Gurgen Margaryan

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Gurgen Margaryan
September 26, 1978 – February 19, 2004
Place of birth	Yerevan, Armenia
Place of death	Budapest, Hungary
Allegiance	Armenia
Service/branch	Armenian Army
Rank	Lieutenant

Gurgen Margaryan (Armenian Գուրգեն Մարգարյան; September 26, 1979 - February 19, 2004) was an Armenian lieutenant who was murdered by fellow student and Azerbaijani officer Ramil Safarov On February 19, 2004. His body is buried at Yerablur military cemetery.

Contents 1 Education 2 Murder 3 Trial and verdict 4 Armenian Response 5 Azeri Response 6 See also 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Education

Margaryan was born in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. He received his secondary education at School No. 122 in Yerevan and subsequently graduated from the State Engineering University of Armenia with a bachelor's degree in engineering. After completing his mandatory military service term, Gurgen Margaryan became an officer in the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia with the rank of lieutenant.

[edit] Murder

On January 11, 2004, he left for Budapest to participate in a three-month English language course which was part of the Partnership for Peace NATO-sponsored program. On February 19th he was axed while asleep by a fellow Azerbaijani participant, Lieutenant Ramil Safarov. The murder occurred at 5 a.m. in the morning, while the victim was asleep. Gurgen's Hungarian roommate, Kuti Balash, remembers that on the evening of February 18th Kuti had tea and went to bed, as he had fever, while Gurgen Margaryan kept on studying. Around 9:30 p.m. Margaryan went to visit another program participant from Armenia—Hayk Makuchyan—who was staying in another room.

Balash does not remember when Gurgen came back, but early in the morning he felt that someone turned on the light. He thought it was Gurgen returning to the room, but after hearing some muffled sounds, he turned his head away from the wall and saw the Azerbaijani officer standing by Gurgen’s bed, with a long axe in his hands:

By that time I understood that something terrible had happened for there was blood all around. I started to shout at the Azerbaijani urging him to stop it. He said that had no problems with me and would not touch me, stabbed Gurgen a couple of more times and left. The expression of his face was as if he was glad he had finished something important.^[1]

A postmortem concluded that Safarov had delivered 16 blows to Margaryan's face, nearly severing his head from the rest of his body.^[2] Earlier, a briefing given by the Hungarian police had added that Margaryan had also been stabbed several times in the chest. After he killed Margaryan, Safarov went forward with his plans to murder Makuchyan, but later found out that his door was locked. Balash had ran out of his room and summoned the help of police, who promptly arrived at the scene and arrested Safarov. During interrogation, he fully confessed to killing Margaryan.^[1]

[edit] Trial and verdict

During the trial, Safarov's lawyers attempted to convince judge that he had an unstable mind and claimed that he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. They argued that he had gone through psychological trauma during the Nagorno-Karabakh War, and that he and his family had allegedly been subject to Armenian atrocities in the region of Jabrayil.^[3] One mental health examination conducted by an Azerbaijani doctor concluded that he was not "entirely sane"; another one, however, found that Safarov was of stable mind at the time of the murder and the judge chose to believe this assessment. The Azerbaijani physician also stated, through a conversation he had had with Safarov, that one of his motives included the belief that Margaryan had insulted the Azerbaijani flag among other participants in the NATO seminar, although no witnesses were called up by the defense to attest if such an incident took place.^[2]

On April 16, 2006, Safarov was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of appeal until 2036.^[2] The judge, Andras Vaskuti, cited his reasons for the particular brutality of Safarov's crime and the fact that he had shown no remorse over his actions.^[2]

[edit] Armenian Response

Armenia's ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed "its outrage and most vehemently condemns this crime," and stated that it "expects that international organizations will assess this crime appropriately and react. At the same time, we demand that the Hungarian authorities punish the perpetrator to the maximum extent of the law. The Armenian Foreign Ministry expresses its condolences to the family, relatives and colleagues of Lieutenant Gurgen Margarian."^[4]

[edit] Azeri Response

Many officials in Azerbaijan have both publicly condemned and praised the actions of Ramil Safarov. Zardusht Alizade, an Azeri political scientist, has said that Safarov may be raised to the status of a national hero, if not recognized as someone who had committed a crime, for which he must be punished. Elmira Suleymanova, the human rights commissioner of Azerbaijan, stated that, "Safarov must become an example of patriotism for the Azerbaijani youth."^[5] Fuad Agayev, a prominent Azeri lawyer, said that Azeris "have to urgently stop this current campaign to raise Safarov to the rank of national hero. He is no hero.”^[2]

An Azerbaijani human rights ombudsman later declared that Safarov's punishment was far too harsh, reasoning that his choice to murder Margaryan was instead a “model of patriotism for Azerbaijani youth.”^[2]

[edit] See also

• Anti-Armenianism

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Budapest Case - on the murder of Lt. Gurgen Margaryan: Safarov's testimony, eye-witness accounts, Armenian and Azerbaijani Responses