ARMENIAN ENVOY: AZERI GOVERNMENT’S ACTION TO PARDON KILLER IS A STEP TOWARDS UNDERMINING NEGOTIATION PROCESS

Panorama.am
03/09/2012

Armenian’s Ambassador to Iran Grigor Arakelian condemned Baku for
pardoning Azeri officer Ramil Safarov who axed Armenian officer Gurgen
Margaryan to death years ago, and warned that the move undermines
the process of talks between the two neighboring countries over the
Nagorno-Karabakh region, the Iranian Fars news agency reported.

Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev last week immediately pardoned
Ramil Safarov after he was extradited from Hungary, where he had been
serving a life sentence for the 2004 killing.

Safarov was also promoted to the rank of major, given a house and eight
years’ worth of back-pay after returning home to a hero’s welcome,
in defiance of assurances from Baku to Budapest that he would serve
out his term in Azerbaijan.

Speaking to FNA on Monday, the Armenian envoy to Tehran pointed to
the ongoing talks between Yerevan and Baku over the Nagorno-Karabakh
region, and said, “This move by the government of Azerbaijan shows
that they are not interested in the continuation of the negotiations
and are demonstrating their intolerance towards a nation and its
rights to exist.”

“The Azeri government’s action to pardon the killer and make him
a hero is a step towards undermining the negotiation process,” the
Armenian envoy underscored.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress