ARMENIAN COMMUNITY OF LITHUANIA STAGES PROTEST AGAINST RAMIL SAFAROV RELEASE
ARMENPRESS
10 September, 2012
YEREVAN
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 10, ARMENPRESS: Lithuania's Armenian community
staged an action on Thursday in protest of Azerbaijan's decision
to pardon and promote the country's officer Ramil Safarov who
has killed an Armenian soldier with an axe. The Armenians urged
Lithuania's administration and all of the European Union (EU) to
strongly condemn the event, reports Armenpress citing 15min.it. Over 50
Armenians gathered outside the Hungarian Embassy in Vilnius on Thursday
afternoon, holding slogans "Justice for Sale," "Honest Hungarians are
With Us" and "Azeri Oil Bought Europe" in sign of indignation over
Hungary's decision to extradite Safarov. "There is one objective-all
civilized and democratic countries in Europe should pay attention to
the intolerable development," director Marat Sargsiyan, one of the
organizers of the campaign, told journalists. "The European Parliament
only said it was calling for restraint and avoidance of conflicts,
however, this is not an answer. It is shameful that the European
Parliament, Europe and the democratic society have responded to this
event this way. I invite the administration of Lithuania to pay its
attention, if this happened to Armenia today, it can happen to anyone
tomorrow," he said. The protest action involved Armenians from across
Lithuania. Holding the posters, the participants marched from the
Hungarian Embassy to the Embassy of Azerbaijan. After being tense
for a long time, Armenian-Azerbaijani clashes lately heightened after
Azerbaijan pardoned and promoted Azerbaijani officer, Safarov. "The
Ministry of Foreign Affairs supported the concern raised by the EU
regarding the situation, which had resulted from actions taken by
the government of Azerbaijan in relation to Ramil Safarov and called
on the countries to find a way to defuse the tension and renew the
dialogue based on the generally recognized norms of international law.
We sincerely hope that Lithuanian citizens of the Armenian and
Azerbaijani background will contribute to these efforts," the
Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said. On 31 August,
Hungary handed over Safarov to Baku. He had been sentenced to life
imprisonment in Budapest without the right to be pardoned. He killed
Armenian officer Gurgen Margarian, 30, at a Budapest military academy
in 2004. Nevertheless, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev pardoned
him the same day after he was extradited. Armenia and Azerbaijan
waged a bloody war in the 1990s over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
ARMENPRESS
10 September, 2012
YEREVAN
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 10, ARMENPRESS: Lithuania's Armenian community
staged an action on Thursday in protest of Azerbaijan's decision
to pardon and promote the country's officer Ramil Safarov who
has killed an Armenian soldier with an axe. The Armenians urged
Lithuania's administration and all of the European Union (EU) to
strongly condemn the event, reports Armenpress citing 15min.it. Over 50
Armenians gathered outside the Hungarian Embassy in Vilnius on Thursday
afternoon, holding slogans "Justice for Sale," "Honest Hungarians are
With Us" and "Azeri Oil Bought Europe" in sign of indignation over
Hungary's decision to extradite Safarov. "There is one objective-all
civilized and democratic countries in Europe should pay attention to
the intolerable development," director Marat Sargsiyan, one of the
organizers of the campaign, told journalists. "The European Parliament
only said it was calling for restraint and avoidance of conflicts,
however, this is not an answer. It is shameful that the European
Parliament, Europe and the democratic society have responded to this
event this way. I invite the administration of Lithuania to pay its
attention, if this happened to Armenia today, it can happen to anyone
tomorrow," he said. The protest action involved Armenians from across
Lithuania. Holding the posters, the participants marched from the
Hungarian Embassy to the Embassy of Azerbaijan. After being tense
for a long time, Armenian-Azerbaijani clashes lately heightened after
Azerbaijan pardoned and promoted Azerbaijani officer, Safarov. "The
Ministry of Foreign Affairs supported the concern raised by the EU
regarding the situation, which had resulted from actions taken by
the government of Azerbaijan in relation to Ramil Safarov and called
on the countries to find a way to defuse the tension and renew the
dialogue based on the generally recognized norms of international law.
We sincerely hope that Lithuanian citizens of the Armenian and
Azerbaijani background will contribute to these efforts," the
Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said. On 31 August,
Hungary handed over Safarov to Baku. He had been sentenced to life
imprisonment in Budapest without the right to be pardoned. He killed
Armenian officer Gurgen Margarian, 30, at a Budapest military academy
in 2004. Nevertheless, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev pardoned
him the same day after he was extradited. Armenia and Azerbaijan
waged a bloody war in the 1990s over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh.