Author: Kajoyan Gevork

oikotimes.com
Sept 8 2012

PREMIERE FOR PATRICK FIORI IN NEW YORK

Posted by YANN (FRANCE) on Sep 8, 2012 in EVENTS, FRANCE |

Patrick Fiori, who represented France at the Eurovision Song Contest
held in Millstreet in 1993, will perform for the very first time in
New York City, at the Gotham Hall, on September 29th! Invited by the
Armenia Fund USA on the occasion of its 20th anniversary gala, the
performance will mark the singer’s debut in America.

Patrick Chouchayan, better known as Patrick Fiori, was born in
Marseille, France to a Corsican mother (thus the `Mama Corsica’ song)
and an Armenian father. Being a successful and charismatic
French-Armenian artist able to unify the global diaspora is the reason
why Patrick Fiori has been chosen to perform a special concert during
the event which will also features Armenia’s foreign Minister H.E.
Eduard Nalbandian.

Besides his American debut, Patrick Fiori – who is currently enjoying
summer success in France with a Spanish cover of worldwide hit My way
together with band Chico & The Gypsies – will also start pretty soon
an acoustic tour in small venues in France and Belgium.

source:

ITAR-TASS, Russia
September 7, 2012 Friday 08:56 PM GMT+4

Russia, Armenia discuss preparations for Interaction 2012 drill

MOSCOW September 7

Russian and Armenian preparations for the Interaction 2012 exercises
of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) were a main item
of the working meeting of Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly
Antonov and Armenian First Deputy Defense Minister David Tonoyan, the
Russian Defense Ministry reports.

“The sides discussed topical aspects of bilateral defense and
military-technical cooperation and highlighted preparations for the
multinational drill of the CSTO Collective Operative Reaction Force
(CORF), Interaction 2012, due in Armenia on September 15-19,” the
ministry said.

About 200 servicemen of a paratrooper battalion of the 98th Ivanovo
Airborne Division will represent Russia in the drill, Assistant
Airborne Forces Commander Col. Alexander Kucherenko said. He said the
servicemen would be transported to Armenia with their armaments and
gear. “The 102nd Russian base in Gyumri, Armenia, will provide
hardware to the paratroopers,” he said.

ELKHAN SULEYMANOV: “PACE LEGAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE CONFIRMS THAT THE PARDONING OF RAMIL SAFAROV IS IN FULL COMPLIANCE WITH INTERNATIONAL LEGISLATION” – INTERVIEW

MilAz.info
Sept 7 2012
Azerbaijan

On Thursday September 6th 2012, on request of the Bureau of the
Assembly, the PACE’s Legal Affairs Committee had an exchange of views
on the case of Ramil Safarov, at the end of their meeting in Paris.

Elkhan Suleymanov, the member of azerbaijani delegation to PACE,
head of the Azerbaijani delegation at the Euronest Parliamentary
Assembly told APA on this issue.

– “Was it a tough debate to convince the members that the extradition
and the pardoning are not violating international legislation?”

The head The Committee confirmed that the extradition of Ramil
Safarov from Hungary to Azerbaijan, as well as his pardoning by
President Ilham Aliyev are in full compliance with international
and national legislation. Chairman of the Committee declared that he
obtained legal advice from different sides, all confirming that the
extradition as well as the pardoning was not in violation with the
European Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons. Mr Safarov
was pardoned in full accordance with Article 12 of the above-mentioned
Convention which allows explicitly any member country to grant pardon
of sentence in such a case. So the debate shifted to personal and
emotional remarks by Armenians and some other member. Of course I
reacted on those remarks in my speech, stressing that in a Legal
Affairs Committee the matter should be considered from an objective
legal aspect, not from a subjective emotional one.

– Facts happened in Hungary already more than eight years ago. What
is to your opinion the real reason for Armenians to make such a big
drama today in international media?

It’s clear that Armenians have the only goal to consolidate their
illegal presence in the occupied territories and to reject the demand
of all international organizations, such as the United Nations and the
European Union, to witdraw their armed forces unconditionally from
these territories. By fabricating this dramatic window-dressing,
they only aim at that consolidation of the actual situation in
Nagorno-Karabakh.

-May I remind you that Armenia never admitted that they are illegally
occupying a part of Azerbaijan…

-That is no longer true. During the debate on Tuesday in the Monitoring
committee, Davit Harutyunyan, Armenian MP got so nervous about the
draft report and about our arguments that he insisted on correcting
the draft report where it mentions that 20 % of Azerbaijan is under
Armenian occupation. He insisted that it would read that only 15 %
is under Armenian occupation, as if the exact percentage makes any
difference. He also admitted that 700 thousand but not 1 million
Azerbaijanis were forced to leave their home and to be refugees in
their own country. In the same way some experts claim that Hitler
killed only 4 million Jews, and not 6 million, and for this reason
after all he is not such a bad guy…That is of course ridiculous. So
yes, this Armenian MP confessed publicly that Armenia is illegally
occupying a neighbor member state of the Council of Europe. By the way,
I immediately expressed my deep disappointment to the committee members
because they all kept silent confronted to the Armenian confession
of this sad reality.

-So, to your opinion, the PACE should be more active in this field?

-Of course! How can you in a credible way deal with human rights,
rule of law and good neigbourship if you can even not enforce the
implementation of international resolutions to a member state who is
occupying another member state? The Bureau of PACE, being well aware
of this problem, instructed a subcommittee on Nagorno-Karabakh to keep
up the dialogue and to develop possible solutions. But precisely the
Armenians never showed up to any meeting during last 2 years. During
this week’s debates the Spanish chairman of that subcommittee publicly
expressed his regret and his concern about this ongoing negative
Armenian attitude. Yet they were never sanctioned. On the other hand
it is becoming more and clearer to all observers that Armenians only
aim at a status-quo, that they don’t sincerely look for a solution,
and for sure they don’t want to comply with the existing international
resolutions. And to my opinion, the incident of Ramil Safarov as well
as so many other unfortunate incidents such as the continuous killing
of Azerbaijani civilians by Armenian snipers, which don’t get any
international media attention, are the result of the non-implementation
by Armenia of these resolutions.

-Were these killings of Azerbaijani civilians also raised in the
Committee?

-Today I have informed the PACE’s Committee that, according official
data, during first 5 years of the conflict 1250 Azerbaijani civilians
were killed and 1283 injured by Armenians, in many cases by snipers.

65 civilians were missed. And this process continues. I stressed that
we have of course also regularly tabled our complaints about those
brutal killings before the Council of Europe, European Parliament and
other international organizations (UN, OSCE, etc), but to our regret
we only remember their complete silence, as well as the silence in
international media. Whereas the Azerbaijani lieutenant Ramil Safarov
spent more than eight years in prison, not one single Armenian was
ever prosecuted for killing thousands of Azerbaijani civilians since
twenty years. The international community never condemned this Armenian
violence and even remained totally indifferent to any Azerbaijani
complaint in this regard.

-You mentioned earlier the debate in the Monitoring Committee with
regard to a draft report on Azerbaijan. Is this report acceptable
for you?

– The monitoring report itself covers development in all related
fields for the period of last 4 years. The most important is that the
document for the first time in the history of PACE stresses reality
of non-resolution of the Nagorno – Karabakh conflict, criticizes
invalidity of the OSCE’s Minsk Group, Iran’s threat against existence
of independent Azerbaijan, geopolitical reality of the entire region
and local people’s expectation from Europe in this regard. Together
with our Azerbaijani delegation leader, Samad Seyidov, MP, I took the
floor to give my first comments. The report is a very comprehensive
document, and I do appreciate that it is mostly based on facts
and figures, and is also referring to those data, even when several
elements to my opinion absolutely need to be corrected. In this regard,
I mentioned a few paragraphs that are at this stage not, or not fully,
in accordance with reality and need detailed investigation.

We will for sure use the next weeks and months to send to the reporters
several proposals, in order to include them in the report according
the procedure.

-It was quite a busy week for you in Paris, defending Azerbaijani
interests in different committees of PACE. But what about the European
Parliament and the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly, in which you are
the head of the Azerbaijani delegation? Are they concerned by this
Safarov case ?

