Aram Abrahamyan (chief editor of Aravot Daily) answered the question why one mustn’t kill Safarov in his September 4 editorial. Find the full text below:
The events of the past few days have shown that the Azerbaijani society has serious problems. Firstly, Ilham Aliyev certainly suffers from some psychological pathologies, since he could have pretended for some time that Ramil Safarov is in jail and only after that organized that show of making him a hero. However, he probably thinks that his nation asserts itself and matures by keeping in mind the image of the one who axed a person in sleep. I think maturing by shedding innocent, defenseless blood is a continuation of a certain tradition. I am convinced that there are hundreds of Azerbaijanis who don’t like it. But taking into account the political regime in that country, their voice cannot be heard. And besides, those people account for the “overwhelming minority” – if they try to slightly condemn Safarov and Aliyev’s horrible attitude afterwards, the “patriots” will attack them so severely that they will regret for what they have said.
However, if the massive anti-Armenian psychosis is encouraged in Azerbaijan, it doesn’t mean that the same thing should be done in Armenia. The calls for organizing a terrorist operation against Safarov and placing a reward on Safarov’s head are a psychosis of the same kind – fortunately, not massive. Firstly, terrorism as a desperate move is explainable in some cases, when one doesn’t have a state. However, we have a state with its diplomatic and special services, which have done a very bad job in this story. Secondly, responding with murder to a murder, one loses his advantage, which one has gained in the propaganda and diplomacy, as a result of that imprudent step of Aliyev. On the contrary, one should patiently watch Safarov become a colonel and a general, be granted the title of national hero and ashugs dedicate their mughams to him. That sacralization of a “hero” who hacked a man and his “feat” is surely in our interest. At the end of the day, if one has decided to do something, one should do it without much talk, otherwise, it becomes mere bragging.
Not Safarov must be killed in some dark corner, but those who will encroach on our land and our borders, including the borders of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, must be killed on the battlefield, regardless of their ethnicity. And the fact that a coward who was able to “fight” a sleeping man is a hero in the neighboring country makes me think that this country doesn’t stand a chance in the war – a sick society cannot war. I would be concerned, if someone in Azerbaijan started a movement against Safarov’s acquittal.
