Armenian Nationalist Set Free

[Azat]

YEREVAN, Armenia--Serving a prison sentence for terrorism in France, Armenian nationalist Varuzhan Karapetian painted pictures, served in a prison workshop and saw his dream of Armenian independence come true.

He was convicted in 1983 of planting a bomb that killed eight people and sentenced to life imprisonment. Freed last month, Karapetian made his first public appearance in Armenia on Thursday.

"Liberation from life imprisonment is like resurrection from the dead," he said at a news conference in Yerevan Thursday, promising to dedicated himself to "serving the people."

He had become a symbol of the struggle for Armenian rights among the diaspora. Armenian President Robert Kocharian had appealed to French head of state Jacques Chirac for a pardon, although not all Armenians approved of his violent acts.

Armenia was part of the Soviet Union until 1991. Armenian nationalists also struggled to draw attention to Armenia's suffering under Ottoman Turkish rule including mass deaths during World War I.

France this year joined a handful of countries officially describing those killings as genocide, and Karapetian's release was seen as tied to France's position on the issue.

Turkey has maintained that the deaths don't amount to genocide and that Armenians were killed or displaced as the Ottoman Empire tried to quell civil unrest.

Karapetian was convicted of assisting the group ASALA which planted a bomb at a Turkish Air counter in Orly airport south of Paris. The blast killed eight people and wounded 15 others.

An appeals court freed Karapetian on April 23 after he expressed remorse for the killings, and deported him to Armenia. Over the years, he had sent his wages from working in prison to relatives of the bombing victims.

 

Associated Press Writer http://www.latimes.com/wires/20010503/tCB00V2749.html