Hungarian intellectuals apologize to Margaryan’s family
A group of Hungarian intellectuals today visited the tomb of Gurgen Margaryan, an Armenian officer killed by Azerbaijani Ramil Safarov during a Budapest-hosted NATO training event in 2004.
Hungarian historian Zoltan Biro, theologian Gabor Ivanyi, journalist Gabor Deak and writer Rudolf Ungvary arrived in Yerevan to apologize for actions of Hungarian government.
Zoltan Biro says that everyone in his country regards the step of the Hungarian authorities as a grave and unforgivable blunder; Safarov's transfer was an incomprehensible and unacceptable political decision, which was severe criticized by the majority of Hungarians.
"A country like Hungary has no right to interfere in the Armenian-Hungarian conflict. We would like to help you in this issue, but we know that we cannot do anything," he said.
For his turn, Armenian writer and publicists Zori Balayan said the most important thing for Armenians is to continue the struggle in a literate way. "Safarov's extradition and pardoning show that Karabakh cannot be a part of the country that glorifies an axe-killer," he said.
Cadets and students of Armenians military academies participated in the event.
On April 16, 2006, the Hungarian court sentenced Azerbaijani officer Ramil Safarov to life imprisonment without possibility of appeal until 2036. However, in August 2012, Hungarian authorities extradited Safarov to Azerbaijan to serve the remainder of his sentence there. Upon his arrival in Azerbaijan, Safarov was pardoned by President Ilham Aliyev and immediately promoted to the rank of major.
