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MURDERER'S RELEASE UPSETS FRAGILE PEACE
WA today
Sept 5 2012
MOSCOW: Ramil Safarov stepped uncertainly off the plane in his native
Azerbaijan on Friday, returning home after spending eight years in
a Hungarian prison for a gruesome murder. But it took only a few
minutes for celebrations honouring Safarov, an Azeri serviceman,
to begin. He was given a pardon, a new apartment, eight years of
back-pay and a promotion.
Safarov is a hero in Azerbaijan because of the nationality of his
victim: an Armenian man, a fellow student in a NATO-sponsored English
class in Hungary who was sleeping in his dormitory room one night in
2004 when Safarov, carrying an axe, crept in and nearly decapitated
him.
It's almost like a matter of physics. For every action there is
a reaction.
The backlash to Safarov's reception has embarrassed Hungary, which
agreed to extradite him on the assumption he would serve at least 25
years of a life sentence. It has set off protests in Budapest and
enraged Armenia, where activists pelted the Hungarian embassy with
eggs and burned Hungarian flags.
And it threatens to end the long peace process that has kept Azerbaijan
and Armenia from sliding back into bloody conflict over the disputed
territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, which sparked a war between the two
in the early 1990s.
Safarov told the police his Armenian classmate, Gurgen Markarian,
had insulted him and that he had grown angry, finally buying an axe
and waiting until night, according to a transcript of the interview
published by Armenian activists.
After Safarov was arrested, Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry released a
statement describing his family's losses during the war with Armenia,
and suggesting Mr Markarian had goaded him.
Unhappy with the outcome ... a protester in Budapest. Photo: Reuters
"There are indications that the Armenian servicemen repeatedly insulted
the honour and dignity of the Azerbaijani officer and citizen,"
the statement said. "All this would have inevitably influenced the
suspect's emotional state."
It is not clear how the Armenian government will respond to Safarov's
release. An opposition party on Tuesday proposed formally recognising
Nagorno-Karabakh as independent - a step that would signal the final
collapse of peace talks that have long been encouraged by Russia and
the West.
Richard Giragosian, an analyst based in the Armenian capital, Yerevan,
said neither side was seeking war, but the unfolding events risked
"a war by accident".
"Each side is escalating," Mr Giragosian said. "It's almost like a
matter of physics. For every action there is a reaction."
Last week's homecoming - the result of years of lobbying by Azerbaijan
- elevated Safarov to a new status. President Ilham Aliyev chose
to send a provocative message when he met Safarov at the airport
and issued the pardon. In recent years Mr Aliyev has spent lavishly
to build up Azerbaijan's international prestige, underwriting soft
projects such as the Eurovision Song Contest.
Zerdusht Alizadeh, an opposition politician and analyst at the Helsinki
Citizens Assembly, said Mr Aliyev was looking ahead to elections next
year, and had little to show for the drawn-out efforts to mediate
the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. Safarov's homecoming, she said,
was a much simpler way to declare victory.
"Giving so much support to a hero - a person who killed an Armenian -
makes the President a hero, too," she said.
But by Tuesday, condemnation of Safarov's pardon had come to dominate
news coverage. In Budapest, protesters marched chanting "We are sorry,
Armenia" and singling out Hungary's Prime Minister for agreeing to
the extradition. Armenia's President appealed to citizens to stop
burning Hungarian flags.
Azerbaijani news outlets warned that its citizens and diplomatic
buildings were under threat. Safarov has made no further public
appearances.
http://www.watoday.com.au/world/murderers-release-upsets-fragile-peace-20120905-25esu.html
WA today
Sept 5 2012
MOSCOW: Ramil Safarov stepped uncertainly off the plane in his native
Azerbaijan on Friday, returning home after spending eight years in
a Hungarian prison for a gruesome murder. But it took only a few
minutes for celebrations honouring Safarov, an Azeri serviceman,
to begin. He was given a pardon, a new apartment, eight years of
back-pay and a promotion.
Safarov is a hero in Azerbaijan because of the nationality of his
victim: an Armenian man, a fellow student in a NATO-sponsored English
class in Hungary who was sleeping in his dormitory room one night in
2004 when Safarov, carrying an axe, crept in and nearly decapitated
him.
It's almost like a matter of physics. For every action there is
a reaction.
The backlash to Safarov's reception has embarrassed Hungary, which
agreed to extradite him on the assumption he would serve at least 25
years of a life sentence. It has set off protests in Budapest and
enraged Armenia, where activists pelted the Hungarian embassy with
eggs and burned Hungarian flags.
And it threatens to end the long peace process that has kept Azerbaijan
and Armenia from sliding back into bloody conflict over the disputed
territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, which sparked a war between the two
in the early 1990s.
Safarov told the police his Armenian classmate, Gurgen Markarian,
had insulted him and that he had grown angry, finally buying an axe
and waiting until night, according to a transcript of the interview
published by Armenian activists.
After Safarov was arrested, Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry released a
statement describing his family's losses during the war with Armenia,
and suggesting Mr Markarian had goaded him.
Unhappy with the outcome ... a protester in Budapest. Photo: Reuters
"There are indications that the Armenian servicemen repeatedly insulted
the honour and dignity of the Azerbaijani officer and citizen,"
the statement said. "All this would have inevitably influenced the
suspect's emotional state."
It is not clear how the Armenian government will respond to Safarov's
release. An opposition party on Tuesday proposed formally recognising
Nagorno-Karabakh as independent - a step that would signal the final
collapse of peace talks that have long been encouraged by Russia and
the West.
Richard Giragosian, an analyst based in the Armenian capital, Yerevan,
said neither side was seeking war, but the unfolding events risked
"a war by accident".
"Each side is escalating," Mr Giragosian said. "It's almost like a
matter of physics. For every action there is a reaction."
Last week's homecoming - the result of years of lobbying by Azerbaijan
- elevated Safarov to a new status. President Ilham Aliyev chose
to send a provocative message when he met Safarov at the airport
and issued the pardon. In recent years Mr Aliyev has spent lavishly
to build up Azerbaijan's international prestige, underwriting soft
projects such as the Eurovision Song Contest.
Zerdusht Alizadeh, an opposition politician and analyst at the Helsinki
Citizens Assembly, said Mr Aliyev was looking ahead to elections next
year, and had little to show for the drawn-out efforts to mediate
the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. Safarov's homecoming, she said,
was a much simpler way to declare victory.
"Giving so much support to a hero - a person who killed an Armenian -
makes the President a hero, too," she said.
But by Tuesday, condemnation of Safarov's pardon had come to dominate
news coverage. In Budapest, protesters marched chanting "We are sorry,
Armenia" and singling out Hungary's Prime Minister for agreeing to
the extradition. Armenia's President appealed to citizens to stop
burning Hungarian flags.
Azerbaijani news outlets warned that its citizens and diplomatic
buildings were under threat. Safarov has made no further public
appearances.
http://www.watoday.com.au/world/murderers-release-upsets-fragile-peace-20120905-25esu.html