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NATO Is Not Pleased With Hero'S Homecoming For Convicted Ax Murderer

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  • NATO Is Not Pleased With Hero'S Homecoming For Convicted Ax Murderer

    NATO IS NOT PLEASED WITH HERO'S HOMECOMING FOR CONVICTED AX MURDERER

    International Business Times
    http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/381847/20120907/nato-ramil-safarov.htm
    Sept 7 2012

    By Angelo Young: Subscribe to Angelo's RSS feed

    NATO is not happy with Azerbaijan's president for pardoning,
    promoting and financially rewarding Ramil Safarov, who was serving
    a life sentence in Hungary for hacking a fellow NATO solider,
    who was Armenian, to death with an ax eight years ago during a
    language-training program.

    Budapest authorized Safarov's extradition to his homeland, where last
    week he was given a hero's homecoming. Armenia severed diplomatic ties
    with Hungary over its decision to release Safarov for the killing of
    26-year-old Gurgen Markarian.

    "I am deeply concerned by the Azerbaijani decision to pardon Ramil
    Safarov. The act he committed in 2004 was a crime which should not
    be glorified, as this damages trust and does not contribute to the
    peace process," NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in
    a speech Friday at the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy, in Baku. "There
    must be no return to conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan."

    The killing, extradition and pardon have deep political undertones. In
    1994, a ceasefire was declared between Azerbaijan and Armenia,
    which had been fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh, a landlocked region in
    Azerbaijan populated by ethnic Armenians that had been autonomous from
    the state under the USSR. Azeri President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly
    vowed to take the region militarily.

    Last week, the White House issued a statement condemning Aliyev's
    pardon. It added: "The United States is also requesting an explanation
    from Hungary regarding its decision to transfer Safarov to Azerbaijan."

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    The head of Azerbaijan's foreign relations, Novruz Mammadov, issued a
    statement accusing Armenia's leadership of "open support for terror"
    that emboldens groups like the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation
    of Armenia (ASALA), which is seeking to re-establish the historical
    boundaries of Armenia, which include a large part of eastern Turkey
    as well as Nagorno-Karabakh and the land between the disputed region
    and the Armenian border.

    Aliyev's decision to treat Safarov as a war hero has enraged the
    Armenian public, which staged protests this week in the capital,
    Yerevan, where Rasmussen visited on Tuesday.

    NATO is urging both countries to resolve their conflict "through
    dialogue, compromise and cooperation," Rasmussen said.

    The United Nations backed these statements on Thursday, but Azeri
    public sentiment appears to be on the side of its president and the
    convicted killer he pardoned.

    "The extradition and pardoning of national army officer Ramil Safarov
    has filled us, young people, and indeed the entire nation with a sense
    of pride and joy," said one letter posted on the president's website
    that purported to be from a local youth club manager, according to
    the AFP.

    Approximately 30,000 people were killed in the 1988-1994 war between
    the two countries. The countries fought a previous war over the issue
    from 1918 until the Sovet Union swallowed up both countries in 1922.

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