US embassy cable - 04YEREVAN462

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 YEREVAN 000462 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EUR/CACEN, EUR/SNEC 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/24/2014 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, AJ, AM 
SUBJECT: "POLITICAL MURDER" ROCKS THE ARMENIAN BODY POLITIC 
 
REF: A) YEREVAN 444 B) BAKU 333 
 
Classified By: Ambassador John Ordway for reasons 1.5 (b) and (d). 
 
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SUMMARY 
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1. (SBU) The GOAM, parliamentarians, and NGOs agree across 
the board in calling the February 19 murder of Armenian 
Lieutenant Gurgen Margarian by an Azerbaijani officer at NATO 
Partnership for Peace (PfP) English training program in 
Budapest a "political murder," and have been widely quoted in 
the press (ref A).  The GOAM has officially condemned the act 
as an obvious consequence of the hostile environment towards 
Armenia fostered by the Azerbaijani leadership.  Both 
pro-government and opposition parliamentarians have called on 
NATO to review its decision to allow Azerbaijan to host the 
PfP exercises Cooperative Best Effort 04.  (Note:  Some 
political analysts have gone so far as to suggest that the 
murder may have been ordered by the Azerbaijani leadership to 
intimidate Armenia into not sending participants to the 
upcoming exercises. End Note.)  A prominent parliamentarian, 
calling the murder "the second link in the chain," told us 
privately that he anticipates strong anti-NATO fall-out and a 
strengthening of anti-Azeri hard-liners' hands.  End Summary. 
 
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MFA LAMBASTES AZERI "ANTI-ARMENIAN HYSTERIA" 
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2. (C) In a strongly-worded February 19 statement, the 
Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued the GOAM's official 
reaction to the killing of Lieutenant Margarian.  The MFA 
condemned the murder, and stated that "(the) crime is a 
logical consequence of the anti-Armenian hysteria that has 
been left unreined by the Azeri authorities over the years 
and of the warmongering militarist propaganda of recent 
months, which consistently infects all of Azeri society." 
The Ministry of Defense echoed the charges of the MFA in a 
statement, contending "this atrocious murder is the direct 
consequence of Azerbaijan's policy aimed at kindling hatred 
towards the Armenian people."  In discussions February 23, 
the MFA's NATO desk officer Muhrad Tashcian told us that the 
initial MFA statement remained the official GOAM position and 
that Armenia's Ambassador to NATO would be formally 
presenting a complaint to the NATO Secretary-General in a 
meeting February 23.  He suggested that Armenia may request 
that the NATO PfP exercise Cooperative Best Effort 04 (CBE 
04) be moved from Azerbaijan. 
 
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ANTI-NATO BACKLASH LIKELY 
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3. (C) National Assembly (NA) Military Affairs Committee 
Chairman Mher Shahgeldian told us that public (and 
parliamentary) sentiment was already building toward a likely 
anti-NATO backlash.  Shahgeldian echoed other political 
leaders and noted that the "political murder" was the second 
link in a chain of recent disturbing events related to NATO: 
first, he said, NATO did not protest strongly enough when 
Azerbaijan prevented Armenian participation in the recent 
planning conference for CBE 04, and now, should NATO not 
issue a strongly worded statement condemning Margarian's 
murder as "political," pressure would build to hamper 
Armenian cooperation with an "anti-Armenian NATO." 
Shahgeldian insisted that he will do what he can to continue 
what he characterizes as "strong" current cooperation, but 
urged the USG to acknowledge the murder as "clearly 
political." 
 
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MAINSTREAM NGOS NO LESS SHRILL 
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4. (C) The Fund Against Violation of the Law, an NGO headed 
by new Human Rights Ombudsman Larisa Alaverdian, urged NATO 
to re-evaluate Azerbaijan's place within the PfP framework as 
the country's leadership has created an environment where 
cooperation where cooperation is impossible.  Styopa 
Safaryan, a Political Analyst at the Armenian Center for 
National And International Studies and recent International 
Visitor participant, told us that it was impossible to rule 
out the involvement of Azerbaijani authorities in the murder. 
 He said that the Azerbaijani government could not 
politically afford to allow Armenians to participate in CBE 
04, and perhaps ordered the killing to intimidate Armenia 
into not participating.  Safaryan contends that this view is 
shared by many regional security analysts. 
 
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DASHNAK YOUTH STAGE SMALL DEMONSTRATION 
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5. (SBU) The youth group of the Dashnak Party organized a 
small demonstration at the MFA in the afternoon of February 
24.  Approximately 70 youth carried banners calling on the 
international community to respond to the act of "Azeri 
aggression."  They also placed funerary wreaths on the 
sidewalk in front of the building.  Officials in the MFA who 
witnessed the protest told us that no banners contained 
anti-NATO slogans. 
 
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TEMPERATE COMMENTS HARD TO FIND 
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6. (C) Vazgen Manukian of the National Democratic Union told 
us that there were not enough facts known to make a formal 
conclusion about the case: the alleged murderer could be 
"mentally-ill or seriously disturbed." He noted, however, 
that he is one of only a handful of public figures counseling 
restraint. 
 
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COMMENT 
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7. (C) Little attention is paid by either side to the 
occasional cross-border sniper attacks that have resulted in 
a number of other deaths in recent years.  This event, 
however, has galvanized public reaction and will make 
engagement, let alone compromise, even more difficult than it 
has been.  It is undercutting the Armenian side's political 
will to engage with Azerbaijan in the Minsk Group process, 
focusing the attention of the public, and government, on an 
unfortunate but unusual case that logically should have no 
bearing on the negotiating process. 
ORDWAY