ESTONIA WORRIED ABOUT CRISIS SPARKED BY SAFAROV PARDON

Baltic News Service / – BNS
September 4, 2012 Tuesday 2:24 PM EET

TALLINN, Sep 04, BNS – Estonia views the tensions arisen between
Azerbaijan, Armenia and Hungary after the Azerbaijani authorities
pardoned a military officer who murdered an Armenian officer as
worrying.

“Estonia considers highly worrying the situation following the
Azerbaijani government’s decision to pardon Ramil Safarov. We are
of the opinion that all parties involved must refrain from further
escalating the situation. Stability in South Caucasus is in the
interest of Estonia and the whole European Union, and therefore
continued endeavors to defuse the tensions there are vital,”
spokespeople for the Foreign Ministry said.

Armenia on Friday broke diplomatic relations with Hungary after the
latter repatriated Safarov, who had been sentenced to life in prison
for the 2004 murder of an Armenian officer and who was immediately
released in Baku.

The Hungarian authorities on Sunday summoned Azerbaijan’s Ambassador
Vilaiat Guliyev to protest the freeing of Safarov. Hungary’s foreign
minister called Safarov’s release unacceptable.

Hundreds of people gathered on Sunday for a protest rally outside
the Hungarian consulate in the Armenian capital Yerevan, burning
Hungarian flags and accusing Budapest of a deal with Baku to benefit
from Azerbaijan’s energy wealth.

Safarov killed Armenian Lt. Gurgen Margarjan with an axe in his
sleep at a military academy in Budapest in 2004 where both servicemen
were attending an English language course organized in the framework
of NATO’s Partnership for Peace program. The Hungarian police then
described the murder as particularly cruel.

A court in Budapest in 2006 sentenced Safarov to life imprisonment
without the right to appeal for pardon for 30 years.

Hungary agreed to repatriate Safarov after assurances by the
Azerbaijani Justice Ministry that he would continue serving his
sentence in his home country. But Safarov was pardoned by President
Ilkham Aliyev as soon as he arrived in Azerbaijan.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress