The last day of summer was marked for Azerbaijan and Armenia by an event which caused a storm of jubilation in Baku and a highly emotional reaction, bordering on hysteria, in Yerevan. On the morning of July 31, Azerbaijani news portals published the following news: Hungary had extradited to Azerbaijan Lieutenant Ramil Safarov, who was formerly sentenced to life imprisonment by a Hungarian court for the murder of Gurgen Markarian.
Initially, not everyone believed in this news. However, after a couple of hours the information was confirmed by Azerbaijani officials: the officer actually was returned to his homeland. At the airport, Safarov found out about the decree of President Ilham Aliyev, who pardoned the officer. In addition, the Ministry of Defense gave the rank of Major to the freed soldier, and he was paid a salary for the time he was in custody. In addition, the Ministry granted him an apartment.
The exemption of Safarov was a complete surprise to the public in Azerbaijan: there was no advance preparation for the return of Safarov to the country. There was not even any "leak" in the opposition media. Government sources later explained that the negotiations with the Hungarian side on the fate of Safarov were conducted in strict confidence, because there were serious concerns that the negotiations could be prevented from outside. "For almost a year, under the strict control of the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, secret negotiations and correspondence took place, including with the law enforcement agencies in Hungary. An agreement reached during the visit of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to Azerbaijan played a decisive role in this," the head of the Department of External Relations of the presidential administration of Azerbaijan, Novruz Mammadov, told the media, commenting on the extradition to Azerbaijan and the pardon of Safarov, who had been convicted by a Hungarian court to life imprisonment.
35-year-old Safarov, who participated in one of NATO programs in Hungary in 2004, was accused of the murder of the Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan, who, according to him, had insulted the Azerbaijani flag. By the verdict of the Hungarian court, Safarov was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for 30 years. The case was of a pronounced emotional color: Safarov himself experienced exile from his native land and the loss of family members killed by the Armenian military. At the trial the officer did not repent his crime, and therefore the sentence was harsh.
Since then, the Azerbaijani side has attempted to extradite Safarov home, and each time to no avail. Only now, after 8 years, was Baku able to rescue the officer from a Hungarian prison. Here, perhaps, the most interesting part of the story began, which has already acquired the character of an international scandal.
Undoubtedly, the vast majority of Azerbaijani citizens welcomed the return of Safarov to his homeland and his pardon. This is confirmed by the analysis of the content of the views of Azerbaijani users of social networks, and the fact that jubilant people went out on the streets to celebrate the release of the officer, and many of them went to see Safarov and to meet with him personally. Such a reaction, which Yerevan is now trying to put down to barbarism and rampant nationalism, is understandable and natural, given the current realities in the region. Azerbaijan is in a state of war with Armenia, there are over a million refugees and internally-displaced people in the country, and one fifth of its territory is occupied by Armenian armed forces: it would be naive to believe that in Azerbaijan in such circumstances as Safarov’s action would be considered to be a crime.
It is noteworthy that in Armenia a member of the terrorist organization ASALA, Monte Melkonyan, is considered a national hero; he is guilty of the murder of peaceful Turkish and Azerbaijani citizens. Melkonyan, who organized the capture of the Turkish Consulate in Paris, during which the consul Inal was seriously wounded, and a security official Ozen was killed, was eliminated by Azerbaijani intelligence during the Karabakh war. He was posthumously awarded the title of National Hero of Armenia, and a school and a university in Yerevan are named after him, as well as a unit of the Armenian army. Against this background, such an hysterical response to the delight of the Azerbaijani public to mark the liberation of Ramil Safarov is at best hypocrisy.
The Armenian leadership did not expect Ramil Safarov to be extradited to Azerbaijan. In this regard, President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan spoke at an emergency meeting with the heads of diplomatic missions accredited in Armenia and heads of international organizations, where he very emotionally announced the termination of diplomatic relations with Hungary. "The joint actions of the authorities of Hungary and Azerbaijan have opened the door for the recurrence of such crimes. With this decision, they send a signal to murderers. They now know that murder motivated by ethnic or religious hatred can go unpunished. I cannot tolerate this! Armenia cannot tolerate this! The Armenian people will not forgive this! I officially announce that today we are suspending diplomatic relations and official relations with Hungary," the Armenian president said. The same day, a crowd of angry protesters threw tomatoes at the Honorary Consulate of Hungary in Yerevan and destroyed the Hungarian flag. The Hungarian Foreign Ministry expressed regret at the rupture of diplomatic relations with Armenia, not failing to mention that the country had acted in accordance with the European Convention.