-Yes, this week in Paris was really challenging, but together
with my colleagues – our delegation leader, Samad Seyidov, MP, and
Rafael Huseynov, MP, we did our best efforts for represent people
of Azerbaijan and defend their interests in the PACE by standing
against some attacks. Facing to the European Parliament agenda, I
would recall that after different statements were recently made by
European politicians with regard to Safarov, Azerbaijan Delegation to
the EURONEST PA have of course immediately addressed the President of
the European Parliament, Leaders of Political Groups, Members of the
European Parliament, Co-chairs of EURONEST Parliamentary Assembly,
Members of EURONEST from Eastern Partnership countries in an official
letter, in order to clarify and to defend the Azerbaijani position.

This letter was send yesterday.

-Mr. Suleymanov, what is your personal conclusion to all this
commotion?

-As I told the members of the Legal Affairs Committee today: despite
the fact that our religions are different, people on the Earth have
all a common God. I invite all decision makers to support fairness
and justice, and to stop any double standard or decimation.

MALTA GO DOWN TO ARMENIA IN OPENING WORLD CUP QUALIFIER

Times of Malta
Sept 7 2012

Malta opened their 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign on a negative
note after going down 1-0 to Armenia this evening at the National
Stadium.

Armenia deserved their win as they were the more creative side for
long stretches but had to wait until the final 20 minutes to score
what proved the winner.

After steering Malta to consecutive friendly wins over fellow minnows
Luxembourg and San Marino, coach Pietro Ghedin was unable to lead
the team to another positive result as the men in red turned in a
below-par performance which does not augur well for their trip to
Modena to face mighty Italy on Tuesday.

Experienced defender Luke Dimech was drafted into Malta’s starting
line-up as Jonathan Caruana, who missed the 3-2 friendly win in San
Marino because of injury, had to make do with a place on the bench.

Malta coach Pietro Ghedin opted for a 4-2-3-1 formation with Michael
Mifsud leading the line.

Five minutes into the game, Marcos Pinheiro Pizzelli pounced on a
miscued clearance by Dimech but his effort was blocked.

A central shot by Roderick Briffa was then saved by Grevorg Kasparov,
the Armenia goalkeeper.

Armenia were the better side in the opening stages. They came close
to breaking the deadlock on 18 minutes when Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who
had gone close with a rising effort, made headway on the left before
sending a low cross that reached Levon Airapetian at the far post.

Airepetian fired an angled shot that finished inches wide.

Malta struggled to create openings for much of the first half as they
gave away possession too easily while Armenia were more dangerous,
particularly on the wings.

Malta goalkeeper Andrew Hogg did well to push away a dangerous corner
by Pizzelli. In a rare Malta counter-attack, Gareth Sciberras released
Daniel Bogdanovic on the right and the latter’s attempt to cross
the ball to Mifsud was deflected by Hrayr Mkoyan who sent the ball
soaring over the crossbar.

Close to the half-hour mark, Armenia were unlucky not to forge ahead.

Movsisyan passed to Pizzelli inside the box and the latter rifled a
strong shot that cannoned off the near post and onto the leaping Hogg.

The ball soared tantalisingly across the goal-line but Alex Muscat
managed to hook it away.

Armenia remained in control. They threatened again when the ball
reached Mkhitaryan in the six-yard box but Steve Borg made a timely
tackle to dispossess the Armenia winger.

Late in the first half, Malta protested for a penalty when the
sprinting Mifsud appeared to have been pushed in the box as he tried
to run on to Andrew Cohen’s intelligent pass from the left but Austrian
referee Rene Aisner allowed play to continue.

Five minutes into the second half, Dimech came to Malta’s rescue
when putting his body in the way of Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s angled drive
after the Armenia winger had made headway in the Malta box.

Moments later, Hogg denied Armenia as he parried away Aras Ozbiliz’s
long-range strike.

As in the opening half, Armenian remained on top as Malta struggled
to cope with their opponents’ speedy forays and aggressive defending.

It took Malta 16 minutes of the second half to fashion a chance.

Mifsud advanced in the Armenia box before crossing low for Andre
Schembri but the latter was closed down by two Armenia defenders.

Armenia took a deserved lead 19 minutes from time when Movsisyan sped
towards the byline down the left before passing to substitute Artur
Sarkisov who fired past Hogg from close range.

As the minutes passed by, Malta’s hopes of an equaliser diminished
as Ghedin men’s troubles to find some sort of fluency persisted.

