THE SHARPEST TRIANGLE

by Sona G. Margaryan
CEU Political Science department, 2010
Yerevan, Armenia
 
The first thing I tweeted after hearing about the extradition of convicted axe murderer Ramil Safarov from Hungary to Azerbaijan was, “When oil and money justify murder”.  What happened after the extradition? There has been so much blame, failure, discussion, demonstration, burnt flags and many opinions that it can be difficult to follow. 

The only clear thing in this whole saga was the actions of the Azerbaijani government. The so-called “hero”, world famous ax-murderer, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment was freed: pardoned, promoted to the rank of a Major, given an allowance and an apartment as compensation for 8 years imprisonment. Not bad pay for murdering somebody so viciously that the coroner said at the time, “the victim was nearly decapitated”. Adding further insult, all this pardoning happened just a few days before the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh celebrated its Independence Day on September the 2nd

Currently the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has entered a deeper deadlock because of these actions. This conflict labeled as “frozen” is actually much warmer than that with a flimsy cease-fire agreement holding together the status quo. Soldiers are still being killed along the border and the situation is fragile. The constant worry is that even a minor turbulence may elevate this conflict to a full-scale war. Last week’s pardon by authoritarian president Ilham Aliev created much more than a “minor turbulence”.    

Let’s quickly recount what happened in 2004 during a NATO “Partnership for Peace” program, in Budapest, Hungary. Around 5 in the morning, Azerbaijani Ramil Safarov broke into Armenian Gurgen Margaryan’s room while he was sleeping and struck him 16 times with an axe Safarov had purchased the day before. While you may find this disgusting, Safarov’s actions actually made him a hero in Azerbaijan and within its society. This viewpoint likely stemmed from the full-scale war in the early 1990s between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh. The conflict was halted with a cease-fire in 1994 but it remains a very difficult subject with no peace in sight.

During the last week, it’s become apparent much of the world perceives the Azerbaijani pardon as a violation of justice. Azerbaijan continues to praise the murderer.  Hungary is mostly silent: as oil and money seem to have bought Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government. When the negotiations of the European Neighborhood Policy started it was the EU that was interested to start the negotiations with Azerbaijan, not the other way around. The EU was seeking to access Azerbaijani oil from the Caspian region. Perhaps it is no coincidence that the EU is also relatively silent on the issue. Current developments, threats and the “hero murderer” situation is becoming more and more dangerous for the escalation of war. The situation can turn into a bigger problem if the issue is not properly addressed by the EU, NATO, UN, Hungary, Azerbaijan and the international community. At the end of the day both sides are prepared for war, but we can only hope nobody wants to get locked into a crippling affair which will weaken their states and harm economic development for years to come.

Do we want an oil-rich nation to be able to spit on justice? The situation can be appropriately diffused with the return of Ramil Safarov to prison to face his sentence in a neutral country. Otherwise, what is the message to the world? Hence the Azerbaijani “hero murderer” concept has revealed, once again, to the world the power of oil and money.  This should concern everyone, including those people living in Azerbaijan, or else we will face a new oil-doused setup throughout the world.