Ramil Safarov: Difference between revisions

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Ramil Sahib oglu Safarov (Template:Lang-az; born August 25, 1977) is a convicted murderer who, while participating in a NATO-sponsored course of studies in Budapest in 2004 as a lieutenant of the Azerbaijani army, killed a fellow attendee, Armenian Army lieutenant Gurgen Margaryan, with an axe while he was asleep.

In 2006, Safarov was sentenced to life imprisonment in Hungary with a minimum incarceration period of 30 years. On August 31, 2012, he was extradited^[2] to Azerbaijan where he was greeted as a hero,^[3][4][5] pardoned by Azerbaijani president, Ilham Aliyev despite assurances made to Hungary,^[6] promoted to the rank of major and given an apartment and over eight years in back pay.^[7] Safarov is considered a hero by many in Azerbaijan for having killed an Armenian,^[6] and was met by a crowd of supporters, draped in the Azerbaijani flag and presented with a bouquet of roses upon arrival.^[8]

Ramil Safarov was born on August 25, 1977 in the town of Jabrayil, Azerbaijan where he finished middle school. He is one of four brothers. Jabrayil was occupied by Armenian forces on Safarov's sixteenth birthday, August 26, 1993, and remains under occupation as part of the unresolved Armenia–Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. Safarov's family fled to Baku in 1991. During a court hearing, Safarov recounted memories from the years of war, during which he had lost family members.^[9] This, however, contradicted another version he told the court, where he stated that he was studying in Azerbaijan's capital of Baku and in Turkey from 1992 to 1996.^[9] He continued his studies at a military school in Turkey, graduating in 2000, after which he returned to Azerbaijan.^[10]

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In January 2004, Hungary was hosting a NATO Partnership for Peace program, where military personel from different countries were attending to participate in an English language course. Gurgen Margaryan, Hayk Makuchyan and Safarov were all participants in this program. Margaryan was a 26-year-old engineer who was serving as a lieutenant in the Armenian Army.

At 7:00pm on February 18th, Safarov bought an axe near Tesco at Népstadion^{[1][unreliable source?]}. On the night of February 19, 2004, Safarov grabbed the axe and went to Lt. Gurgen Margaryan's room, which he was sharing with his Hungarian roommate, Balázs Kuti. Then he proceeded to hack Margaryan with the axe, while he was sleeping. The muffled noises woke up Kuti, who cried for him to stop. According to Kuti, "he was happy, as if he finished an important work. I was shocked, I ran out to call anybody, Ramil went away."

After murdering the Armenian Lieutenant, Ramil went to repeat his crime against the other Armenian officer, Hayk Makuchyan, when in the corridor he met an Uzbek officer and tried to convince him to join him in the killing. The Uzbek officer tried to calm the murderer but he failed to.

Safarov arrived at Makuchyan’s room, but the door was locked. He shouted out Makuchyan’s name. Half sleeping Makuchyan wanted to open the door, but his Lithuanian roommate saved his life twice – he stopped Hayk and called his compatriot next door to check what was going on. Safarov kept running through all the rooms trying to get Makuchyan, when the police arrived shortly.^[11]

Safarov was arrested by Hungarian police in connection with the murder of Armenian fellow participant Gurgen Margaryan. He told the police he was revengeful against the entire Armenian nation.^[11] The defense asserted that the murder was commited because Margaryan had insulted the Azerbaijani flag. No witnesses were called to corroborate this account.^[9] According to Balázs Kuti, Margaryan's roommate, Margaryan and Safarov, and generally the rest of the officers, had never had any conflict.^[11]

During his first interrogation, about his motives Safarov stated:

In addition I feel sorry that I haven’t killed any Armenian. My army sent me to this training and being here I have to face the fact that two Armenian were learning with me and I have to say that because of personal effectiveness the feeling of animosity grow up in me. In the beginning we were greeting each other, rather to say they said hi to me, but I didn’t accept it and curiosity in the whole thing was that when they walked close to me they were mumbled something in Armenian and laughed at me. That was the time when I decided that I will kill these two persons, the Armenians, I will cut their head off.^{[1][unreliable source?]}

I’m being a soldier since 14 years now, but I cannot give an answer whether I would kill if I would be a civil person. I didn’t wondering [sic] on the question whether I would kill Armenians if I would be a civil [sic]. My job is to kill all, because until they live we will suffer.^{[1][unreliable source?]}

Asked by interrogator as to why he threw the cigarette he lit after the murder onto the victim's body, Safarov responds:

Since I hate [Armenians] so much and I was prepared for the revenge for so long it was a relieve for me. As long as I didn’t care about him it didn’t mean whether I threw the cigarette onto the ground, or on his bed or into his eyes.^{[1][unreliable source?]}

A postmortem concluded that Safarov had delivered sixteen blows to Margaryan's face, nearly severing his head from his body.^[9] Earlier, a briefing given by the Hungarian police added that Margaryan had also been stabbed several times in the chest. After he killed Margaryan, Safarov headed for the room of Hayk Makuchyan, another Armenian program participant, with the intention of also attacking him, but discovered his door was locked. In the meantime, Balázs Kuti (Margaryan's Hungarian roommate) had run out of his room and summoned the police, who promptly arrived at the scene and arrested Safarov. During interrogation he confessed to killing Margaryan. ^[12]

On April 13, 2006, the court sentenced Safarov to life imprisonment without possibility of appeal until 2036.^[9] The judge, Andras Vaskuti, cited the premeditated nature and brutality of the crime and the fact that Safarov showed no remorse for his deeds as the reasons for the sentence.^[9] A lawyer representing the victim's family welcomed the sentence as a "good decision for the Hungarian court and for [Armenian] society".^[13] On February 22, 2007, a Hungarian court upheld the ruling following an appeal filed by Safarov's lawyer.^[14]

While serving his sentence, Safarov translated several novels by Hungarian authors into Azeri.^[15]

The banned radical Azerbaijan National Democrat Party awarded Ramil Safarov with the title of "Man of the Year 2005" for killing an Armenian. The US Government House Committee on Foreign Affairs condemned Azerbaijan's reaction to the brutal murder of the Armenian officer in a hearing:

The Azerbaijani government has also consistently failed to condemn Ramil Safarov, an Azeri military officer who in 2003 [sic] brutally murdered an Armenian participant at a NATO Partnership for Peace military training exercise in Budapest, Hungary. Instead, it has encouraged domestic media and various organizations to treat the murderer as a celebrity. That individual has since been awarded the title of ‘‘Man of the Year’’ by Azerbaijan’s National-Democratic Party.^[16]

After serving eight years of the life sentence, Safarov was extradited under the framework guidelines of the 1983 Strasbourg Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons, and transferred to Azerbaijan on August 31, 2012.^[17] Although the Hungarian government stated that it had received assurances from the Azerbaijan government that the remainder of the sentence would be enforced, President Ilham Aliyev issued a pardon immediately upon Safarov's arrival in Baku and ordered that he be "freed from the term of his punishment."^[18][19]

After arriving in Baku, Safarov stated: "This is the restoration of justice. It was a little surprise for me."^[20] He then visited Martyrs' Lane to lay flowers at the tomb of Azerbaijan's former president Heydar Aliyev. He also laid flowers at the Eternal Flame monument and visited a monument to Turkish soldiers.^[21]

External videos
Protesters burn the Hungarian flag in Yerevan on YouTube

President Serzh Sargsyan announced Armenia's suspension of diplomatic relations and all official communications with Hungary on the day of Safarov's release.^[22] "This is not a simple murder. It is murder on ethnic grounds," he said.^[23]

He suggested the possibility that Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev and Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán had entered into a secret agreement during the latter's visit to Baku on June 30, 2012.^[22] Media sources have also speculated that Hungary's deepening economic ties with Azerbaijan may have had something to do with Safarov's release.^[19] Sargsyan concluded his statements by saying, "with their joint actions, Azerbaijan and Hungary opened the door to the recurrence of such crimes."^[24]

Demonstrations took place in front of the Hungarian consulate in Yerevan, during which the building was pelted with tomatoes. Demonstrators also burned a Hungarian flag. A photo of Safarov was also burned by the activists.^[25] National Assembly Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan postponed his visit to Hungary planned for late September.^[26][27]

Hayk Makuchyan, whom Safarov unsuccessfuly planned to kill on the same night as Margaryan, stated that he will petition to all judicial instances and possibly The Hague, since the murder was committed on ethnic grounds, adding: "I had no doubt that Ramil Safarov would not have served his sentence in the case of an extradition. But the Azerbaijani leadership’s cynicism surpassed everything."^[28]

Azerbaijani Defense Minister Safar Abiyev promoted Safarov to the rank of major and the Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan provided him with an apartment.^[29] On September 1, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Elman Abdullayev said that the return of Safarov to Azerbaijan is a matter of relations between Azerbaijan and Hungary, which was resolved in the "framework of the law and is not contrary to norms and principles of the international law." He described Sargsyan's statements as "hysterical" and accused him of being one of the leaders of the group that committed the "Khojaly genocide".^[30]

Novruz Mammadov, the head of the presidential foreign relations department, claimed that secret talks had been going on for a year between Azerbaijan and Hungary, and that agreement had been reached on the visit of Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán.^[31]

On September 2 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Hungary announced the country "refuses to accept and condemns the action of Azerbaijan, which contradicts the relevant rules of international law and sharply contrasts the undertaking of the Azerbaijani side in this matter, confirmed by the Deputy Minister of Justice of the Republic of Azerbaijan in his letter." The press release also states that "Hungary regards the decision of Azerbaijan inconsistent with the spirit of cooperation based on mutual trust that has been achieved during the past years between our respective countries."^[32]

The opposition parties strongly criticized Viktor Orbán and his cabinet for the move.^[33] Representatives of MSZP, the largest opposition party, called for various subcommittees of the parliament to examine who exactly made the decision and why the procedure was kept secret. MSZP had been in power until 2010, and had refused to release Safarov.^[34]

Both the United States National Security Council and the State Department expressed concern over the matter and reported that Azerbaijan had been asked to explain its decision.^[35][36]

The Azeri foreign ministry responded, "the fact that the U.S. government interferes in the relations of two independent states – Azerbaijan and Hungary – is puzzling," and suggested that the US response was connected to the elections in U.S.^[37]

• Supposed English transcript of the investigation:
  • Interrogation of Safarov
  • Interrogation of Margaryan's roommate

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