Armenia came close to extending their lead through Mkhitaryan whose
initial effort, following a set-piece pass from Ozbiliz, took a
deflection and ended just wide of the near post. The Armenian winger
was then denied by Hogg who beat away his powerful effort from inside
the box.

At the other end, Steve Borg’s cross-cum-shot from a wide position
was stopped by the Armenia goalkeeper.

Malta

A. Hogg, A. Muscat, G. Sciberras, A. Agius, L. Dimech, D.

Bogdanovic, R. Briffa (86 S. Bajada), M. Mifsud, A. Cohen ( 75 R.

Fenech), A. Schembri, S. Borg.

Armenia

G. Kasparov, S. Hovsepyan, R. Arzumanyan (80 V. Aleksanyan), H.

Mkoyan, A. Yedigaryan (53 D. Manoyan), H. Mkhitaryan, L. Airapetian,
A. Ozbiliz, M. Pizzelli (65 A. Sarkisov), Y. Movsisyan.

Referee Rene Aisner (Austria).

PARDON REVIVES BITTER CAUCASUS DISPUTE
By: ELLEN BARRY

The International Herald Tribune
September 6, 2012 Thursday
France

Hero’s welcome for man who killed Armenian sets off international protests

CORRECTION APPENDED

Ramil Safarov stepped uncertainly off the plane in his native
Azerbaijan last Friday, returning home after spending eight years
in a Hungarian prison for a gruesome murder. But it took only a
few minutes for celebrations honoring Mr. Safarov, an Azerbaijani
serviceman, to begin. He was given a pardon, a new apartment, eight
years of back pay, a promotion and the status of a national hero.

Mr. Safarov is a hero in Azerbaijan because of the nationality of
his victim: an Armenian man, a fellow student in a NATO-sponsored
English class in Hungary who was sleeping in his dormitory room on a
night in 2004 when Mr. Safarov, carrying an ax, crept in and nearly
decapitated him.

But Mr. Safarov will almost certainly go down in history for the way he
was freed, an episode people have started to call “The Safarov Affair.”

The Azerbaijani actions have embarrassed Hungary, which agreed to
extradite Mr. Safarov on the assumption that he would serve at least
25 years of a life sentence. It has set off protests in Budapest and
enraged Armenia, where activists pelted the Hungarian Embassy with
eggs and burned Hungarian flags.

And it threatens to end the lengthy peace process that has kept
Azerbaijan and Armenia from sliding back into bloody conflict over
the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. Mr. Safarov, who was a
boy during the war with Armenia, embodies the hatred that has pooled
deeply through the many rounds of faltering negotiations.

Mr. Safarov and his victim, Lt. Gurgen Markarian, were taking an
English-language course organized by NATO’s Partnership for Peace,
which was developed to build ties with former Soviet allies in
Eastern Europe.

Mr. Safarov told the police that his Armenian classmates had insulted
him and that he had grown angry, finally buying an ax and waiting
until the predawn hours, passing the time by finishing his English
homework and taking a bath, according to a transcript of the interview
published by Armenian activists.

After Mr. Safarov was arrested, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry
released a statement describing his family’s losses during the war
with Armenia and suggesting that Lieutenant Markarian had goaded him.

“There are indications that the Armenian servicemen repeatedly insulted
the honor and dignity of the Azerbaijani officer and citizen,”
the statement said. “All this would have inevitably influenced the
suspect’s emotional state.”

It was not clear how the Armenian government will respond to Mr.
Safarov’s release. An opposition party on Tuesday proposed formally
recognizing Nagorno-Karabakh as independent – a step that would signal
the final collapse of peace talks that have long been encouraged by
Russia and the West. The United States immediately, and emphatically,
condemned Mr. Safarov’s release, issuing statements describing
officials in Washington as “deeply concerned.”

Richard Giragosian, an analyst based in Yerevan, Armenia, said that
Armenia could ratchet up the confrontation by opening an airport in
Stepanakert, the capital of the disputed territory, or by responding
overwhelmingly to cease-fire violations. He said neither side was
seeking a war, but the unfolding events risked “a war by accident.”

