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Budapest Times, Hungary
Sept 8 2012
The smell of blood
Protesters call for Prime Minister Orbán to resign in wake of
Azerbaijan extradition fiasco
Posted on 08 September 2012
A crowd of about 2,000 gathered in front of the parliament building on
Tuesday to call for the resignation of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán
over his government's sanctioning the repatriation of Azeri officer
Ramil Sahib Safarov last Friday.
Safarov was serving a 30-year sentence for the premeditated murder in
2004 of a 26-year-old Armenian soldier, Gurgen Margaryan. Both were in
Budapest for English classes under NATO's Partnership for Peace
Programme. Safarov, who killed Margaryan with an axe as he slept, was
feted as a national hero and pardoned by Azeri President Ilham Aliyev
upon his return to Baku.
Tension at embassies
Hungarian police were placed on alert to prevent possible attacks on
the Azeri Embassy in Eötvös utca in District VI, which said it had
received information of a threat from Armenian terrorists.
Pro-Armenian groups also protested outside Hungarian embassies in
Kiev, Sofia and Oslo.
Call for probe
Several opposition politicians joined the protest on Kossuth tér (the
square before parliament), which was organised by the anti-government
civil movement Milla (whose roots lie in last year's protests against
restrictive media laws). Among those who took part were Gergely
Karácsony of the green-liberal LMP, Socialist politicians Zoltán Szabó
and László Kovács, and Democratic Coalition deputy chairman Csaba
Molnár.
Speaking at the event the president of Hungary's minority Armenian
Council, Sevan Serkisian, said the 1983 Strasbourg treaty under which
Safarov was transferred to Azerbaijan had been misused. Serkisian
called for Orbán to launch an investigation into the case. He also
accused the far-right party Jobbik - whose leader Gábor Vona had
declared, despite criticising Safarov's release, that `Hungary must be
one of the most important political partners of Azerbaijan' - of being
in the pay of the oil-rich Caucasian nation.
Paper promises
Appearing on Duna TV on Tuesday evening, Foreign Ministry state
secretary Zsolt Németh restated the government's line that it had
received a written guarantee Safarov would serve the remainder of his
sentence in Azerbaijan (a contention that opposition politicians have
dismissed, see page 5). `The Hungarian government did not reckon on
the Azeri side breaking its promise,' Németh said. The European Union
was not questioning Hungary's good faith in the matter, he said. `That
the two countries are building economic cooperation on the basis of
the extradition is unmitigated slander,' Németh added.
Flag burning
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan urged his countrymen, angered by the
release of Safarov, to stop burning Hungarian flags, as some had done
outside Hungary's mission in the country (pictured left). `I would
like to address our society, specifically the youth, and ask them not
to burn the flag of Hungary because the flag of Hungary is not the
flag of Hungary's party in power,' Sargsyan was quoted as saying by
Armenian online media.
`Hungary's flag is not the symbol of Hungary's prime minister,' he
said. `We have had very good relations with the Hungarians for
hundreds of years. And the inhuman act by one person or one party... or
government should not be grounds for us to become enemies with the
Hungarians.'
http://www.budapesttimes.hu/2012/09/08/the-smell-of-blood/
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Sept 8 2012
The smell of blood
Protesters call for Prime Minister Orbán to resign in wake of
Azerbaijan extradition fiasco
Posted on 08 September 2012
A crowd of about 2,000 gathered in front of the parliament building on
Tuesday to call for the resignation of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán
over his government's sanctioning the repatriation of Azeri officer
Ramil Sahib Safarov last Friday.
Safarov was serving a 30-year sentence for the premeditated murder in
2004 of a 26-year-old Armenian soldier, Gurgen Margaryan. Both were in
Budapest for English classes under NATO's Partnership for Peace
Programme. Safarov, who killed Margaryan with an axe as he slept, was
feted as a national hero and pardoned by Azeri President Ilham Aliyev
upon his return to Baku.
Tension at embassies
Hungarian police were placed on alert to prevent possible attacks on
the Azeri Embassy in Eötvös utca in District VI, which said it had
received information of a threat from Armenian terrorists.
Pro-Armenian groups also protested outside Hungarian embassies in
Kiev, Sofia and Oslo.
Call for probe
Several opposition politicians joined the protest on Kossuth tér (the
square before parliament), which was organised by the anti-government
civil movement Milla (whose roots lie in last year's protests against
restrictive media laws). Among those who took part were Gergely
Karácsony of the green-liberal LMP, Socialist politicians Zoltán Szabó
and László Kovács, and Democratic Coalition deputy chairman Csaba
Molnár.
Speaking at the event the president of Hungary's minority Armenian
Council, Sevan Serkisian, said the 1983 Strasbourg treaty under which
Safarov was transferred to Azerbaijan had been misused. Serkisian
called for Orbán to launch an investigation into the case. He also
accused the far-right party Jobbik - whose leader Gábor Vona had
declared, despite criticising Safarov's release, that `Hungary must be
one of the most important political partners of Azerbaijan' - of being
in the pay of the oil-rich Caucasian nation.
Paper promises
Appearing on Duna TV on Tuesday evening, Foreign Ministry state
secretary Zsolt Németh restated the government's line that it had
received a written guarantee Safarov would serve the remainder of his
sentence in Azerbaijan (a contention that opposition politicians have
dismissed, see page 5). `The Hungarian government did not reckon on
the Azeri side breaking its promise,' Németh said. The European Union
was not questioning Hungary's good faith in the matter, he said. `That
the two countries are building economic cooperation on the basis of
the extradition is unmitigated slander,' Németh added.
Flag burning
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan urged his countrymen, angered by the
release of Safarov, to stop burning Hungarian flags, as some had done
outside Hungary's mission in the country (pictured left). `I would
like to address our society, specifically the youth, and ask them not
to burn the flag of Hungary because the flag of Hungary is not the
flag of Hungary's party in power,' Sargsyan was quoted as saying by
Armenian online media.
`Hungary's flag is not the symbol of Hungary's prime minister,' he
said. `We have had very good relations with the Hungarians for
hundreds of years. And the inhuman act by one person or one party... or
government should not be grounds for us to become enemies with the
Hungarians.'
http://www.budapesttimes.hu/2012/09/08/the-smell-of-blood/
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress