Peter Rutland
In recent days there have been two symbolic events that run the danger
of igniting hostilities in an already tense neighborhood of the
Caucasus. On Aug. 31 a former Azerbaijan Army lieutenant, Ramil Safarov, flew back
to Baku after serving eight years in a Budapest jail for killing Gurgen
Margarian in 2004. The victim, an Armenian officer, had been a fellow
participant in a NATO Partnership for Peace exercise. Safarov hacked him
to death in his sleep with an ax.
The Hungarian government transferred the prisoner to Azerbaijan on the
understanding that he would serve out the rest of his life sentence in
his home country. But immediately upon his arrival in Baku, Lieutenant
Safarov was pardoned by President Ilham Aliyev, restored to military
duties, promoted to major, given an apartment and awarded back pay for
his time in prison. These actions drew universal condemnation from
Washington, Moscow and European governments.
Apart from the fact that such a step is an affront to basic notions of
justice and the rule of law, even more troubling is the message that it
sends to the rest of the world: that the Azerbaijani government thinks
it is acceptable to kill Armenians. Apparently, the grievances they
suffered in their defeat by Armenian forces in 1992-94 are so profound
that even murder is excusable. It is hard, then, to ask the Armenians
living in Karabakh to quietly accept the idea that the solution to their
disputed territory is for them to return to living under Azerbaijani
rule.