The homecoming last week – the result of years of lobbying by
Azerbaijan – elevated Mr. Safarov to a new status. He is not the first
extradited criminal to return home as a hero. Similar celebrations
greeted Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, the Libyan intelligence officer
convicted of bombing a Pan Am flight over Scotland, and Russian leaders
made a political star of Andrei K. Lugovoi, an intelligence officer,
when he was accused of poisoning a political rival in London.

But President Ilham H. Aliyev of Azerbaijan chose to send a provocative
message when he met Mr. Safarov at the airport last Friday and issued
the pardon. It was a notable move for a national leader who has
spent lavishly in recent years to build up Azerbaijan’s international
prestige, underwriting soft-power projects like the Eurovision Song
Contest.

CORRECTION:

As published in the International Herald Tribune

Because of an editing error, an article on Thursday about a hero’s
welcome for a convicted killer, Ramil Safarov, in his homeland of
Azerbaijan, where he was extradited on Friday from Hungary after
serving only eight years of a life sentence in the killing of an
Armenian serviceman in Budapest, described incorrectly the role that
President Ilham H. Aliyev of Azerbaijan played in the case. He pardoned
Mr. Safarov; he did not meet him at the airport when he returned home.

Friday, September 7, 2012

EU: AZERBAIJAN BREAKS TERMS OF SAFAROV EXTRADITION DEAL

Interfax
Sept 6 2012
Russa

Azerbaijan has breached the terms of its deal with Hungary on the
repatriation of an Azeri murder convict by pardoning him, the office
of European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has claimed.

Ashton’s spokeswoman, Maja Kocijancic, said in a Radio Liberty program
on Wednesday that the EU would ask the Azeri government to explain
why it pardoned Ramil Safarov, who received a life sentence in Hungary
in 2006 for savagely murdering Armenian army officer Gurgen Margarian
in Budapest two years before.

Kocijancic argued that the Safarov affair posed a threat to regional
stability.

She also said the Safarov case might be raised during a planned
meeting of EU foreign ministers in Cyprus late this week.

The spokeswoman said the EU would explore the matter further but she
ruled out the possibility of any sanctions against Azerbaijan.

Safarov’s pardon has also been condemned by European Parliament
President Martin Schulz and Council of Europe Secretary General
Thorbjorn Jagland.

“I find it unacceptable that a convicted murderer is welcomed as a
hero,” Jagland said in a statement on Tuesday.

“I reject the prospect of a world whose moral code begins to fray,
where respect for human dignity is denied. This is not the Europe that
we should wish for future generations. I condemn such glorification
of crime, and urge that we all work to uphold the respect for life,
and our values as defended by the Council of Europe,” he said.

Relations between Armenia and Hungary soured after Safarov’s
extradition by Hungary to Azerbaijan on August 31. Safarov, who had
been sentenced in Budapest to life in prison without the right to
seek pardon for the first 30 years of the term, was pardoned by Azeri
President Ilham Aliyev the day he was extradited.

Both Safarov and Margarian were attending an English language course
in Budapest doing under NATO’s Partnership for Peace Program.

Safarov hacked Margarian to death while the Armenian officer was
asleep and was reportedly hunting for another Armenian who was on
the same course.

USA CONTINUES TO CRITISIZE AZERBAIJAN AND HUNGARY

Mediamax
Sept 7 2012
Armenia

Yerevan/Mediamax/. The United States continues to criticize Hungary
for the extradition of Ramil Safarov to Azerbaijan.

“We really condemn any action that fuels regional tensions, and that’s
why we were so deeply disappointed by Hungary’s decision to transfer
him [Ramil Safarov] to Azerbaijan,” Acting Deputy Spokesperson of
the U.S. Department of State Patrick Ventrell stated.

In reply to a question about whether the comments by the President
of Azerbaijan are stirring up problems, the U.S. official said:

“Well, I haven’t seen his comments since then [since Safarov has
been pardoned- Mediamax], but we were deeply troubled at the time,
and we continue to be troubled.”

Patrick Ventrell also noted that the U.S. side is in touch with
Armenia, obviously through its Embassy in Yerevan, but also “through
other channels”.

Mediamax recalls that on September 1, Acting Deputy Spokesperson
of the U.S. Department of State Patrick Ventrell said that “the
United States is extremely troubled by the news that the President
of Azerbaijan pardoned Azerbaijani army officer Ramil Safarov, who
returned to Baku following his transfer from Hungary.”

