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CNN: Ax Murderer's Pardon Stirs Fears Of War

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  • CNN: Ax Murderer's Pardon Stirs Fears Of War

    AX MURDERER'S PARDON STIRS FEARS OF WAR

    CNN News
    Sept 5 2012

    By Joe Sterling, CNN
    September 5, 2012 -- Updated 2216 GMT (0616 HKT)

    (CNN) -- An ax murder. Then, jail time. Sounds like a morbid crime
    story.

    Yet this tale has taken a sudden and unexpected twist: The killer
    got a pardon and a hero's welcome.

    That has stirred fears of a war.

    The parole has exacerbated long-standing tensions over disputed land
    between Armenia and Azerbaijan, former Soviet republics that are
    nestled in the Caucasus region near Turkey, Iran and Russia.

    The nations fought a war two decades ago over the region of
    Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding Azerbaijani territories. Much of
    the area is now occupied by Armenia.

    A return to warfare could suck in world powers, analysts warned
    Wednesday. Thomas de Waal, an expert on the Caucasus with the Carnegie
    Endowment for International Peace, told CNN world energy markets would
    be disrupted in a conflict since an oil and a gas pipeline carrying
    Caspian oil curves around the conflict zone in Azerbaijan.

    The ax killing happened in 2004 at a NATO center in Hungary, where
    troops from Armenia and Azerbaijan were getting training. Ramil
    Safarov, a soldier from Azerbaijan, killed Armenian officer Gurgen
    Margarian. Both men were studying English.

    Safarov was sentenced to life in prison in Hungary, but that country
    recently extradited him to Azerbaijan with the understanding that he
    would serve at least 25 years of the sentence.

    Not long after Safarov arrived in Azerbaijan, though, Azerbaijani
    President Ilham Aliyev pardoned him.

    Armenians recoiled at what happened next: The killer got an apartment
    and a promotion.

    "Mr. Safarov has been glorified in Azerbaijan as a national hero at
    all levels -- including the top level," said Zohrab Mnatsakanian,
    Armenia's deputy minister of Foreign Affairs. "This is a blow to the
    conscience of Europe, to the civilized world."

    Azerbaijan's Foreign Affairs Ministry said on Twitter that the "issue
    must be considered in the context of aggression and ethnic cleansing
    against Azerbaijan by Armenia."

    The United States, meanwhile, was among those nations objecting to
    the pardon. It expressed "deep concern" and asked Hungary for more
    information on why it extradited Safarov.

    "We are communicating to Azerbaijani authorities our disappointment
    about the decision to pardon Safarov," a spokesman for the National
    Security Council, Tommy Vietor, said in a statement the White House
    released. "This action is contrary to ongoing efforts to reduce
    regional tensions and promote reconciliation."

    Sabine Freizer, director of the International Crisis Group's Europe
    program, said world powers have taken note.

    "There is an awareness among government officials, both in the United
    States, Russia, and among European officials, that this conflict
    is getting worse. There should be something done to stop it,"
    Freizer said.

    "This takes us a whole step downward," said the Carnegie Endowment's
    de Waal.

    The tensions over Nagorno-Karabakh reflect strong cultural attachments
    for both peoples, what Sergey Markedonov, visiting fellow of the Russia
    and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International
    Studies, likens to a "Jerusalem for both societies."

    Animosities over the disputed territory have simmered since the end
    of World War I. The Soviet Union's collapse in the 1990s triggered a
    war from 1992 to 1994 that killed 22,000 to 25,000 people and uprooted
    more than a million others.

    The war ended "with a shaky truce," the International Crisis Group
    said.

    The disputes between the countries over Nagorno-Karabakh and other
    territories remain an "unresolved conflict of the Soviet period,"
    Freizer said. Amid the creation of newly independent countries after
    the Soviet collapse, she said, "no one was focused on the conflict."

    "The kind of support for Yugoslavia," whose breakup led to major wars
    in Bosnia and Kosovo, was "never given to this region."

    Over the years, violence has flared. Both countries occasionally talk
    tough about each other. And Azerbaijan's oil and gas wealth is making
    its way into the budget for a military preparing for war, Freizer said.

    "Since 2011, we feel the situation has gotten worse," Freizer said.

    The killer's pardon prompted a certain outrage factor, she said.

    "People were shocked by this."

    Hungary defended its extradition and said it received assurances
    the killer would carry out his term. But the country criticized the
    "sudden and unexpected release" and called it "unacceptable." Armenia
    suspended its relations with Hungary.

    The disputes are unfolding in a tough neighborhood.

    Turkey has been mired down in fighting with Kurdish rebels. Russia
    fought a brief war with Georgia four years ago and has battled Islamic
    insurgents in its northern Caucasus region in recent years. Iran
    supports Syria's government in its civil war.

    "Russia is a military ally of Armenia. Azerbaijan has strong military
    links with Turkey and they (Armenia and Azerbaijan) are both on the
    border with Iran," de Waal said.

    Also, he said, the Armenian-American community "will beat the drum"
    and push for U.S. action.

    Markedonov said a deteriorating conflict could spawn an arms race.

    The incident reflects a lack of willingness among many citizens to
    compromise and get back to peacemaking, Markedonov said. This could
    play into upcoming elections, with both Aliyev and Armenian president
    Serzh Sargsyan seeking to look strong for the voters.

    De Waal also wrote in a column that the BBC published Tuesday that
    Hungary negotiated the extradition "for reasons that have yet to be
    fully explained."

    He called the events a "black week" for a peaceful resolution to the
    conflict and said it's "now a full-blown state-to-state row, with
    as yet knowable consequences." He cites worries that "a fanatical
    Armenian will try to commit a revenge attack."

    "From the political perspective, to call the Azerbaijani government's
    actions a mistake is an understatement. It is a worrying indication
    of the quality of advice that President Ilham Aliyev is receiving
    from his inner circle."

    De Waal said diplomats must work harder now. When there is no peace
    process, he told CNN, "the vacuum is filled by war talk."

    "If there is any silver lining to this dark episode it could be that
    the international community pays more attention to the dangers of
    a new Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh," de Waal
    wrote in his column.

    "The reception given Safarov suggests that the situation is moving
    closer to war than peace."

    http://edition.cnn.com/2012/09/05/world/asia/caucasus-ax-murderer-tension/index.html?eref=edition

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