Extradition of Azerbaijani officer Ramil Safarov and Azerbaijani president's decision to pardon the murderer hinder confidence building between Armenia and Azerbaijan, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in a joint press conference with President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, Thursday in Yerevan.

Lithuania is interested in stability of the South Caucasus, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Audronis Azubalis said at the Ministerial Meeting of Nordic Baltic Eight, NBB in Vilnius, when commenting on extradition of Azerbaijani murderer Ramil Safarov and Yerevan's protests against that.

In connection with the extradition and presidential pardon for Ramil Safarov, Acting Foreign Minister of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Vassily Atajanyan addressed a letter to the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Ireland's Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore.

Turkey was not involved in any phase of recent tension between Azerbaijan and Armenia, Foreign Ministry spokesman Selcuk Unal said on Wednesday.

Armenian public organizations of Estonia have appealed to Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Hungary in Estonia Mr. Erik Haupt with an open letter demanding apologies by the Hungarian Government to the family of the murdered Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan and the Armenian people.

Justice Ministry of Hungary was surprised at pardon granted to Azerbaijani murderer Ramil Safarov after he was extradited from Hungary, says the statement by the Justice Ministry of Hungary.

The fact that Safarov.s crime was committed on European territory in the context of an event to which both victim and culprit were guests of NATO means this case cannot be seen in the context of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations alone.

"The Strasbourg Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced People should not be abused for political purpose," European Parliament President Martin Schulz made the following statement after Ramil Safarov was pardoned by Azerbaijan's President.

Critical stage has come in the Karabakh negotiating process because of Ramil Safarov's pardoning, political expert, Stepan Grigoryan, said at today's press-conference.

The Armenian National Assembly has launched debates on a draft statement on extradition of Ramil Safarov, who killed Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan, by the Hungarian authorities and his pardoning by the Azerbaijani president.