Ramil Safarov’s pardon showed that Nagorno-Karabakh, with its 160,000 citizens, can never be part of Azerbaijan, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan stated in an interview with Reuters News Agency. 

“This corroborates yet again our view that the people of Karabakh have no future as a part of Azerbaijan,” the President noted.  

“[But] When I say the Azerbaijani society has hatred, xenophobia against the Armenians, when I say the buildup of arms is perilous in Azerbaijan, when I say Azerbaijan is preparing to resume military operations and resolving the [Karabakh] conflict by military means, this does not mean there is no need to continue the [peace] talks,” Serzh Sargsyan noted.        

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.