The granting of pardon to Ramil Safarov shows who our adversary is, Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) Defense Minister Movses Hakobyan stated during a press conference on Thursday.    

“I have a respect toward the adversary, but to the adversary that fights in the battlefield. If he [that is, Safarov] had killed our officer in a noble battle, I, probably, would have respected him. But it’s impossible to reconcile with the notion of killing a sleeping man, moreover, for being an Armenian,” Hakobyan stressed.      

At the same time the Minister noted that this incident had somewhat of a positive impact on the NKR army. “Now, no efforts are required to explain who our adversary is. We understand who our enemy is and what we should be ready for,” he said.

Movses Hakobyan added that the OSCE Minsk Group’s Co-Chairing countries likewise are reacting negatively to Safarov’s pardon. “The Co-Chairs also understand that Azerbaijan is not behaving like a neighbor,” he stated.   

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.