Hungary’s extradition of Ramil Safarov to Azerbaijan and Baku’s subsequent pardon and glorification of the axe murderer has raised serious questions of international law, diplomacy and a state’s ethical responsibility within the international community, writes Ara Khachatourian, Asbarez reporter.
Ara Khachatourian discusses post-Safarov reactions of international community and Armenia’s policy on recent developments.
He goes on summoning the data.”Three weeks after this maelstrom erupted, there has been no tangible change in the matter, save for the European Parliament resolution, which condemned Azerbaijan for glorifying a convicted killer.
Official Yerevan’s reaction has also been reserved.
Armenia’s Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian, during a press conference last week continued to use his tried and true line that the international community is in agreement with Armenia on the Safarov matter.”- elaborates ARA KHACHATOURIAN
He questions whether Yerevan could have stopped the entire extradition process and if so, why did it not.
The Armenian community of Hungary sounded the alarm about Safarov’s extradition two weeks prior to the incident, and reportedly a representative flew to Yerevan to address the issue with the Foreign Ministry and the Diaspora Ministry. The Hungarian-Armenian community asserts that they were given the runaround by secondary and tertiary officials at the ministries.
Nalbandian said that Yerevan pressed Budapest as early as mid-August regarding this matter, arguing that for years Armenia has warned the international community.
Azeri President Ilham Aliyev’s pardon of Safarov crystallizes the reality that Azerbaijan is not “partner for peace” but rather the instigator of post-Soviet unrest in the region—a country that has committed state-sponsored pogroms, instigated a war and has no regard for human decency.
Nalbandian will be traveling to the US over the weekend. His first stop, which is strangely being billed as a “surprise visit” will be Los Angeles, where he will be addressing the World Affairs Council on Monday. He will then travel to New York to address the United National General Assembly.
Ara Khachatouryan explains that for the past three and a half years, Armenia’s foreign policy agenda has not been set by Yerevan, but rather Washington, Moscow and elsewhere. The events of last year have proven that our nation’s foreign policy MUST BE DETERMINED in Yerevan.
Nalbandian must call out NATO member-states for their passiveness toward Hungary, which set in motion the events of the past three weeks. And, finally, Nalbandian must, once and for all, end Baku’s insistence of focusing of the nebulous issue of “territorial integrity” in the talks and assert that Karabakh’s right to self-determination is of utmost importance to the fruition of our national liberation struggle.
The author concludes by stressing that this year’s UN General Assembly is a make or break moment for Armenia. Past experience makes us doubt Armenia’s willingness to assert itself in the community of nations. Let’s hope we are proven otherwise.
