A member of the U.S. Congress from the Republican Party Henry Waxman issued a statement condemning the pardon of Ramil Safarov. "I am deeply disturbed by the President of Azerbaijan's decision to pardon Ramil Safarov, an Azerbaijani military lieutenant who gruesomely murdered Armenian lieutenant Gurgen Margaryan while the two soldiers were participating in the 2004 NATO Partnership for Peace program in Hungary.
It is an appalling demonstration of the Azerbaijani government's continued refusal to reconcile with Armenia and its unwillingness to uphold the rule of law," he stated.
Meanwhile, this issue was raised again at a State Department briefing. Deputy Press Secretary Ventrell was asked: "And also on that, what does all of this mean for Nagorno-Karabakh, which was looking as if you might be coming to some type of resolution? Now it appears that that really won't happen. In fact, it's probably a lot worse." The representative of the State Department said: "We're going to continue to maintain contacts with both Armenia and Azerbaijan to peacefully resolve the conflict and reduce tensions. And we really condemn any action that fuels regional tensions, and that's why we were so deeply disappointed by Hungary's decision to transfer him to Azerbaijan."
When asked whether the President of Azerbaijan is trying to stir up problems, Ventrell said he had not seen Aliyev's comments on the matter, but the situation inspires serious trouble. -02D-
Politics
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Armenia is not against the dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group, but does not consider it appropriate to discuss this issue now. "In the context of peace, we consider it possible to make a decision on the dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group. When peace is an established fact, the existence of such a format may raise questions," Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at a press conference today. "The whole question is about the timing, we need to understand how effectively and correctly to turn such topics into a subject of discussion right now," the Armenian Prime Minister added.
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He expressed his willingness to meet with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at the border between the two countries. "A meeting with Ilham Aliyev could take place at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. I am open to such a format," Pashinyan said at a press conference today. According to Pashinyan, Armenia recently presented another proposal for a peace treaty to Azerbaijan.
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On August 31, Azerbaijan observes a "day of silence" before the Sunday’s early parliamentary elections for the unicameral Milli Majlis. All electoral campaigning is prohibited 24 hours before the voting. The early elections were initiated by the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan Party. This decision was motivated by the overlap of the scheduled elections in November with the global UN forum - the COP20 climate conference taking place in Baku.
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On August 30, at approximately 22:55, the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant in Metsamor was disconnected from the country's power grid, as reported by the Armenian Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure. The shutdown was caused by a lightning strike, which triggered the plant's safety systems to switch the station to a safe shutdown mode. Currently, the plant's staff is working on restarting the facility.
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