The extradition and subsequent pardon of Ramil Safarov, an officer of the armed forces of the Republic of Azerbaijan, has created hysteria in Armenia and within the Armenian diaspora worldwide so that the international media has been filled with countless articles disseminating false information on the issue and distorting the facts. An article entitled “A serious error” appeared in this newspaper on September 6, 2012 in which the author condemned the Azerbaijani authorities for “dishonoring” their promises, disrespecting the rule of law and endangering the regional peace and security by impairing confidence and trust between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Even more importantly, the author presents Ramil Safarov as a murderer without paying attention to the reasons for his behavior. From the very first sentences it is clear that the author of the article dares to analyze an issue related to the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict with little, if any, knowledge of the region and the conflict. Thus, the author speaks of “an Azerbaijani enclave in Armenia” while a mere glance at the map is enough to show that there is no such enclave within Armenia. The author most probably means the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, which is not an enclave within the Republic of Armenia but which borders on Armenia, along with Turkey and the Islamic Republic of Iran. Before going into details of the killing of an Armenian serviceman, it would be better to begin by clarifying the legal procedures of extradition and the subsequent pardon of Ramil Safarov, since it is apparent that the author of “A serious error” is either unaware of them or is interested in intentionally distorting the facts. In this regard, it should be pointed out that Ramil Safarov was transferred from Hungary to Azerbaijan under the European Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons, adopted within the Council of Europe in 1983, according to which “a person convicted in one of the Contracting Parties may be transferred to another Contracting Party in order to serve his sentence”. Azerbaijan and Hungary both being parties to the said Convention have full rights to realize the transfer of an Azerbaijani national from Hungary to his motherland. As far as the pardon of Ramil Safarov is concerned, it should be noted that this has been done according to the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan, which gives “an exclusive right to pardon”. So we would like to repeat once again that the transfer and pardon of Ramil Safarov were implemented flawlessly. The author, who makes groundless claims that Safarov killed an Armenian officer because of his ethnic origin during a course organized by NATO in Budapest, Hungary in 2004, should be reminded that it is well documented in the testimony of witnesses that two Armenian servicemen, namely, Gurgen Margaryan and Ayk Makuchyan, who were attending the same course, publicly insulted Safarov and the Azerbaijani flag. Safarov was born in the occupied Jebrayil region of the Republic of Azerbaijan and was an eyewitness to the occupation, ethnic cleansing, massacres and heinous war crimes committed by the armed forces of the Republic of Armenia, as a result of which he lost his friends and relatives and was obliged to spend his childhood in camps under miserable conditions. Consequently, he was unable to tolerate the provocations of his Armenian colleagues and committed a serious crime, for which he was convicted and given a life sentence by a Hungarian court. To put it bluntly, on the one hand, Gurgen Margaryan, having been brought up by the short-sighted nationalist ideologues of ethnic hate against their Muslim neighbors simply could not pass up the opportunity to insult and humiliate his Azerbaijani coursemate. On the other hand, Ramil Safarov, who was a direct victim of Armenian aggression having lost his home and relatives, was unable to refrain from committing the said crime. When bearing this truth in mind, it is clear that it is nonsense to speak about the damage that the “Safarov case” has done to “trust and confidence” in the region. Trust and confidence have been already demolished by Armenia, whose armed forces occupied the internationally recognized territories of the Republic of Azerbaijan, carrying out ethnic cleansing accompanied by genocide and other heinous war crimes and crimes against humanity. No one can preach about confidence, tolerance and the like, while the suffering of millions of displaced people continues; people who have lost their families and loved ones and are not able to visit the cemeteries of their ancestors buried in the land occupied by Armenia. It is ridiculous to speak about trust and confidence, so long as the perpetrators of the brutal crimes against innocent Azerbaijani people are being venerated with monuments erected in their honor and when some of them continue to hold the most senior posts in the Republic of Armenia and remain proud of their acts. It is impossible to restore peace and security, while the leadership of Armenia, with full impunity, speaks about their pride in participating in the occupation of Azerbaijani lands and of being able “to break the stereotype” about the “courage” that Armenians displayed in Khojaly on February 26, 1992 when 613 Azerbaijani civilians, including 106 women and 83 children, were massacred because of their ethnic-religious origin. No one can succeed in persuading ordinary civilians residing along the Line of Contact to trust their neighbors, while the armed forces of Armenia constantly keep them under threat by targeting women and children. Peace and security cannot be restored as long as Armenia continues its illegal activities to change the demographic structure of the occupied territories by transferring Armenians from foreign countries to the homes of displaced Azerbaijanis, and by destroying cemeteries, mosques and other holy places in the occupied territories. In summary, instead of disseminating distortions about the “Safarov case”, those who honestly are in favor of restoring trust and confidence in the region should begin by unequivocally condemning Armenia's aggressive nationalist policy, which is the root cause of the sufferings of Margaryan, Safarov and millions of others.
— Dr. Tofiq Abdullayev is Ambassador of the Republic of Azerbaijan to Saudi Arabia
