YEREVAN. – I totally respect the Armenians’ right to express their position and anger in connection with Ramil Safarov’s pardon and glorification, European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Štefan Füle stated Thursday responding to Armenian journalists’ questions.

The European diplomat added that he deeply regrets the damage which Safarov’s pardon and glorification has caused to the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process.  

“Value-based interrelations are important for us, [and] at the same time I call for restraint between words and actions,” Füle noted. 

He also urged to focus the efforts on establishing peace and stability, since it is solely in this case that Armenia can fulfill its enormous potential.

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.