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After years of silence, RamilSafarov, the infamous “axe-murderer” from Azerbaijan, appeared in the Azerbaijani media. He showed up – presumably with demonstrative intentions – at the funeral of the pilots of a helicopter downed during the Azerbaijani-Armenian clashes erupted in early April, Hungarian journalist VörösSzabolcs writes for Origo.

According to the report, the funeral of the four-member-crew of the Mi-24 military helicopter shot down by the Armenian military personnel over the Nagorno Karabakh Republic was held on April 11 at the presence of Azerbaijan’s defense minister.

The author emphasizes that at the funeral, a rarely-seen figure appeared: he was RamilSafarov who murdered his sleeping fellow Armenian soldier, GurgenMargaryan at a NATO military course “Partnership for Peace” held in Budapest in 2004. The author reminds that Safarov was life sentenced in Hungary in 2007 and in autumn of 2012, he was transferred to his homeland where – despite Azerbaijan’s guarantee and instead of prison guards – presidentIlhamAliyev welcomed him with a pardon. prison guards – president IlhamAliyev welcomed him with a pardon. He also appointed the former imprisoned lieutenant to major who got his 8-year military pay in one sum.
“After the scandal he was hidden from publicity, right until now. Although he was not specifically named by the Azerbaijani media, he appears in a few pictures about the funeral published by the Russian-language website Vesti.az – the state news agency Azertag was not that careless,” Szabolcs notes.

In 2004, the Armenian officer GurgenMargaryan took part in the three-month English courses of the NATO titled "Partnership for Peace" in Budapest. He was killed on 19 February, early in the morning. Murderer, Azerbaijani officer RamilSafarov struck in the face of sleeping Armenian officer with an ax for 16 times. Subsequently he was recognized as imputable by the Hungarian court and was sentenced to life imprisonment without right of pardon for 30 years. On August 31 it was stated that RamilSafarov will be extradited to his fatherland and was pardoned by the decree of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

In Azerbaijan, the pardoned murderer RamilSafarovwas met as a hero, he was given a department and was paid and officer salary for the 8 years he had spent in prison. In addition, Azerbaijan’s Defense Minister awarded Safarov with a special rank of mayor wishing him “further success.”
In connection with the extradition of Safarov to Azerbaijan, Armenian President SerzhSargsyan announced a termination of diplomatic relations with Hungary.

U.S. President Barack Obama, the U.S. Department of State, Foreign Ministries of Russia and France, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Secretary General of the CSTO, NATO and international organizations of human rights condemned Safarov’s extradition, pardoning and glorification in Azerbaijan. On September 13, European Parliament adopted the resolution of condemnation too.

To the 10th anniversary of GurgenMargaryan’s murder, in the frameworks of "Ordinary Genocide" project, a video-footage has been prepared called "Azerbaijan: Racism has no borders." The footage is in English, Russian, and Hungarian. It concisely presents the history of a murder, which shocked the world, as well as the subsequent transfer and glorification of Safarov in Azerbaijan. It is significant that the authors chose a part of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7 (called Leningrad) known as invasion of fascists as the soundtrack.

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