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NATO CHIEF ACCUSES AZERBAIJAN OF HARMING PEACE EFFORTS
By Naila Balayeva
Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sns-rt-azerbaijan-armenianatol6e8k73is-20120907,0,5997231,full.story
Sept 7 2012
IL
BAKU, Sept 7 (Reuters) - NATO's chief accused Azerbaijan of undermining
peace efforts with its neighbour Armenia by pardoning a soldier who
had murdered an Armenian and warned the countries on Friday they must
not return to war.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he was "deeply
concerned" about Azerbaijan's decision to clear Ramil Safarov and its
impact on the Caucasus Mountain countries' still simmering dispute
over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
"There must be no return to conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan,"
Rasmussen told students during a visit to a diplomatic academy in
Azerbaijan's capital Baku. "There is no military solution" to the
dispute, he added.
Azeri President Ilham Aliyev angered Armenia and world powers by
pardoning Safarov after the army officer was repatriated last week
from Hungary, where he had served eight years of a life term.
Safarov had been convicted of murdering an Armenian officer during
NATO-sponsored language training in Budapest in 2004.
But the 35-year-old was treated as a hero upon his return, promoted
to major and given an apartment and back pay for his years in jail.
"I am deeply concerned by the Azerbaijani decision to pardon Ramil
Safarov. The act he committed in 2004 was a crime which should not be
glorified, as this damages trust and does not contribute to the peace
process," said Rasmussen, who was due to meet Aliyev later on Friday.
Ethnic Armenian forces defeated Azeri troops and took control of
the mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh region in a war that erupted as the
Soviet Union disintegrated in 1991.
A 1994 ceasefire halted the conflict which killed 30,000 people and
forced about a million, mostly Azeris, to flee.
Fighting still breaks out intermittently across the ceasefire line
and Aliyev has repeatedly said Azerbaijan may one day take the region
by force.
Countless meetings between presidents and international mediation
led by the United States, Russia and France have brought no deal to
end the dispute in the strategic South Caucasus, a route for Westward
energy exports from the Caspian Sea area, including Azeri oil and gas.
Hungarian authorities say Azerbaijan had promised to uphold the
sentence handed down to Safarov, who entered Lieutenant Gurgen
Markaryan's room as he slept and attacked him with a knife and axe,
nearly severing his head.
Armenia has suspended diplomatic relations with Hungary, and opponents
of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban say the decision to free
Safarov was suspicious at a time when he was trying to establish
closer economic ties with energy-rich Azerbaijan.
(Writing by Steve Gutterman; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
By Naila Balayeva
Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sns-rt-azerbaijan-armenianatol6e8k73is-20120907,0,5997231,full.story
Sept 7 2012
IL
BAKU, Sept 7 (Reuters) - NATO's chief accused Azerbaijan of undermining
peace efforts with its neighbour Armenia by pardoning a soldier who
had murdered an Armenian and warned the countries on Friday they must
not return to war.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he was "deeply
concerned" about Azerbaijan's decision to clear Ramil Safarov and its
impact on the Caucasus Mountain countries' still simmering dispute
over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
"There must be no return to conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan,"
Rasmussen told students during a visit to a diplomatic academy in
Azerbaijan's capital Baku. "There is no military solution" to the
dispute, he added.
Azeri President Ilham Aliyev angered Armenia and world powers by
pardoning Safarov after the army officer was repatriated last week
from Hungary, where he had served eight years of a life term.
Safarov had been convicted of murdering an Armenian officer during
NATO-sponsored language training in Budapest in 2004.
But the 35-year-old was treated as a hero upon his return, promoted
to major and given an apartment and back pay for his years in jail.
"I am deeply concerned by the Azerbaijani decision to pardon Ramil
Safarov. The act he committed in 2004 was a crime which should not be
glorified, as this damages trust and does not contribute to the peace
process," said Rasmussen, who was due to meet Aliyev later on Friday.
Ethnic Armenian forces defeated Azeri troops and took control of
the mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh region in a war that erupted as the
Soviet Union disintegrated in 1991.
A 1994 ceasefire halted the conflict which killed 30,000 people and
forced about a million, mostly Azeris, to flee.
Fighting still breaks out intermittently across the ceasefire line
and Aliyev has repeatedly said Azerbaijan may one day take the region
by force.
Countless meetings between presidents and international mediation
led by the United States, Russia and France have brought no deal to
end the dispute in the strategic South Caucasus, a route for Westward
energy exports from the Caspian Sea area, including Azeri oil and gas.
Hungarian authorities say Azerbaijan had promised to uphold the
sentence handed down to Safarov, who entered Lieutenant Gurgen
Markaryan's room as he slept and attacked him with a knife and axe,
nearly severing his head.
Armenia has suspended diplomatic relations with Hungary, and opponents
of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban say the decision to free
Safarov was suspicious at a time when he was trying to establish
closer economic ties with energy-rich Azerbaijan.
(Writing by Steve Gutterman; Editing by Andrew Heavens)