PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION - Gurgen Margaryan 26 hacked to death whilst asleep!
Hatred towards Armenians
BUDAPEST, HUNGARY February 19, 2004. Armenian citizen Gurgen Margaryan, 26 years old,
was hacked to death while asleep by Ramil Safarov, a Lieutenant of the Azerbaijani Army.
Both were participants of an English language training course within the framework of the
NATO-sponsored “Partnership for Peace” program held in Budapest, Hungary. The murder
occurred at 5 o'clock in the morning, while the victim was asleep.
Even though Safarov confessed to the killing, and was sentenced to a life term in Hungary,
in the past few days the government of Hungary released him to the government of Azerbaijan,
and once that event took place, the corrupt president of Azerbaijan, Aliyev, pardoned him,
and he returned with a hero's welcome.
This event took place under the umbrella of a NATO event, and it sets a very disturbing precedent
where someone who's killed in his sleep at 5 am in the morning with an axe, can see no justice.
PETITION
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Extradited Safarov Gets Apartment and the Rank of Major
15:13, September 1, 2012
According to Baku press reports, the Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan has compensated extradited
army officer Ramil Safarov with back wages for the eight years he spent in an Hungarian jail for the
murder of Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan.
The ministry also provided him with an apartment.
Safarov has already been pardoned by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
Earlier Azerbaijani Defense Minister Colonel-General Safar Abiyev granted Ramil Safarov the rank of
major.
Hetq.am
Fruitless Eulogy, Or Why Safarov Made It Back to Azerbaijan
Armen Arakelyan
September 1, 2012
The steps and declarations made by Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan regarding the secret
extradition of Azerbaijani army officer Ramil Safarov from Budapest to Baku, remind me of a
eulogy at the gravesite of one that has already died.
The bluster and bravado exhibited by Sargsyan at an assembly of the foreign diplomatic corps
In Yerevan changes nothing on the ground – Ramil Safarov is back in Azerbaijan and has been
pardoned for his heinous crime.
The murderer of Gurgen Margaryan has become a living legend.
Safarov’s safe return to his native country has less to do with any conspiracy of Hungaryor
Budapest’s betrayal of the norms of justice, than it does with the Armenian government’s near
total lack of pro-activity on the issue.
Baku never attempted to conceal its ambition to get Safarov back. This was apparent as far
back as 2004-2006 when Safarov’s murder trial was taking place. The ever-growing possibility
that Safarov would be extradited had been raised by NGOs in Armenia and by attorneys for
the Margaryan family. They pointed out that Hungaryand Azerbaijan were taking steps towards
closer commercial and political ties.
All the while, officialYerevan had nothing to say on the unfolding matter nor did it take specific
steps to halt the process we have just witnessed.
In this context, President Sargsyan’s directives are restricted to the consequences of the incident;
the man is attempting to put a brave face on what has transpired in order to justify the inaction
and short comings of his own administration.
It’s no accident that Sargsyan not only condemns the Hungarian government for the extradition,
justifiably viewing it as the consequence of a political transaction, but he also severs all
diplomatic relations and contacts with Budapest.
Yes, after what has happened, it is vital to demand an explanation from Budapest, especially
about the secret extradition of the criminal.
But, for the most part,Hungary has done nothing that it can be held accountable for in terms of
international law. It has acted according to international treaties it has signed on to, especially the
1983 Strasbourg Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons.
This document permits it to conduct the extradition. I
t also allows Bakuto free itself from carrying
out the obligations imposed by the Hungarian court.
All of this was well known in
Armenia. This is the main neglected proof that Hungary could one
day take such a step.
So what is Sargsyan now demanding from the international community – mutual understanding or
pressure on Baku? And what will it give other than some disillusioned steps at face-saving?
No one on the outside is really interested as to what will happen to Safarov. I mean, no one was
all that interested back in February 2004 right after the murder; not even NATO.
After all, it was at a NATO military exercise that Margaryan was murdered but the military alliance
avoided any political evaluation, and thus, by encouraging Baku’s anti-Armenian stance and freeing
the hands of member state Hungary, facilitating the despicable transaction between the two some
eight years later.
It was this indifference that paved the way for Aliyev to make such hysterical anti-Armenian statements
at the opening session of Euronest a few months later in Baku.
To construct your entire tactics only on the assurances of Europeans who can’t see beyond their noses
means that one has not only failed to learn the lessons of history, but that one has no diplomatic corps
to speak of as well as no national security or administrative network.
Instead, Armenia should have crafted a comprehensive diplomatic, public relations and political
environment that would have made Hungary think twice before taking such a step and which would have
prevented the United Nations, NASTO, OSCE and especially the European Union from attempting to
close their eyes.
