YEREVAN. – Ramil Safarov’s extradition will suspend the Nagorno-Karabakh peace talks, Caucasus Institute Deputy Director, political analyst Sergey Minasyan said during a press conference on Wednesday.
In his view, at present it will be hardly possible to register any progress in the negotiation process. “It is difficult to expect any change in such climate,” he added.
Armenian News-NEWS.am reported earlier that Ramil Safarov, a lieutenant in the Azerbaijani military, was extradited on August 31 from Hungary, where he was serving a life sentence—and with no expression of either regret or remorse—for the premeditated axe murder of Armenian lieutenant Gurgen Margaryan, in his sleep, during a NATO Partnership for Peace program in Budapest back in 2004.
As expected, Ramil Safarov’s return to Baku was welcomed, as was his act of murder, by the officials of president Ilham Aliyev’s government and much of Azerbaijani society, and the Azerbaijani president immediately granted him a pardon.
And Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan announced on August 31 that Armenia is suspending its diplomatic ties with Hungary.
Ramil Safarov’s pardoning is condemned by virtually all international organizations.
To note, Gurgen Margaryan would have turned 34 on Wednesday.