UNLIKE OFFICIAL BAKU, AZERI PUBLIC DOES NOT GLORIFY SAFAROV, THOMAS DE WAAL SAYS
by Nana Martirosyan

ARMINFO
Wednesday, July 3, 11:11

The Azerbaijani authorities have realized that the pardoning of Ramil
Safarov, who had killed Armenian officer Gourgen Margaryan with an axe,
was a big mistake, Thomas de Waal, Senior Associate at the Carnegie
Endowment, said at a press conference in Yerevan on Tuesday.

He thinks that the Azeri authorities did not expect such a response
from the international community and were shocked by the criticism
against them. The expert stressed that unlike official Baku, the
Azeri public does not glorify Safarov.

On August 31, 2012, Ramil Safarov, the Azeri officer who was sentenced
to life in jail by a Hungarian court for murdering the Armenian
officer Gourgen Margaryan in Budapest in 2004, was extradited to
Azerbaijan. The same day Azeri President Ilham Aliyev decreed to
pardon the criminal. Gourgen Margaryan’s assignees applied to the
European Court of Human Rights in Feb 2013.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress