended by the leader of the Kremlin-friendly
nationalist Liberal Democratic party, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who used
the stage to launch an attack on what he described as a "corrupt"
Europe.
"Some money changed hands, and a Hungarian court made its decision,"
Zhirinovsky said, as he waved a fist in the air.
Both Armenian and Azerbaijani officials have said they are ready to
return to war, but NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen appealed for calm
during a visit to Azerbaijan last week.
"There is no military solution," he told students at a diplomatic
academy in Baku.
RIA Novosti
14/09/2012
MOSCOW
Several hundred Armenians gathered at a Moscow square on Friday to
protest against Azerbaijan's pardon of an army officer who killed an
Armenian soldier in Hungary.
"We condemn in the strongest terms this provocative act, which was
designed to disturb the balance in the region," activist Yury Navoyan
told protesters at a central Moscow site commemorating Russia's failed
1905 revolution against tsarist-rule.
The demonstration came just two weeks after Azerbaijani President
Ilham Aliyev provoked an international outcry by pardoning Ramil
Safarov after the army officer was repatriated from Hungary on the
understanding that he would serve his life sentence in his homeland.
Safarov had been jailed for hacking Armenian soldier Gurgen Margaryan
to death with an ax during a NATO training event in Budapest in 2004.
The 35-year-old was treated to a hero's welcome upon his return to
Baku, promoted and given a flat and payback for the years he had
spent in prison.
The move has exacerbated already high political tensions between the
two former Soviet republics, which have been at odds since fighting
a bitter war over the mainly Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh enclave in
the early 1990s.
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said Hungary had made a "grave
mistake" in sending Safarov back to Baku and announced that Yerevan
was severing its ties with Budapest.
"With their joint actions, Azerbaijan and Hungary opened the door to
the recurrence of such crimes," Sargsyan said in televised comments
earlier this month. "I cannot put up with this. The republic of
Armenia cannot put up with this."
But Azerbaijani President Aliyev has defended his decision to pardon
Safarov, saying it was "in accordance with Azerbaijan's constitution."
At the rally on Friday, Navoyan, head of the Russian-Armenian
Commonwealth group, hit out at a "cynical" Hungary for concluding the
"bloody" deal to return Safarov to Azerbaijan, but was careful to
highlight Russia's efforts to resolve the crisis.
Armenia's economy has been in decline since the collapse of Communism
in 1991, and the small South Caucasus nation is heavily dependent on
Russia for commodity supplies.
Russia, which has been seeking firmer trade relations with Azerbaijan
in recent years, was one of the last world powers to denounce Safarov's
pardoning.
President Vladimir Putin has yet to comment on the controversy -
a fact picked upon by a lone banner reading, "Why is the Russian
president keeping quiet?"
Friday's rally was also attended by the leader of the Kremlin-friendly
nationalist Liberal Democratic party, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who used
the stage to launch an attack on what he described as a "corrupt"
Europe.
"Some money changed hands, and a Hungarian court made its decision,"
Zhirinovsky said, as he waved a fist in the air.
Both Armenian and Azerbaijani officials have said they are ready to
return to war, but NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen appealed for calm
during a visit to Azerbaijan last week.
"There is no military solution," he told students at a diplomatic
academy in Baku.