“We are expressing our deep concern to Azerbaijan regarding this action
and seeking an explanation. We are also seeking further details from
Hungary regarding the decision to transfer Mr. Safarov to Azerbaijan”,
the U.S. official stated.

ARMENIAN ECONOMY EXPANDS BY 6.2%

Vestnik Kavkaza
Sept 7 2012
Russia

Armenia’s economy expanded by 6.2 percent in the first six months of
the year as compared to the same time span of last year, according
to numbers released by the CIS Statistical Committee, ARKA reports.

In terms of GDP growth rate, Armenia was fourth after Turkmenistan,
whose economy saw an 11.1% rise, Uzbekistan – 8.1% growth, and
Tajikistan -7.4% . Armenia was followed by Kazakhstan (5.6%) and Russia
(4.4%). The average GDP growth across the CIS was 4.4% year-on-year.

The CIS Statistical Committee unveiled figures for the first seven
months for Belarus, Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan. The fist two’s economies
grew year-on-year by 2.8% and 1.6% respectively, while Kyrgyzstan’s
economy declined by 5%.

Moldova reported 1% GDP growth for the first quarter, while Ukraine’s
GDP in the second quarter rose by 3%.

AZERBAIJAN, ARMENIA TRADE BARBS OVER AXE-KILLER PARDON

Business Recorder

Sept 7 2012

Bitter enemies Azerbaijan and Armenia traded accusations on Friday amid
growing international criticism of Baku’s pardoning of an extradited
Azerbaijani soldier who had hacked an Armenian to death.

Ramil Safarov was pardoned, promoted and financially rewarded after
being extradited to Azerbaijan from Hungary, where he had been serving
a life sentence for killing the Armenian soldier with an axe during
a Nato training session in 2004.

Visiting Baku, where Safarov received a hero’s welcome on his return
a week ago, Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the
murder was “a crime which should not be glorified”. But Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliyev remained defiant, saying the pardon was legal
and fair despite the Nato chief’s comments, which followed similar
criticism from the United States, the European Union and Russia.

“Armenia is unjustifiably kicking up a fuss over Ramil Safarov’s
pardoning,” Aliyev said at a news conference with Rasmussen in Baku.

“Safarov has been extradited in conformity with the European Convention
(on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons) and his pardoning is based on
Azerbaijani legislation,” he said.

As tensions simmered between the ex-Soviet neighbours that fought
a territorial war in the 1990s, Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian
accused energy-rich Azerbaijan of flexing its muscles in front of the
international community. “We believe that the purpose of pardoning
and justifying the murderer is not just that Aliyev wants to improve
his image inside the country, but to try to test the international
community’s reaction to Azerbaijan’s absurd move,”

Sarkisian said in comments released by his press service. Azerbaijan
and Armenia have not yet signed a final peace deal since the
1994 cease-fire in their war over the disputed region of Nagorny
Karabakh, and shooting is still frequent along the front line. Nato’s
secretary-general warned against any new outbreak of hostilities. “Two
things are clear. First, that there is no military solution. And
second, the only way forward is through dialogue, compromise and
co-operation,” Rasmussen said. The United Nations on Thursday also
voiced concern about heightened tensions between the regional foes,
saying “there is no alternative to a peace settlement” over Nagorny
Karabakh.

The row over the pardon has seen Yerevan break off links with Budapest,
which had been assured by Baku that the killer would serve out his
prison term in Azerbaijan. Further infuriating Armenia, Aliyev’s
website has been publishing a series of letters from citizens
congratulating him for freeing the killer.

UN DENOUNCES AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENT’S DECISION

The Voice of Russia
Sept 7 2012

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has condemned
the Azerbaijani president’s decision to pardon officer Ramil Safarov.

The UN Office stresses that serious ethnic crimes should be condemned
and those who commit them should be punished.

Senior Lieutenant Safarov killed an Armenian officer during NATO
training in Hungary. The Budapest court sentenced him to life
imprisonment without the right to be pardoned for 30 years.

On the 31st of August, the Hungarian authorities extradited him to
Baku where he was immediately pardoned by the Azerbaijani President.

This caused harsh protests in Armenia and Western countries.