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AZERBAIJAN DEFENDS PARDON OF MAN CONVICTED OF MURDERING ARMENIAN OFFICER
Interfax
Sept 3 2012
Russia
Azerbaijan argued on Monday that its pardon of an Azeri army officer
who was repatriated after being convicted in Hungary of murdering an
Armenian officer "should be seen in inseparable connection with the
occupation of Azeri lands by Armenia."
At a meeting in Paris on Monday with the co-chairs of the Minsk Group,
a body appointed by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe to mediate in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia
and Azerbaijan, Azeri Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov "pointed out
that the Ramil Safarov issue should be seen in inseparable connection
with the occupation of Azeri lands by Armenia," Azeri Foreign Ministry
spokesman Elman Abdullayev told a briefing.
"The minister urged the co-chairs to put all their efforts into
the elimination of the fact of occupation of the Azeri lands,"
Abdullayev said.
He said all Azeri embassies abroad would ask the governments of the
countries they are posted in to take them under stronger protection
because of alleged threats from local ethnic Armenians.
Ramil Safarov, an Azeri army officer with the rank of senior
lieutenant, murdered Armenian army lieutenant Gurgen Margarian in
2004 in Budapest, where both had been attending an English language
course as part of NATO's Partnership for Peace program.
Safarov killed Margarian with an axe in his sleep, reportedly in a fit
of rage at the Armenian officer's alleged insulting of the Azeri flag.
In 2006, a Budapest court gave Safarov a life sentence without the
right to appeal for pardon for the first 30 years of his term.
On Friday, Hungary returned Safarov to Azerbaijan. The same day, Azeri
President Ilham Aliyev pardoned him and Defense Minister Safar Abiyev
had a meeting with him, promoting him to major, giving him keys to
a new apartment and returning him his pay for eight and a half years.
Safarov's repatriation and pardon sparked an outrage in Armenia. The
country announced on Friday that it was severing its diplomatic
relations with Hungary, which argued that its extradition move was
based on the Council of Europe's 1983 Convention on the Transfer of
Sentenced Persons and presented Azerbaijan with a note protesting
Safarov's pardon.
Azeri Foreign Ministry spokesman Elman Abdullayev said Safarov's
repatriation was "a matter of relations between Azerbaijan and
Hungary that stays within the limits of law and does not contradict
any standards or principles of international law."
The Minsk Group co-chairs are Ambassadors Robert Bradtke of the
United States, Igor Popov of Russia and Jacques Faure of France. The
OSCE chairperson-in-office's personal representative is Ambassador
Andrzej Kasprzyk.
From: A. Papazian
Interfax
Sept 3 2012
Russia
Azerbaijan argued on Monday that its pardon of an Azeri army officer
who was repatriated after being convicted in Hungary of murdering an
Armenian officer "should be seen in inseparable connection with the
occupation of Azeri lands by Armenia."
At a meeting in Paris on Monday with the co-chairs of the Minsk Group,
a body appointed by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe to mediate in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia
and Azerbaijan, Azeri Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov "pointed out
that the Ramil Safarov issue should be seen in inseparable connection
with the occupation of Azeri lands by Armenia," Azeri Foreign Ministry
spokesman Elman Abdullayev told a briefing.
"The minister urged the co-chairs to put all their efforts into
the elimination of the fact of occupation of the Azeri lands,"
Abdullayev said.
He said all Azeri embassies abroad would ask the governments of the
countries they are posted in to take them under stronger protection
because of alleged threats from local ethnic Armenians.
Ramil Safarov, an Azeri army officer with the rank of senior
lieutenant, murdered Armenian army lieutenant Gurgen Margarian in
2004 in Budapest, where both had been attending an English language
course as part of NATO's Partnership for Peace program.
Safarov killed Margarian with an axe in his sleep, reportedly in a fit
of rage at the Armenian officer's alleged insulting of the Azeri flag.
In 2006, a Budapest court gave Safarov a life sentence without the
right to appeal for pardon for the first 30 years of his term.
On Friday, Hungary returned Safarov to Azerbaijan. The same day, Azeri
President Ilham Aliyev pardoned him and Defense Minister Safar Abiyev
had a meeting with him, promoting him to major, giving him keys to
a new apartment and returning him his pay for eight and a half years.
Safarov's repatriation and pardon sparked an outrage in Armenia. The
country announced on Friday that it was severing its diplomatic
relations with Hungary, which argued that its extradition move was
based on the Council of Europe's 1983 Convention on the Transfer of
Sentenced Persons and presented Azerbaijan with a note protesting
Safarov's pardon.
Azeri Foreign Ministry spokesman Elman Abdullayev said Safarov's
repatriation was "a matter of relations between Azerbaijan and
Hungary that stays within the limits of law and does not contradict
any standards or principles of international law."
The Minsk Group co-chairs are Ambassadors Robert Bradtke of the
United States, Igor Popov of Russia and Jacques Faure of France. The
OSCE chairperson-in-office's personal representative is Ambassador
Andrzej Kasprzyk.
From: A. Papazian