Armenian Embassy in Georgia extended a special statement about the extradition to Azerbaijan of the Azerbaijani army officer Ramil Sakhib Safarov who killed Armenian army officer Gurgen Markarian and his subsequent pardon by President Ilham Aliyev. Recall that, due to this fact Armenia suspended diplomatic relations with Hungary. Below find the full statement of the Armenian Embassy in Georgia:
«On August 31, 2012 authorities of Hungary carried out Ramil Sakhib Safarov’s extradition to Azerbaijan. Safarov is an Azerbaijani army officer who hacked to death Armenian army officer Gurgen Markarian. This horrendous crime was committed on February 19, 2004 in Hungary. It was motivated solely by the ethnicity of the victim. This murder took place when Markarian was asleep and the next victim of heinous killer could become the second Armenian officer. All these officers were taking part in courses on English language learning in the framework of NATO’s Partnership for Peace program.
Despite the fact that the Hungarian court sentenced Safarov to life imprisonment without the right of appeal until 2036, the killer was extradited to Azerbaijan, where on August 31, 2012, by a special decree of the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, he was illegally pardoned and immediately released and is now free and accepted in Azerbaijan as a hero.
We have to say that the release of Safarov was the result of a secret and dirty deal between the authorities of Hungary and Azerbaijan. This is not acceptable when the values of justice, honor and dignity are traded for the purchase of other goods. It is particularly regrettable that a country, which is a member of NATO and the EU participated in such a deal.
The President of the Republic of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan held a special meeting of the National Security Council to discuss further actions of the Armenian state in relation to the fact of extradition and subsequent immediate release of Safarov. The Armenian Foreign Ministry informed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Hungary, about the decision of the Government of Armenia to suspend all kinds of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
The President of the Republic of Armenia also held an emergency meeting with the heads of diplomatic missions in the Republic of Armenia, to inform them of the Armenian state’s position on the issue.
Based on the above mentioned, we expect an unambiguous and unequivocal reaction and response from the governments of all the countries, with which we have a partnership and friendly relations, regarding the killer and the unprecedented and outrageous extradition and release of the person who committed the murder. ”
