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In the Armenian Church of St. John the Baptist (St. Hovhannes Mkrtich) in Paris service for the peace of soul of Gurgen Margaryan, killed by Azerbaijani Ramil Safarov, was held.

At the service, held on February 16, the employees of the Armenian Embassy in France, the NKR representatives, members of Armenian Organizations in France and local Armenian community were present.

Upon completion of the church-event those gathered there marched to Yerevan Park in Paris, where, on behalf of the Armenians of Armenian Republic, NKR and France laid wreaths and flowers at the monument to Komitas. The procession was headed by the RA Ambassador to France Vigen Chitechyan.

In 2004, Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan was taking part in a three-month English course of NATO “Partnership for Peace” in Budapest. Early in the morning of February 19 he was murdered. The murderer – Azerbaijani officer Ramil Safarov - delivered 16 blows of ax to the face of the sleeping Armenian officer. As a result, the Hungarian court found him sane and sentenced him to life imprisonment without a right of pardon for 30 years. The news about the extradition of Ramil Safarov to his homeland and pardon by the Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev broke out on August 31.

The pardoned murderer Ramil Safarov was greeted as a hero in Azerbaijan; he was given an apartment and was paid an officer salary for 8 years spent in detention. Moreover, Safarov was breveted Major by the Minister of Defense of Azerbaijan, who also wished him "every success."

Because of Safarov’s extradition to Azerbaijan the president of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan announced the suspension of diplomatic relations with Hungary. Safarov’s extradition, pardon, and glorification in Azerbaijan was condemned by the US president Barack Obama, US State Department, Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Russia and France, Secretary General of Council of Europe, Secretary General of CSTO, NATO, and international human rights organizations. In addition to that, European Parliament adopted a condemning resolution on September 13, 2012.

Today, February 19, the 10th anniversary of commemoration of Armenian officer’s death. To the 10th anniversary of Gurgen Margaryan’s murder in the frameworks of the "Ordinary Genocide" project a video-footage has been prepared called "Azerbaijan: Racism without borders." The video footage is in English and Russian. It concisely presents the history of the murder that had stunned the world, as well as the programs following the incident and Safarov’s glorification in Azerbaijan.It is significant that the authors chose Symphony number 7 ("Leningrad") by Dmitri Shostakovich known as "the invasion of the Nazis" as a soundtrack for the footage.

The "Ordinary Genocide" project is being implemented by the Information and Public Relations Center under the RA President’s administration.