Safarov case has radically changed the situation around the Karabakh peace process provoking a huge international scandal and throwing back the protracted negotiations, Alexander Iskandaryan, Director of the Caucasus Institute, said at the Caucasus- 2012 international conference in Yerevan, Friday.
"Afterwards, Baku's all talks and promises 'to provide Karabakh with the highest level of autonomy' remain beyond the logic of the negotiation process. Glorification of a man for murder on ethnic motives made the relations of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan impossible.
Iskandaryan believes that Safarov case has become a stalemate in the stalemate for the Karabakh peace process, as there were no opportunities to resolve the conflict even before that. So, it was hard for the mediators even to imitate the negotiation process, he said.
To recall, on August 31 the Armenian authorities adopted a decision to suspend diplomatic relations and official contacts with Hungary. President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan made public the decision at a special meeting with the heads of diplomatic missions on Friday after the Hungarian authorities extradited Azeri officer Ramil Safarov, who was sentenced by a Hungarian court to life in jail for killing sleeping Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan with an axe in Budapest in 2004. Both the officers were undergoing an English language course under the NATO PfP program. The same day after Safarov's extradition, Azeri President Ilham Aliyev decreed to pardon the criminal.
Safarov case seriously damaged the international image of Azerbaijan and allowed Yerevan to demand sooner return of Nagorno Karabakh to the negotiating table. President Serzh Sargsyan called Karabakh's return to the negotiations 'natural and logical.' It was thanks to the efforts of the Minsk Group that the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers met in Paris on October 27 and agreed on further meetings.