International mediators of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said on Monday that Azerbaijan's decision to pardon an Azerbaijani soldier who killed an Armenian officer had damaged the peace process in the region.

The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group representing the U.S., Russia and France and the Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-office, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk, met on September 2 with the Foreign Minister of Armenia, Edward Nalbandian, and on September 3 with his Azerbaijani counterpart, Elmar Mammadyarov, to address recent events in the region and efforts to peacefully resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The Co-Chairs discussed with the two Ministers the Azerbaijani government’s decision on August 31 to pardon Ramil Safarov, an Azerbaijani army officer who had been serving a life sentence in Hungary for the brutal murder of an Armenian officer in Budapest. They expressed in a statement “their deep concern and regret for the damage the pardon and any attempts to glorify the crime have done to the peace process and trust between the sides.”

Last week, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev pardoned Safarov, who was sentenced in 2004 for the killing of Armenian officer Gurgen Markaryan while in Hungary on a NATO language-training course. Budapest said Safarov was repatriated only after demanding and receiving assurances from the Azerbaijani Justice Ministry that Safarov's sentence would be enforced, but he received a presidential pardon hours after his return. 

Safarov was given a hero’s welcome in Azerbaijan, where thousands of people took to the streets to greet him in his native city of Sumgait. The government promoted Safarov to the rank of major, provided him with a new apartment and all the pay he had lost since his arrest eight years ago. “I feel like newly born. I never lost hope of returning to my home country, and believed that the time will come when the Supreme Commander-in-Chief resolves this issue,” Safarov told journalists on August 31.

On Monday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said his country acted within international law, and denied there was any secret deal with Baku. Reuters reported a week earlier that talks had been held over a loan from Azerbaijan to Hungary of 2-3 billion euros.

Immediately after releasing the news about Safarov’s pardon, Yerevan stated it was suspending diplomatic ties with Hungary.

Armenia said on Friday that Hungary had made a “grave mistake” by sending Safarov back to Azerbaijan. “With their joint actions, Azerbaijan and Hungary opened the door to the recurrence of such crimes,” President Serzh Sarkisian said in a comment released by his press office. It was reported that Sarkisian ordered a “high alert” for the Armenian army. “We don’t want a war, but if we have to, we will fight and win. We are not afraid of killers, even if they enjoy the protection of the head of state. They [Azerbaijan] have been warned,” Sarkisian stated on Sunday.

President Aliyev faces growing international criticism for the pardon, while the Azerbaijani public largely welcomed this decision and excused Safarov’s crime by the fact that he was traumatized because some of his relatives were killed by Armenian forces during the war over Nagorno-Karabakh, and alleged that Margarian had insulted his country’s flag.

On September 3, Russia's Foreign Ministry stated that Safarov’s release and pardon contravenes international efforts aimed at easing tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan. In Brussels, Maja Kocijancic, a spokeswoman for the EU’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, also expressed concern about the presidential pardon. “We are closely following the situation and are in contact with the relevant sides to obtain more information. And we are particularly concerned with the possible impact that these developments might have on the wider region and, therefore, we call on Azerbaijan and Armenia to exercise restraint on the ground and in public statements in order to prevent any kind of escalation of this situation.”

President Barack Obama is “deeply concerned” over Azerbaijan's pardon of a soldier who axed an Armenian to death, the White House said on August 31. “We are communicating to Azerbaijani authorities our disappointment about the decision to pardon Safarov,” said National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor, adding that “This action is contrary to the ongoing efforts to reduce regional tensions and promote reconciliation.”

Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Elman Abdullayev said at a press briefing on Saturday that the return of Safarov to Azerbaijan is a matter of relations between Azerbaijan and Hungary, which was resolved in the framework of the law and is not contrary to the norms and principles of international law. Fuad Aleskerov of Azerbaijan’s Presidential Administration told 1news.az that the decision to send Safarov back to Azerbaijan was based on the European Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons and a result of intensive negotiations with Budapest. He added that a member of the convention “may pardon transferred person in accordance with its Constitution. According to Azerbaijan’s Constitution, pardoning is the exclusive prerogative of the head of state and the President used this power by showing humanism. This is a courageous act.”

Azerbaijan’s reaction is hence that the president acted in line with Azerbaijani law and dismissed the criticism from Europe, Russia and the U.S., as well as Armenia’s reaction.

“The hysterical approach of the Armenian leadership was targeted at the local population and was meant to be a populist political show,” said Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry spokesman.