US embassy cable - 04YEREVAN532

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 YEREVAN 000532 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EUR/CACEN 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/04/2014 
TAGS: PREL, MARR, PGOV, AM, AJ 
SUBJECT: EMOTIONS STILL STRONG IN ARMENIA OVER OFFICER'S 
MURDER 
 
Classified By: Ambassador John Ordway for reasons 1.5 (b) and (d) 
 
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SUMMARY 
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1. (C)  The axe-murder of Lieutenant Gurgen Markarian two 
weeks ago in Budapest continues to elicit strong emotions 
from Armenians.  The government held a state funeral for 
Margarian February 28, coinciding with the anniversary of the 
1988 Sumgait killings in Azerbaijan.  A Sumgait remembrance 
ceremony drew 150,000 Armenians, the largest number in over a 
decade.  In private meetings, Armenian diplomatic officials 
have expressed outrage over the killings, and expressed the 
opinion that the United States should do more to hold 
Azerbaijan accountable.  End Summary. 
 
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BURIAL AND SUMGAIT REMEMBRANCE COINCIDE 
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2. (SBU) The GOAM provided a full state funeral February 28 
for slain Lieutenant Gurgen Markarian, killed by an 
Azerbaijani officer at a NATO Partnership for Peace (PfP) 
language program in Budapest.  Before the funeral, hundreds 
of Armenians viewed the body on display in the central 
Republic Square.  The funeral coincided with the sixteenth 
anniversary of the killing of Armenians in the Azerbaijani 
town of Sumgait, one event that precipitated the Karabakh 
war.  Roughly 150,000 Armenians, the largest number in over 
ten years, attended the annual ceremonies at the Genocide 
Memorial in remembrance of the Sumgait victims.  President 
Kocharian laid a wreath at the memorial, and told those in 
attendance, "Our response to the Azeri bellicose rhetoric is 
as follows:  we did not fear it either in 1988 or 1992; nor 
do we fear it today." 
 
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MFA OFFICIALS EXPRESS EMOTIONAL OUTRAGE 
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3. (C) Lilit Tutkhalian, Head of the Americas' Department at 
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, quickly changed the focus of 
a routine meeting to deliver the annual Human Rights Report 
to Markarian's killing.  Tutkhalian noted that the body of 
the Armenian officer arrived in Armenia that morning and 
began crying.  Tutkhalian launched into an emotional tirade 
stating that "personally and professionally" she and her 
colleagues could now definitively say the Azerbaijanis were 
"pure savages" (Note.  Tutkhalian allegedly repeated the 
phrase verbatim to a visiting United States National 
Academies of Science delegation the next day.  End note.) 
She hoped that the murder finally proved to the United States 
that it was impossible to work with the Azerbaijani 
government, and that any compromise to the Nagorno-Karabakh 
conflict could not allow any Armenians to live under 
Azerbaijani rule.  Tutkhalian noted that the MFA was 
reviewing its plans to send Armenian delegations to any 
international conferences that included Azerbaijani 
participants, saying that her Deputy Minister expressed 
serious reservations about her own plans to travel to an 
upcoming meeting of the Black Sea Economic Forum. 
 
4. (C) Deputy Foreign Minister Tatul Margarian also used 
charged wording when discussing deteriorating relations with 
Azerbaijan with a delegation from the United States Air War 
College March 2.  Margarian said that new Azerbaijani 
President Ilham Aliyev had needlessly exacerbated bilateral 
tensions, and seemed entirely unwilling to even contemplate 
the necessary steps for a peaceful resolution of the Karabakh 
conflict.  Margarian told the delegation that if Aliyev 
thought by bringing Armenian-Azerbaijani relations to "zero," 
he could "use oil money over time to buy tanks" for 
re-capturing Karabakh then "he is wrong."  Margarian said 
that in meetings last week his Azerbaijani counterpart told 
him that the Azerbaijani officer arrested for the Budapest 
killing could not be faulted because he was a refugee forced 
to flee his home during the Karabakh conflict.  Noting the 
Azerbaijani claims of a large refugee population from the 
war, Margarian replied, "How can we give back any territory 
if there are 500,000 axemen waiting to kill innocent 
Armenians?" 
 
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AZERBAIJAN "NOT A NATO PARTNER" 
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5. (C) Margarian said that the killing only highlighted 
Armenia's and Azerbaijan's different polices regarding 
cooperation with NATO.  Margarian noted that Armenia had made 
substantial progress in the past two years in its cooperation 
with the organization, highlighted by the signing of a PfP 
SOFA, the hosting of PfP military exercises in June 2003, and 
the recent deployment of peacekeepers to Kosovo.  He said 
that Azerbaijan had consistently refused to live up to its 
PfP obligations, as shown by the country's refusal to allow 
two Armenian officers to participate in the planning 
conference for Cooperative Best Effort 04 held in Baku. 
Margarian told the delegation that he hopes the United States 
"takes a strong stance" in light of the Azerbaijani behavior, 
but if not, "you allow them to let NATO fail." 
 
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COMMENT 
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6. (C) The murder of the Armenian officer in Budapest, an 
event exacerbated by the brutality of the crime, continues to 
resonate with Armenians.  The rhetoric employed by Tutkhalian 
and Deputy Minister Margarian, two long-serving diplomats 
noted for their professionalism, highlights the strong 
emotions towards Azerbaijan exposed by the killing.  In 
addition, USG attempts to reserve judgment on the motivation 
for the crime and to avoid the appearance of taking sides in 
this conflict have been interpreted by government officials 
(and Armenian diasporans we have talked to) as tacit support 
for an Azerbaijani position they find unacceptable and 
infuriating. 
ORDWAY