By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier Just when Armenians were recovering from the shocking murder of an Armenian officer who was hacked to death by an Azeri classmate in a NATO Partnership for Peace program (how ironic?) in Budapest, Hungary on February 19, an Azeri in Bulgaria makes vicious and racist threats against Armenians. Rauf Zeynalov, an Azeri student at the American University in Bulgaria (AUBG), sent on April 30th a very vicious and obscene hate mail to Karen Vrtanesyan, the web master of www.armenianhouse.org, in response to an article condemning the murder by Ramil Safarov of an Armenian officer in Hungary. In order to spare our readers' sensibilities, I have deleted the crude four-letter words used by Zeynalov in the following e-mail: "Bitch, I have seen ur (sic) some inventions (sic) in the armenianhouse.org forum for Ramil Safarov. I wanna (sic) say that Ramil - [expletive deleted] that bitch armenian (sic) guy in Hungary and belive (sic) me that we, all azeris (sic) will - [expletive deleted] ur (sic) and all armenians (sic) mom. Actually, it was ur (sic) mom who was shouting last night in the bed of one of azeris (sic). And me (sic) - [expletive deleted] ur (sic) sister :::::::::)))))))) (sic). She was really cool :) (sic). With the wish of - [expletive deleted] all armenians (sic). By the way we are not gays, so for sure we will - [expletive deleted] girls and women coming to u (sic), u (sic) will be - [expletive deleted] in other ways :) - [expletive deleted] u (sic) !!!" Vrtanesyan informed the officials of the American University in Bulgaria on May 17 about the hate mail sent by one of their students, Rauf Zeynalov, using the university's e-mail system. Vrtanesyan sent to the University a copy of Zeynalov's obscene and threatening e-mail. David C. Durst, the Interim Chief Academic Officer at the American University in Bulgaria, immediately responded to Vrtanesyan by saying: "I have received your letter. This is a serious allegation and I have opened an investigation of the case." Four days later, on May 21, Durst sent the following e-mail to Vrtanesyan: "I write to inform you of the action the AUBG Administration has taken in response to the serious threats and offensive language the AUBG student Rauf Zeynalov used in violation of AUBG's written rules governing the use of e-mail on campus. Rauf Zeynalov will not be attending the university during the fall semester, and before he will be allowed to return to AUBG he will be required to convince the University Administration to its satisfaction that he understands the severity of his misguided action and that he will maintain respect for and work cooperatively with others of different backgrounds and opinions upon return to the University." Karen Vrtanesyan should be commended for bringing the offensive e-mail of this Azeri hate monger to the immediate attention of the American University in Bulgaria. David Durst and the officials of AUBG should also be commended for their prompt action. Readers should write to David Durst ([email protected]) suggesting that the Azeri student should be expelled from the University rather than being suspended just for one semester. Letters should also be sent to the Soros Foundation's Open Society Institute in Bulgaria ([email protected]) urging them to rescind the scholarship they had awarded to Rauf Zeynalov for the full cost of his educational expenses towards a Bachelor Degree at the American University in Bulgaria.

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