Convicted Azerbaijani military officer receives promotion

Safarov, a Lieutenant at the time, gained notoriety in 2004 when he hacked Gurgen Margaryan, a colleague form Armenia, to death with an axe while attending a NATO workshop as part of the Partnership for Peace program. A Hungarian court sentenced Safarov to life imprisonment. His lawyers and public defenders appealed, citing psychological trauma. Several members of his family were killed in 1993 when Armenian troops seized his village in the Jebrail region of Azerbaijan. However, an examination found him sane at the time of the crime.

Safarov spent eight years in a Hungarian prison. He learned Hungarian during this time, and translated several classics of Hungarian literature into Azerbaijani.

Hungary unexpectedly decided to transfer Safarov to Azerbaijan to serve out the rest of his sentence in 2012. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev pardoned and freed him from the rest of his sentence the same day. In Azerbaijan Safarov received an apartment as a gift and was promoted from Lieutenant to Major (bypassing the rank of Captain). He also received eight years worth of back pay for the time he spent in prison.

The decision to transfer Safarov to Azerbaijan led to Armenia severing diplomatic ties with Hungary. Numerous representatives of international organizations have condemned Safarov’s liberation and heroization. President Aliyev has dismissed these accusations as ‘unreasonable’.