Dear President, colleagues,
I would like to bring up an issue that raises our deep concern and directly affects
- not only the fragile equilibrium in South Caucases region
- but also challenges our common values shared by the members of the Council of Europe.
This is the issue of transfer of Ramil Safarov from Hungary to Azerbaijan and his consequent pardon by the President of that country.
But first, let me briefly recall the background of the issue before coming to the core message.
Read also
Ramil Safarov is an Azerbaijani serviceman imprisoned in Hungary since 19 February 2004, sentenced to life imprisonment for hacking Armenian Lt.Gurgen Margaryan to death with an axe in 2004 in Budapest. Safarov killed Armenian Lt Margaryan when he was asleep in his room at a military academy in Budapest, where both servicemen attended NATO English-language courses. Safarov is trying to kill also the second Armenian servicemen, who slept in other room, but fortunately others prevented that.
In 2006 the Hungarian court of first instance sentenced Safarov to life imprisonment without the right to apply for parole until 2036. The Court took into account the premeditated nature and brutality of the crime and the fact that Safarov showed no remorse for his deeds. The Hungarian Cassation court upheld the ruling following an appeal filed by Safarov’s lawyer.
Ever since the court decision Azeri authorities were trying to persuade Hungarian side to extradite Safarov to Azerbaijan. But given the fact that Ramil Safarov’s crime was glorified in Azerbaijan and he himself was treated as a hero, as an example to be followed by the youth Armenia expressed its concern over such a possibility. And the Armenian government has been in contact with the Hungarian authorities over this issue permanently and received the latter’s assurances that the issue of extraditions is not on the agenda. Last time we received such assurances is a week ago.
However, contrary to all those assurances, on 31 August 2012 Hungary transferred Ramil Safarov to Azerbaijan to serve the remainder of his sentence there, after presumably receiving assurances from the government in Baku that his sentence would be enforced. On the same day by the decree of the President of Azerbaijan he was immediately pardoned and set free. On the same day he was promoted from lieutenant to the rank of a major, the Azeri state also gave him a new apartment and 8 years’ worth of military salary to compensate for the years he spent in the Hungarian jail-cell.
Without going into details of the portion of responsibility Hungary bears in this matter and the obvious naivety of the legal explanation given by the Hungarian Authorities over Safarov’s transfer, I would like to touch upon the two other aspects of the issue.
First, Safarov had been transferred to Baku on the basis of a 1983 Strasbourg Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons guaranteeing convicted prisoners the right to serve their punishment in their home country. However, clemency granted to Ramil Safarov on the day of his arrival by the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, reveals some shortcomings of the convention. It is evident that we could not always count on the good faith of the countries to which sentenced persons are transferred, and as we have seen some of them are ready to abuse the rights provided for in the convention.
Secondly, according to the judgement, the horrendous manslaughter took place only because Gurgen Margaryan was an Armenian, as murderer admitted himself during the testimony. The environment of glorification and justification of the murderous act of Ramil Safarov has been cultivated in Azerbaijan at official level, including the level of President of Azerbaijan. It is noteworthy that this heinous crime has consistently received public praise at an official level in Azerbaijan. Ombudsperson of Azerbaijan called the murderer example of patriotism for the Azerbaijani youth. In 2005, Safarov was awarded the “Man of the Year 2005″ by the National Democratic Party of Azerbaijan for his deed.
On the day of his arrival to Baku and after he was set free he was paraded around as a hero during celebrations hosted by the Azeri state. By the way, during the celebrations he has been accompanied by the members of Azerbaijani delegation in PACE, which is also an alarming signal.
May also I remind you the words of the then Permanent Representative of Azerbaijan to the Council of Europe Agshin Mehdiyev: “I do not advise Armenians to sleep safely until the Karabakh conflict is settled. Incidents like in Budapest cannot be ruled out.”
By the way – nobody in this organisation reacted to those words.
All these developments indicate clearly the level of state sponsored policy of cultivating racist and xenophobic anti-Armenian sentiments in the society. This is a very dangerous and worrisome sign not only for Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia but also for the whole system of values that we share and committed ourselves to promote and upheld. We cannot ignore these developments, we cannot stand aside, we have to react.
Armenia expects that this time the Council of Europe will react promptly and accordingly to these unacceptable developments which have undermined respect for justice, human rights and human dignity and challenge the very essence of the Council of Europe values and commitments. Otherwise it may give rise to and nourish racial discrimination, xenophobia, and intolerance in a Council of Europe member state. We shouldn’t allow the slaughterers to think that they can enjoy impunity for the murder driven by ethnic or religious hatred.
We would encourage clear and unambiguous message of PACE in this matter, most relevant though the organizing of debates under urgent procedure.
It’s our responsibility – legal and moral – to show consistency that values do not only have to be preached, but also upheld. Otherwise by our non-actions we will wilfully support the cause of a brutal murderer driven by nationalism and ethnic hatred. Moreover, the refusal to have our say will put at stake the credibility of the whole idea of Convention system of our Organization, let alone the human rights, democracy and rule of law.
Silence and indifference, ambiguous and vague statements of PACE are not anymore an option.