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UNPUNISHED AXE-MURDER IS AN INTERNATIONAL TRAVESTY
Tuesday, February 18th, 2014
Armenian Army Lieutenant Gourgen Margaryan
BY ARA KHACHATOURIAN
On August 31, 2011, the world watched silently--with the exception
of Armenians and some restrained condemnations from international
leaders--as Ramil Safarov was set free and returned to Azerbaijan
where he received a hero's welcome and was glorified by none other
than Azeri President Ilham Aliyev.
Safarov was the Azeri soldier who on February 19, 2004 picked up
an axe and murdered Armenian soldier Gourgen Margaryan while he was
sleeping in his bunker in Budapest, Hungary while both were attending
a training program as part of NATO's Partnership for Peace Program.
The muted outrage at the time of the murder, coupled with the muffled
condemnation of Hungary's decision to extradite a man who was convicted
and sentenced serves as a reminder that the international community,
especially the West, which has proclaimed itself the arbiter of human
rights, is nothing but a farce and an accomplice in the gross breach
of justice.
The Margaryan family was joined by the entire Armenian nation in
mourning and in shock of the gruesome crime and were forced to
re-live that horror when Hungary decided to extradite Safarov and
his subsequent glorification when he returned to Azerbaijan.
For all intents and purposes, Margaryan's murder remains an unpunished
crime and, save for the intermittent reminders by the Armenian people,
an all but forgotten chapter in the 20 years of peace negotiations
to resolve the Karabakh conflict.
If anything, Margaryan's murder and Azerbaijan's vilification of the
victim should have demonstrated Azerbaijan's inherent and continued
anti-Armenian policy that has festered in Baku since its post-Soviet
independence (not to mention its short history as a nation). Yet this
abhorrent act and its subsequent "resolution" should have prompted
the international community, especially the co-chairing countries
of the OSCE Minsk Group, to take a hard look at one of the entities
occupying a seat at the negotiating table.
Until today, the international community's brazen disregard for
Azerbaijan's actions continues to embolden Azerbaijan to continue
its policies of hatred and military threats without any recourse or
consequence, adding to the long list of crimes committed by Azerbaijan
and gone unpunished.
Successive US administrations have successfully turned public
opinion against such leaders as Vladimir Putin of Russia, Syria's
Bashar al-Assad and more recently Viktor Yanukovych of Ukraine,
vilifying them for gross abuses of human rights and oppression of
their respective populations.
If we use the US litmus test for Russia, Syria and Ukraine
on Azerbaijan it will be extremely clear that the Baku regime
fails--miserably--on all aspects.
Quashing dissent: check. Violating speech and press freedoms: check.
Advocating hatred and xenophobia: check. Violating internationally
established guidelines: check. Pocketing the national wealth: check...
And the list goes on, including the centerpiece of America's campaign
against Putin and Russia--its treatment of the LGBT community, which
has gotten the most traction in the US.
One wonders whether systematic pogroms of Armenians in Sumgait,
Baku and Kirovabad, the reign of terror by Azeri forces against
the population of Nagorno-Karabakh, an axe murder and subsequent
glorification of its perpetrator and the continued violations of the
cease-fire qualify for the US to take a hard look at its policies
vis-a-vis Azerbaijan.
The 10th anniversary of Gourgen Margaryan's death serves an opportunity
to pose these questions, and once again, raise our voices for
unconditional justice.
http://asbarez.com/119688/unpunished-axe-murder-is-an-international-travesty/
Tuesday, February 18th, 2014
Armenian Army Lieutenant Gourgen Margaryan
BY ARA KHACHATOURIAN
On August 31, 2011, the world watched silently--with the exception
of Armenians and some restrained condemnations from international
leaders--as Ramil Safarov was set free and returned to Azerbaijan
where he received a hero's welcome and was glorified by none other
than Azeri President Ilham Aliyev.
Safarov was the Azeri soldier who on February 19, 2004 picked up
an axe and murdered Armenian soldier Gourgen Margaryan while he was
sleeping in his bunker in Budapest, Hungary while both were attending
a training program as part of NATO's Partnership for Peace Program.
The muted outrage at the time of the murder, coupled with the muffled
condemnation of Hungary's decision to extradite a man who was convicted
and sentenced serves as a reminder that the international community,
especially the West, which has proclaimed itself the arbiter of human
rights, is nothing but a farce and an accomplice in the gross breach
of justice.
The Margaryan family was joined by the entire Armenian nation in
mourning and in shock of the gruesome crime and were forced to
re-live that horror when Hungary decided to extradite Safarov and
his subsequent glorification when he returned to Azerbaijan.
For all intents and purposes, Margaryan's murder remains an unpunished
crime and, save for the intermittent reminders by the Armenian people,
an all but forgotten chapter in the 20 years of peace negotiations
to resolve the Karabakh conflict.
If anything, Margaryan's murder and Azerbaijan's vilification of the
victim should have demonstrated Azerbaijan's inherent and continued
anti-Armenian policy that has festered in Baku since its post-Soviet
independence (not to mention its short history as a nation). Yet this
abhorrent act and its subsequent "resolution" should have prompted
the international community, especially the co-chairing countries
of the OSCE Minsk Group, to take a hard look at one of the entities
occupying a seat at the negotiating table.
Until today, the international community's brazen disregard for
Azerbaijan's actions continues to embolden Azerbaijan to continue
its policies of hatred and military threats without any recourse or
consequence, adding to the long list of crimes committed by Azerbaijan
and gone unpunished.
Successive US administrations have successfully turned public
opinion against such leaders as Vladimir Putin of Russia, Syria's
Bashar al-Assad and more recently Viktor Yanukovych of Ukraine,
vilifying them for gross abuses of human rights and oppression of
their respective populations.
If we use the US litmus test for Russia, Syria and Ukraine
on Azerbaijan it will be extremely clear that the Baku regime
fails--miserably--on all aspects.
Quashing dissent: check. Violating speech and press freedoms: check.
Advocating hatred and xenophobia: check. Violating internationally
established guidelines: check. Pocketing the national wealth: check...
And the list goes on, including the centerpiece of America's campaign
against Putin and Russia--its treatment of the LGBT community, which
has gotten the most traction in the US.
One wonders whether systematic pogroms of Armenians in Sumgait,
Baku and Kirovabad, the reign of terror by Azeri forces against
the population of Nagorno-Karabakh, an axe murder and subsequent
glorification of its perpetrator and the continued violations of the
cease-fire qualify for the US to take a hard look at its policies
vis-a-vis Azerbaijan.
The 10th anniversary of Gourgen Margaryan's death serves an opportunity
to pose these questions, and once again, raise our voices for
unconditional justice.
http://asbarez.com/119688/unpunished-axe-murder-is-an-international-travesty/