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ISTANBUL: Baku's presidential pardon adds to Caucasus tensions

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  • ISTANBUL: Baku's presidential pardon adds to Caucasus tensions

    Hurriyet, Turkey
    Sept 3 2012

    Baku's presidential pardon adds to Caucasus tensions

    YEREVAN / BAKU


    Tense relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia are to further
    deteriorate after Hungarian government sends a soldier who murdered an
    Armenian back to Azerbaijan, where he was pardoned and promoted


    Tension between Azerbaijan and Armenia has reached new heights after
    the Hungarian government sent a soldier who murdered an Armenian back
    to his native Azerbaijan, where he was pardoned.

    Hundreds of people have since taken part in protests outside the
    Hungarian consulate in the Armenian capital, Yerevan. Angry
    demonstrators burned the Hungarian flag on Sept. 1 and threw eggs,
    tomatoes and coins, accusing Budapest of doing a deal with Baku in
    order to profit from Azerbaijan's energy riches.

    Yerevan cut diplomatic ties with Hungary on Aug. 31. Armenian
    President Serzh Sargsyan said Hungary had made a `grave mistake' in
    extraditing the killer, who hacked his victim to death with an axe in
    Budapest in 2004. Armenia also vowed to protest the presidential
    pardon in a letter to the states that co-chair the Organization for
    Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group. U.S. President
    Barack Obama said he was `deeply concerned' about the pardon.

    Azerbaijani lieutenant Ramil Safarov was jailed for life after hacking
    Armenian officer Gurgen Markarian to death at a military academy in
    Budapest, where the servicemen were attending English-language courses
    organized by NATO. Safarov claimed that Markarian had insulted
    Azerbaijan. The two fought a bitter war over the disputed region of
    Nagorno-Karabakh in the 1990s, and tension between them has been high
    ever since.

    The conflict left some 30,000 people dead and displaced hundreds of
    thousands. The two sides have not signed a final peace deal since the
    1994 cease-fire, and there are still regular firefights along the
    Karabakh frontline. Hungary insists that Azerbaijan promised that the
    soldier would serve out the remainder of his sentence after his return
    home and would not be freed.

    The Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers were scheduled to meet
    yesterday with the OSCE co-chairs in Paris, where the issue is likely
    to be on the agenda. It was also expected to come up during the visit
    of NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen to the region this
    week.

    Promotion to major

    In another move that infuriated Armenia, Azerbaijan has reinstated
    Safarov to the army and promoted him to the rank of major. `Defense
    Minister Safar Abiyev received him, handed him his new rank and wished
    him success in his future military service,' a Defense Ministry
    statement said. The Ministry also awarded Safarov over eight years'
    worth of salary for the time he spent in a Hungarian prison, and
    gifted him with an apartment. Armenian Justice Minister Hrayr
    Tovmasyan wrote a letter to his Hungarian counterpart to express his
    indignation at the extradition.

    `I am certain that you should have known what would happen with
    Safarov in Azerbaijan. You should have known that you were
    transferring a person who had committed a murder based on the motive
    of racial hostility, to a country where he is considered a hero. You
    must have known that this would be a slap, first of all to the justice
    of Hungary, and generally to the whole European value system,' wrote
    Tovmasyan, according to News.am website. `I would have resigned in
    your place as a minister,' wrote Tovmasyan.

    Message from Diaspora Ministry

    Armenia's Diaspora Ministry also called upon the Armenians all over
    the world to commence demonstrations in connection with the
    extradition. Commenting on Safarov's extradition, Azerbaijani lawmaker
    Ganira Pashayeva said: `this is a great event not only for
    Azerbaijanis living in Azerbaijan, but also for the whole Turkish
    people living both inside and outside Azerbaijan,' according to
    News.az website. Another Azerbaijani lawmaker, Zahid Oruj, who was
    directly involved in securing Safarov's extradition, also defended the
    decision. `Safarov's action was not an ordinary criminal case. It was
    an adequate action against an Armenian who trampled the Azerbaijani
    flag before the eyes of a man who has lost his land, and whose
    relatives and friends were killed in front of his eyes,' Oruj said.
    `Safarov became a kind of symbol. His release will raise the moral and
    psychological mood of the society.'
    Azerbaijan also hit back at U.S. criticism, insisting that the pardon,
    awarded to Safarov after he had served eight years of his sentence,
    conformed to a European legal convention on extradition.

    September/03/2012


    From: Baghdasarian
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