AZERBAIJANI AX KILLER’S PARDON RAISES WAR FEARS
Associated Press Online
September 13, 2012 Thursday 3:55 PM GMT
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV and PABLO GORONDI, Associated Press MOSCOW
Shortly before dawn, an Azerbaijani on an English course in Hungary
crept into the room of a fellow student from arch-enemy Armenia. In
a frenzy of ethnic hatred, Ramil Safarov hacked the sleeping Armenian
to death with 26 ax blows nearly decapitating him.
Convicted of murder, the Army lieutenant was sentenced to life in
prison, and the lurid case largely faded from memory for nearly
a decade.
It rose like a wrathful ghost last month, when Safarov was sent home,
pardoned and embraced as a national hero. The affair now threatens
to wreck 20 years of international attempts to reconcile the two
ex-Soviet neighbors, which fought a war in the 1990s that killed some
30,000 and put a large section of Azerbaijan under Armenian control.
While there’s no sign that war is about to erupt again, the Safarov
dispute shows genuine peace to be further away than ever.
The tensions worry both Russia and the West, which are jockeying for
influence in a region seen as a buffer between Europe and Iran and
as a key player in the world oil market.
It all started in February, 2004, when Safarov and Armenian Gurgen
Markarian, also a military officer, were living in the same dormitory
while attending a NATO-sponsored language course in Budapest.
On a trip to a supermarket to get food and cigarettes, Safarov bought
an ax as well.
Two days later, after finishing his homework, the Azerbaijani sharpened
his weapon, smoked a few cigarettes and waited in the hallway until
5 a.m., when his victim would be in his deepest sleep, according to
his own court testimony.
Safarov opened the unlocked door to Lt. Markarian’s room. He turned
on the light. The ax blows came raining down, 26 in all, on head,
neck and body as Safarov flung insults at his victim.
When it was over, Safarov told Markarian’s Hungarian roommate that
he wouldn’t hurt him. He smoked a cigarette and threw the butt at
the victim, before calling a fellow Azerbaijani officer and showing
him the body.
Then he left to hunt down a second Armenian officer in his room.
Finding the door locked, Safarov started screaming: “Open up Armenian,
open up, we’re going to cut the throats of all of you” and started
breaking down the door with his ax.
Hayk Makuchyan, the intended victim, told The Associated Press that
he wanted to open the door to see what was going on, but was stopped
by his roommate.
Police arrived and drew their weapons on Safarov, forcing him to lay
down his ax.
Safarov was given a life sentence by a Hungarian court in 2006. At
trial, the Azerbaijani officer said he committed the murder to avenge
the killing of his relatives by ethnic Armenian forces during the
1990s conflict over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.
He also said the Armenian officers subjected him to ridicule, throwing
a basketball at him, teasing him over his studious habits and insulting
the Azeri flag. Those claims weren’t proven in court and ultimately
rejected by the judge.
His lawyer said Safarov felt he was doing his duty. “He believed
that he was defending his country,” said Hungarian defense lawyer
Gyorgy Magyar.
On Aug. 31, Hungary sent Safarov back home after receiving assurances
that he would continue serving his sentence there.
Instead, Safarov was covered in glory. President Ilham Aliev granted
him an amnesty upon his arrival. He was promoted to the rank of
major, provided with a new apartment and given back wages for his
eight-and-a-half years in custody.
Armenia exploded in anger.
It immediately cut diplomatic ties with Hungary as protesters in the
Armenian capital threw tomatoes at the building housing Hungary’s
honorary consulate, and tore down the Hungarian flag.
A barrage of blustery statements from Armenian and Azerbaijani
officials raised the fears about a renewed outbreak of the six-year
war, which ended in 1994.
The Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan and some adjacent territory
has been under the control of Armenian troops and local ethnic
Armenian forces since the war’s end; shootings and other incidents
have been frequent.
Negotiators from Russia, the United States and France, under the
umbrella of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe,
have led efforts to settle the conflict, producing little result.
Worried about a resumption of hostilities, Washington, Russia and
the OSCE quickly condemned Azerbaijan’s move.
The oil-rich Caspian Sea nation has remained defiant.
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mamedyarov told U.S. Deputy
Secretary of State William Burns last week that Safarov’s case was
a consequence of the “Armenian aggression.”
“The entire Azerbaijani society believes that the Armenian officer
had provoked Safarov and considers his life sentence by a Hungarian
court unjust,” said Vafa Guluzade, an independent political analyst
based in Baku. “How can Aliev keep him in custody if society believes
he’s innocent?”
Some Armenian commentators warned that the tensions could spiral into
armed conflict.
“It became clear to everyone how difficult it is to deal with such
a partner,” said Ruben Safrastian, the director of the Institute
of Oriental Studies in the Armenian capital, Yerevan. “The chances
for negotiating a Nagorno-Karabakh peace deal have grown smaller,
and the threat of war has increased.”
Azerbaijan’s military, which was routed by the Armenian forces
during the war, has undergone a costly buildup thanks to a flow of
petrodollars. The country’s defense spending, of about $4 billion a
year, dwarfs the entire Armenian government budget.
Resource-poor Armenia has been starved by blockades by Azerbaijan
and its key ally Turkey, but it hosts a major Russian military base
and is a member of a Russia-led security pact. Armenia also has
a Soviet-built nuclear power plant located near Yerevan, creating
potential radiation risks in case of war.
If fighting erupts, Moscow will be obliged to help its ally,
raising the prospect of a major conflict in the region crisscrossed
by strategic oil pipelines carrying Azerbaijan’s crude to Western
markets. NATO member Turkey, in its turn, has a similar obligation
to Azerbaijan under a 2010 bilateral security pact.
Orujov, an Azerbaijani political analyst, said that in the current
situation even a minor skirmish may trigger a full-scale conflict.
“Amid this new twist of tensions,” he said, “the absence of contacts
between the two countries may push them to the frontline.”
Gorondi reported from Budapest; Aida Sultanova in Baku, Azerbaijan
and Avet Demourian in Yerevan, Armenia contributed to this report.