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Armenia leader chides intl community over Azerbaijan pardon of murde

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  • Armenia leader chides intl community over Azerbaijan pardon of murde

    Interfax, Russia
    Sept 7 2012


    Armenia leader chides intl community over Azerbaijan's pardon of murderer

    YEREVAN. Sept 7


    President Serzh Sargsyan of Armenia has accused the international
    community of a pro-Azeri position that, according to him, Azerbaijan
    saw as green light to pardoning an Azeri army officer who had been
    serving a life sentence in Hungary for murdering an Armenian officer
    but was repatriated last week.

    "On various occasions, we have repeatedly warned our partners that
    one-sided formulas on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in official
    documents and public statements that fail to reflect the true essence
    of the negotiation process are dangerous, primarily because they serve
    to support the destructive position of Azerbaijan," Sargsyan said
    during a joint news conference with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh
    Rasmussen on Thursday.

    "It is this 'political correctness' that became the basis for such
    outrageous conduct on the part of Azerbaijan," the Armenian leader
    said.

    Rasmussen again expressed anxiety at the pardon of the officer and
    argued that it was an obstacle to building confidence between the two
    countries. However, he urged Armenia and Azerbaijan to continue to
    seek a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

    Ramil Safarov, who had the rank of senior lieutenant in the Azeri
    army, 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.

    In 2006, a Budapest court gave Safarov a life sentence without the
    right to seek pardon for the first 30 years of the term.

    However, Hungary extradited Safarov to Azerbaijan on August 31,
    assuming that the officer would serve the rest of his term in his own
    country, but Azeri President Ilham Aliyev pardoned him the same day
    while Defense Minister Safar Abiyev promoted him to major, headed him
    keys to a new apartment, and returned him pay for eight and a half
    years.



    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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