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Armenia 'Ready For War' After Azerbaijan Axe-Killer Pardon

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  • Armenia 'Ready For War' After Azerbaijan Axe-Killer Pardon

    ARMENIA 'READY FOR WAR' AFTER AZERBAIJAN AXE-KILLER PARDON

    Star Africa
    http://www.starafrica.com/en/news/detail-news/view/armenia-ready-for-war-as-azeri-axe-kil-250782.html
    Sept 3 2012

    Armenia warned Azerbaijan it was ready for war as tensions soared
    Monday between the ex-Soviet foes...

    Armenia warned Azerbaijan it was ready for war as tensions soared
    Monday between the ex-Soviet foes after Baku pardoned and promoted
    an Azerbaijani officer who axed an Armenian soldier to death.

    Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev last week immediately pardoned
    Ramil Safarov after he was extradited from Hungary, where he had been
    serving a life sentence for the 2004 killing.

    Safarov was also promoted to the rank of major, given a house and eight
    years' worth of back-pay after returning home to a hero's welcome,
    in defiance of assurances from Baku to Budapest that he would serve
    out his term in Azerbaijan.

    "We don't want a war, but if we have to, we will fight and win. We are
    not afraid of killers, even if they enjoy the protection of the head
    of state," Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian fumed in a statement
    late on Sunday.

    "They (Azerbaijanis) have been warned," he said, calling Azerbaijan
    a country where "illicit orders set free and publicly glorify every
    bastard who kills people only because they are Armenians".

    Safarov hacked Armenian officer Gurgen Margarian to death at a
    military academy in Budapest where the servicemen were attending
    English-language courses organised by NATO.

    His lawyers claimed in court that he was traumatised because some of
    his relatives had been killed during Azerbaijan's war with Armenia,
    and alleged that Margarian had insulted his country.

    Armenia and Azerbaijan are locked in a long-running conflict over
    the disputed region of Nagorny Karabakh, where they fought a war in
    the 1990s.

    Armenia-backed separatists seized Nagorny Karabakh from Azerbaijan
    in the war that left some 30,000 people dead.

    The two sides have not signed a final peace deal since the 1994
    ceasefire and there are still regular firefights along the front line.

    Analysts warn the frozen conflict risks slipping again into full-scale
    war.

    Russia, which is part of the OSCE Minsk Group that is mediating in
    negotiations to find a peaceful solution to the Karabakh conflict,
    expressed "deep concern" over the extradition and pardon.

    "We believe that these actions of the Azerbaijanis, as well as
    the Hungarian authorities, go against the efforts agreed at an
    international level primarily through the OSCE Minsk Group aimed at
    reducing tension in the region," Russian foreign ministry spokesman
    Alexander Lukashevich said in a statement.

    The OSCE Minsk Group said Monday its co-chairs had expressed "deep
    concern and regret for the damage the pardon and any attempts to
    glorify the crime had done to the peace process" at meetings with
    both countries' foreign ministers.

    It stressed there was "no alternative to a peaceful settlement of
    the Nagorny Karabakh conflict".

    The EU said Baku and Yerevan should refrain from exacerbating the
    dispute.

    In a statement, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and
    Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele said they "are concerned by
    the news" of the pardon, adding that EU officials were "in contact
    with the relevant authorities".

    EU officials will "continue to follow the situation closely," the
    statement said.

    "In the interest of regional stability and on-going efforts towards
    reconciliation," Ashton and Fuele said they "reiterate their call
    on Azerbaijan and Armenia to exercise restraint, on the ground as
    well as in public statements, in order to prevent an escalation of
    the situation."

    Baku on Monday accused Yerevan of launching a wave of attacks on
    eight Azerbaijani websites including those of the president and
    various news portals, sometimes posting photographs of the murdered
    Armenian soldier.

    "The very fact of this action speaks of the powerlessness of Yerevan,
    resorting to the tactics of the weak," Azerbaijani presidential
    administration official Elnur Aslanov said in a statement.

    The administration also published a series of letters from citizens
    praising Aliyev for pardoning the convicted killer.

    "I am grateful to you for the nationwide joy you have given us by
    releasing Ramil Safarov, returning him to his homeland and, most
    importantly, doing justice," wrote one of them, Zamina Aliyeva.

    Yerevan on Friday cut diplomatic ties with Hungary over the pardon,
    while US President Barack Obama said he was "deeply concerned" about
    the incident.

    Hungary summoned Azerbaijan's ambassador on Sunday to protest at
    Baku's decision after earlier saying it had been assured Safarov
    would serve out his term.

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