Sargsyan was no less emotional at the emergency meeting of the Security Council of Armenia: "You know what happened: the nothing that killed Gurgen Margaryan has been returned by the Hungarian authorities to Azerbaijan, and the Azerbaijani President pardoned this killer. Naturally, we cannot accept this, and we must determine our future actions." At the end of the meeting, Sargsyan asked NSS Director Gorik Hakobyan "to stay for a special order". What kind of instruction Sargsyan could give to the NSS in connection with the release of Ramil Safarov is anyone's guess. One thing is clear: the Armenian president will now employ harsh rhetoric, trying to distract the public from another aspect of the extradition of Safarov, inconvenient for him: whatever emotional cues might sound today in Yerevan, the decision of the Hungarian authorities to extradite the convicted officer to Azerbaijan is a serious foreign policy failure of Yerevan. And the most unpleasant point for Serzh Sargsyan is the fact that the current ruling team, headed by the President of the Republic, is responsible for this failure, because it was not able to mobilize Armenian diplomacy, to use the resources of the Armenian lobby and prevent the return home of the Azerbaijani officer, after which he was quite predictably pardoned by President Ilham Aliyev. Moreover, the reaction of Yerevan hardly came as a surprise to Baku. The focus of the Azerbaijani public today is on other events related to the "Safarov affair," in particular, the reaction of third countries.
The first evaluations and comments in response to the extradition and pardon of Safarov sounded from Washington. The administration of the U.S. President made the following statement: "President Obama is deeply concerned about the decision of the President of Azerbaijan about Ramil Safarov’s pardon after his return from Hungary. Safarov recognized that he had killed Gurgen Magaryan in Budapest in 2004 and was serving a life sentence in Hungary for this murder. We informed the Azerbaijani authorities about our disappointment with the decision to pardon Safarov. This move is contrary to the current efforts to restrict regional tensions and promote reconciliation. The United States also is waiting for an explanation from Hungary regarding its decision to extradite Safarov to Azerbaijan."
Baku reacted very cautiously and calmly. According to many in Azerbaijan, if the White House is so zealously concerned about regional reconciliation, it should also condemn regular military exercises of the Armenian army in the occupied Azerbaijani territories, which also do not contribute to reducing tensions in the conflict zone.
The head of the Foreign Relations Department of the Presidential Administration, Novruz Mammadov, said in an interview to 1news that the extradition of Safarov is the subject of bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and Hungary and is implemented in the framework of international law. "Therefore, Azerbaijan will not give any explanation to any country on this issue," Mammadov said. Fuad Alasgarov, the head of the department on work with law enforcement agencies of the presidential administration, told the Azerbaijani media the legal side of the issue: "The procedure for the transfer of sentenced persons to serve their sentence is governed by the European Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons, adopted by the Council of Europe in 1983. Hungary and the Republic of Azerbaijan ratified this Convention. According to this Convention, a person convicted in one of the contracting parties may be transferred to the other contracting party to serve his sentence. Regarding the pardon of Safarov, we should clarify that the sentence of the Hungarian court limited only the ability of early release of the convicted person, within 30 years from the date of sentencing. This restriction does not apply to the possibility of pardon or amnesty of the convicted person. Ramil Safarov was detained on 19 February 2004, that is, he served more than eight and a half years of his sentence. The act of pardon should be viewed as a substitute for a life sentence to the sentence that the convict has already served. Accordingly, Ramil Safarov was released."
The Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan also commented on the statement of the White House: "It is surprising that the U.S. government interferes in the relations of two independent states - Azerbaijan and Hungary. The issue of the transfer of Azerbaijani officer Ramil Safarov to Azerbaijan from Hungary came under the laws of the two countries. We also understand that the American position is connected with the domestic political context prior to the elections in the United States." The last remark deserves special attention. The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry transparently recalls that this statement, negative for Azerbaijan in form and substance, is no more than a nod to the Armenian lobby, after which radical foreign policy moves are unlikely to follow. In fact, given the fact that the U.S. presidential race is in full swing, such a step by the Obama administration is quite understandable. At the same time, we can almost certainly say that Washington will not go beyond statements and will hardly jeopardize the growing strategic partnership with Azerbaijan, built on the pragmatic interest of the United States. Here, in particular, the matter is the collaboration in the context of the Iranian nuclear program and the energy security of Europe. Clearly, the U.S. will not risk long-term cooperation with Azerbaijan in favor of short-term domestic political interests.
Finally, both in Azerbaijan and abroad, everybody is aware that the release of Ramil Safarov is a strong move for Baku. Even if now Azerbaijan will face international criticism due to the pardon of Ramil Safarov, the political effect of this step is difficult to overestimate.
Firstly, the demonstration of the increased influence of Azerbaijan was very convincing.
Secondly, achieving the extradition and pardon of Safarov, the president made foreign partners understand that it is useless to expect softness from Azerbaijan on the issue of the conflict with Armenia.
Thirdly, it is an important political message: Azerbaijan does not betray its people.
Fourthly, the release of Ramil Safarov and the very cool-headed response to the criticism from abroad is a strong move by the current government, taking into account the upcoming 2013 presidential election. The president, among other things, made it clear that the opinions and expectations of the people for him are more important than the possible negative reaction from the outside.
Of course, something else is also clear: the fact that Safarov has been pardoned will continue to be used in the information war of Armenia against Azerbaijan in the future. After all, according to Zhvanetski, "the best alibi is to be the victim." The fact that Armenia learned this simple truth well is beyond doubt. "The image of the victim” has been exploited here for decades. But though Yerevan tries to extract its propaganda dividends from the "Safarov affair" today, the decision of the authorities of Hungary was a too clear demonstration that the balance of power in Europe is not shifting in favour of Armenia.
