Congressman Brad Sherman (D-CA) questioned US Secretary of State John Kerry at a full House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing, Hay Dat Office in Washington reported. The congressman voiced questions related the case of the Azerbaijani murderer Ramil Safarov who killed an Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan with an axe at the NATO foreign language courses in Hungary on Feb 19 2004. Safarov was pardoned and glorified by President of
Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev. Sherman, particularly, asked what steps the Department of State takes to influence Azerbaijan to revise its decision and jail Safarov.
The congressman asked if the Administration of the US President is going to the condition military aid to Azerbaijan with change of the aggressive rhetoric of Baku. Congressman Sherman spotlighted the regular threats by Azerbaijan to hit the civil planes that will fly from the Stepanakert airport. How Azerbaijan will be punished if it hits those civil planes, Sherman asked. The next question was about the Armenian-Turkish relations and the protocols signed in 2009 to stop isolation of Armenia and establish economic and diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey. Sherman asked if Turkey has taken any serious steps to ratify those protocols. He asked what measures the Department has taken to make Turkey stop isolation of
Armenia.