PARIS. – The Armenians of France will ‘meet’ the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Sept. 18 with crowded protest actions, head of the Hay Dat (Armenian Cause) office in France Hrachya Varzhapetian told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

According to him, the protest actions will be held in front of the Azerbaijani Embassy in France. The protest action participants will express not only their indignation in connection with extradition and granting a pardon to Ramil Safarov but also against policy run by Azerbaijan towards Armenia and Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh].

Although Aliyev’s visit is unofficial, Varzhapetian believes that the participants will also express their protest about the fact that French authorities allow a person who pardons and calls a murderer a hero, to visit France. 

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.

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 all international organizations.