11 Years With No Justice

• 02.19.2015, 15:48
•  Region,  World,  Armenia

On the 11^th anniversary of Gurgen Margaryan’s murder, the Armenian community in Hungary addressed Hungary's Defense Ministry with a request to install a memorial plaque on the building where the Armenian soldier was killed, news.am reports.  

On Fabruary 19, 2004 Lieutenant of the Armenian Armed Forces Gurgen Margaryan, while asleep was hacked to death by Lieutenant Ramil Safarov in Budapest. Both of them were participating in a three-month English language course in the framework of NATO Partnership for Peace program. After killing Margaryan, Safarov went forward with his plan to murder another Armenian officer, Makuchyan, but found his door locked.

In 2006, Budapest District Court sentenced Safarov to life imprisonment. Later on an Azerbaijani officer appealed against the verdict, but this appeal was rejected in 2007. It was only years later, in 2012, that Safarov was extradited to Azerbaijan. Moreover, he was not only pardoned by the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, but also was called a hero and was granted the rank of major. The Azerbaijani authorities started to proclaim that this was done for the benefit of the nation. Nevertheless, even in existence of such a dictatorship there were Azerbaijanis who dared to criticize their authorities and what Safarov had done.

The decision by the Azerbaijani President to pardon Ramil Safarov led widespread international condemnation from international organizations, governments as well as NGOs.

Armenia's response was more than natural. Official Yerevan suspended diplomatic ties with Hungary and instructed the Ministry of Justice to petition to the international judicial tribunals. The Armenian authorities addressed a note verbale to the President of the United Nations Human Rights Council, calling on member States to condemn Safarov pardon and release.

In 2013 Hayk Makuchyan and the legal successors of Gurgen Margaryan appealed to the European Court of Human Rights. The appeal was with respect to Articles 2 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights. On May, 2014 the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of PACE adopted a resolution which condemned "the use of Article 12 of the Convention by Azerbaijan in the case of Mr Safarov, as a violation of the principles of good faith in international relations and of the rule of law."

11 years passed, but the hostile moods in Azerbaijan against Armenians have not changed. Moreover, day by day the authorities of Azerbaijan increase their war rhetoric and hate speeches against Armenians. Even the President Ilham Aliyev does not miss any opportunity to declare about its intentions to "invade" Yerevan and to claim that the whole territory of Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic were historically Azerbaijani lands, forgetting a "small" nuance – Azerbaijanis as a nation were formed only in the 20th century.