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Estonia Worried About Crisis Sparked By Safarov Pardon

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  • Estonia Worried About Crisis Sparked By Safarov Pardon

    ESTONIA WORRIED ABOUT CRISIS SPARKED BY SAFAROV PARDON

    Baltic News Service / - BNS
    September 4, 2012 Tuesday 2:24 PM EET

    TALLINN, Sep 04, BNS - Estonia views the tensions arisen between
    Azerbaijan, Armenia and Hungary after the Azerbaijani authorities
    pardoned a military officer who murdered an Armenian officer as
    worrying.

    "Estonia considers highly worrying the situation following the
    Azerbaijani government's decision to pardon Ramil Safarov. We are
    of the opinion that all parties involved must refrain from further
    escalating the situation. Stability in South Caucasus is in the
    interest of Estonia and the whole European Union, and therefore
    continued endeavors to defuse the tensions there are vital,"
    spokespeople for the Foreign Ministry said.

    Armenia on Friday broke diplomatic relations with Hungary after the
    latter repatriated Safarov, who had been sentenced to life in prison
    for the 2004 murder of an Armenian officer and who was immediately
    released in Baku.

    The Hungarian authorities on Sunday summoned Azerbaijan's Ambassador
    Vilaiat Guliyev to protest the freeing of Safarov. Hungary's foreign
    minister called Safarov's release unacceptable.

    Hundreds of people gathered on Sunday for a protest rally outside
    the Hungarian consulate in the Armenian capital Yerevan, burning
    Hungarian flags and accusing Budapest of a deal with Baku to benefit
    from Azerbaijan's energy wealth.

    Safarov killed Armenian Lt. Gurgen Margarjan with an axe in his
    sleep at a military academy in Budapest in 2004 where both servicemen
    were attending an English language course organized in the framework
    of NATO's Partnership for Peace program. The Hungarian police then
    described the murder as particularly cruel.

    A court in Budapest in 2006 sentenced Safarov to life imprisonment
    without the right to appeal for pardon for 30 years.

    Hungary agreed to repatriate Safarov after assurances by the
    Azerbaijani Justice Ministry that he would continue serving his
    sentence in his home country. But Safarov was pardoned by President
    Ilkham Aliyev as soon as he arrived in Azerbaijan.



    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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