Foreign Ministry of Armenia informs OSCE MG Co-Chairs of Armenia's stance on situation around Ramil Safarov

• Monday, September 3, 11:43

Foreign Minister of Armenia Edward Nalbandian had a meeting with the OSCE MG Co-Chairs, Ambassadors Robert Bradtke of the United States, Igor Popov of the Russian Federation, and Jacques Faure of France, and Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk in
Paris, Sunday.

The Foreign Ministry of Armenia reports the Armenian party intended to inform the mediators of its stance on the situation around Ramil Safarov, who was sentenced by the Hungarian court to life in prison for murdering Armenian officer, but was later extradited to Azerbaijan. The authorities of Azerbaijan granted pardon to Safarov the same day of his extradition.

Earlier on August 31 the Armenian authorities adopted a decision to suspend diplomatic relations and official contacts with Hungary.  President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan made public the decision at a special meeting with the heads of diplomatic missions on Friday after the Hungarian authorities extradited Azeri officer Ramil Safarov, who was sentenced by a Hungarian court to life in jail for killing sleeping Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan with an axe in Budapest in 2004. Both the officers were undergoing an English language course under the NATO PfP program. The same day after Safarov's extradition,
Azeri President Ilham Aliyev decreed to pardon the criminal and give him the rank of Major.

Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan and Head of the Armed Forces General Staff Yuri Khachaturov charged "increasing vigilance of the troops." Protest actions against Safarov's extradition were held in Yerevan on Saturday.

"The only issue on agenda of the meeting with the OSCE MG Co-Chairs was the situation around the Azerbaijani-Hungarian shameful deal for release of the murderer, which will affect not only the negotiation process but also peace, stability and security in the region," the Armenian Foreign Ministry press-service reports. At the meeting Minister Nalbandian said that Azerbaijan crossly violates the international commitments and creates obstacles to the OSCE MG
Co-Chairs' efforts aimed at peaceful resolution of the Karabakh conflict.

The Azerbaijani-Armenian conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh broke out on February 28 1988 in the Azerbaijani Sumgait with massacre of Armenians as a peculiar response of Azerbaijanis to the peaceful demand of the Nagorno-Karabakh autonomous Region, part of the Azerbaijani SSR, to unite with the Armenian SSR. This resulted in other pogroms of Armenians in Baku, Kirovabad and other regions of Azerbaijan populated with Armenians.  In 1991  Azerbaijan unleashed war against peaceful populations of Nagorno-Karabakh, expulsing ethnic Armenians from the territory of Azerbaijan. Dozens of
thousands of peaceful residents on both parties were killed in the military actions, and hundreds of thousands were left homeless and have become refugees. In 1994 in Bishkek in mediation of the OSCE MG, the NKR, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a Protocol on Ceasefire that is observed more or less so far. 

Since 1992 the OSCE Minsk Group represented by co-chairs from Russia, U.S.  and France has been mediating in resolution of the conflict unleashed by Azerbaijan in 1988. At present the peace process is based on the Madrid Principles suggested by the OSCE MG in 2007 in Madrid and renovated in 2009.