But it would seem that Armenia’s authorities can only launch such a total PR campaign and pressure
against its own population.
When the issue comes down to inter-governmental relations and politics, Armenia is transformed into a
docile servant.
And we have seen the result.
Safarov thanks Turkey: for what?
ARMRADIO.AM
01.09.2012 15:54
Ramil Safarov, who axed Armenian army officer Gurgen Margaryan in
Budapest back in 2004, has expressed gratitude to Turkey and its
people for the kind attitude towards him.
`I know that from the very first day Turkey was demonstrating interest
towards the situation I had found myself in. I've always felt the
support of Turkey. It's a wonderful feeling to be in the motherland.
I'm glad to be with the Azerbaijani nation again. I never lost my hope
to return to motherland and I believed that the Supreme Commander
(Ilham Aliyev) would once solve the issue,' Safarov said during a
meeting with Turkish reporters, Regnum reports.
Upon his arrival in Baku Safarov was received by Azerbaijani Defense
Minister Safar Abiyev and was conferred the rank of major.
Is it a crime to be an Armenian?
SEDAT ERGİN
The suggestion that the phrase “bumped off” should be used instead of “rendered ineffective” to refer
to Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorists who are killed has caused several reactions. It was Erzurum
deputy Muhyettin Aksak of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) who made the suggestion
at his party’s bayram greetings sessions last Tuesday in the eastern province of Erzurum.
But Aksak made other problematic statements during the same session. He also said, after demanding
that “PKK members and our Kurdish brothers should not be ranked equally”: “We must separate our Kurdish
brothers from them. When we look at them [the PKK], they are nothing more than [brainwashed people],
or children of Armenian apostates, or cowards who have infiltrated our country from Syria or Iran.”
Codes of social culture
A deputy serving his second term in Parliament, representing the ruling party, used the attribution
“children of Armenian apostates” as an open insult, contemptuously.
Let’s admit that using the fact that one is of Armenian origin in a defamatory is one of those reflexes yet
to be overcome in the cognitive codes of a very wide segment of Turkey’s social culture.
This may also come up frequently in the press. The most recent outstanding example of Armenian origins
being used as an insult was in the campaign of defamation daily Yeni Şafak writer Ali Bayramoğlu was
subjected to last June.
An article appearing on the website habervaktim.com, which acts as the website of the fundamentalist daily
Vakit, claimed that Bayramoğlu had Armenian origins, and that therefore he was “acting with the incentive
of his real [hidden] identity” regarding Kurdish and Armenian matters.
‘If you are a Jew, you are already guilty’
The people targeted by this behavior are not only Armenians. It is general, and it is directed at all minorities,
at Greeks and especially at Jews.
Because this is the case, when Professor Büşra Ersanlı was arrested last year in connection with the operation
against the KCK, daily Vakit was able to assess the fact that her ex-husband Professor Cem Behar was a Jew
as one of the negative factors leading to her arrest.
Similar examples may strike you frequently in daily life in our country, which our statesmen boast of as a land
of tolerance. The issue is that such behavior is not regarded as a problem morally in social scenarios – again
for a wide segment.
It is one of the most disgraceful facets of racism that people who should be acknowledged as equal citizens
both under human measurements and at a formal level are looked down on because of their ethnic identities,
or their identities are used as insults.
The need for a hate crime law
These kinds of behaviors are known as “hate crimes” in the civilized world now, and have serious consequences.
Hate crimes are actions where a person or a group is attacked verbally or physically because of their identity
or group membership, and they have different outcomes than other categories of crime.
The difference is because in hate crimes when a person is insulted because of their social belonging or identity,
victimization is not limited to the targeted person. The “multiplier effect” of the hate feature of the crime makes
everyone who belongs to that group feel attacked.
For example, when a deputy insults the PKK as “children of Armenian apostates,” then every Armenian living
in Turkey feels insulted. When Professor Ersanlı’s having had a Jewish husband is cited as a reason for her
arrest, then every Jew living in this country is belittled.
These examples, which we come across frequently, create a very pessimistic picture of how much distance we
need to cover in the fight against hate crimes and racism in Turkey. If a law on hate crimes had been enacted in
Turkey, then the perpetrators of the examples cited above would probably have met with serious consequences.
If no law is in the horizon yet, at least it would be appropriate for the ruling party to make a gesture to reassure
Armenian citizens living in this country that it does not acknowledge the words of its Erzurum deputy, especially
right after the Ramadan Feast, when we frequently emphasize the value of fraternity.
*Sedat Ergin is a columnist for daily Hürriyet, in which this piece was published on Aug. 24. It was translated into
English by the Daily News staff.
August/25/2012
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