Ramil Safarov

On the evening of February 18, Safarov bought an axe and a honing stone at Tesco, near Ferenc Puskás Stadium. He took them in the bag to his dormitory room at the Zrinyi Miklos National Defence University, where all the course participants were staying. Safarov's roommate had returned to his native Ukraine to attend the funerals of his relatives and so nobody interrupted Safarov as he sharpened the axe in his room. At around 5:00 am on February 19 Safarov took the axe and went to Margaryan's room, which he was sharing with his Hungarian roommate, Balázs Kuti. The door of their room was not locked. Safarov attacked the sleeping Margaryan with the axe and delivered 16 blows to his body, which almost severed Margaryan’s head. The noises woke up Kuti, who was shocked seeing the Azerbaijani officer standing by Gurgen’s bed with a long axe in his hands. As Kuti later testified, “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 he 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. Greatly shocked, I ran out of the room to find help, and Ramil went in another direction”.

Afterwards, Safarov headed for the room of Makuchyan, the other Armenian student, with the intention of attacking him also, but found his door locked. He shouted out Makuchyan’s name in a threatening voice. The half-sleeping Makuchyan wanted to open the door, but his Lithuanian roommate stopped him and called his compatriot next door to check what was going on. Meanwhile, Safarov went to look for Hayk in the room of the Serbian and the Ukrainian roommates, showing them the blood-stained axe and stating that he thirsted for nobody's blood but Armenian.

Soon after, the Hungarian police, which was summoned by Balázs Kuti, arrived and arrested Safarov at the scene. A Hungarian court later found that it was an attempt on Makuchyan’s life and recognized the latter also as a victim. While announcing the verdict the judge particularly emphasized that if Safarov had not been restrained by his fellow officers he would have killed the second Armenian officer as well.

Hayk Makuchyan, whom Safarov unsuccessfully planned to kill on the same night as Margaryan, stated that he will petition to all judicial instances and possibly The Hague, since the murder was committed on ethnic grounds, adding: "I had no doubt that Ramil Safarov would not have served his sentence in the case of an extradition. But the Azerbaijani leadership’s cynicism surpassed everything."

On September 19, 2013 during the opening ceremony of the "Genocide Memorial Complex built in the town of Guba to honor victims of massacres committed in the area by Armenian and Bolshevik forces in 1918", President Aliyev stated that they "restored the justice" by returning Safarov to Azerbaijan. Аzeri leader has more than once called Armenians number one enemy, while Safarov’s attorney stated at Budapest trial that "killing an Armenian is not a crime in Azerbaijan."

A Facebook page was created on September 1, apologizing for Hungarian PM's actions. The group is called "Hey Armenia, sorry about our Prime Minister" (a poster with similar title was used in fall 2011, asking EU for forgiveness for Orbán) and has more than 12,400 likes as of 27 March 2013.

In 2006, Safarov was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment in Hungary with a minimum incarceration period of 30 years. After his request under the Strasbourg Convention, he was extradited on August 31, 2012 to Azerbaijan, where he was greeted as a hero, pardoned by Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev despite contrary assurances made to Hungary, promoted to the rank of major and given an apartment and over eight years of back pay. According to Azerbaijani authorities, Safarov was pardoned in compliance with Article 12 of the convention. Following Safarov's pardon, Armenia severed diplomatic relations with Hungary and immediate protests broke out in Yerevan. The extradition was widely condemned by international organizations and governments of many countries, including the US, Russia and France.

After serving eight years of the life sentence, Safarov was extradited under the framework guidelines of the 1983 Strasbourg Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons and transferred to Azerbaijan on August 31, 2012. Although the Hungarian government stated that it had received assurances from the Azerbaijan government that the remainder of the sentence would be enforced, President Ilham Aliyev issued a pardon immediately upon Safarov's arrival in Baku and ordered that he be "freed from the term of his punishment."

Sargsyan suggested the possibility that Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev and Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán had entered into a secret agreement during the latter's visit to Baku on June 30, 2012. A number of sources in the media have also speculated that Hungary's deepening economic ties with Azerbaijan may have had something to do with Safarov's release. Sargsyan concluded his statements by saying, "with their joint actions the authorities of Hungary and Azerbaijan have opened the door for the recurrence of such crimes."

On September 2 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Hungary announced the country "refuses to accept and condemns the action of Azerbaijan, which contradicts the relevant rules of international law and sharply contrasts the undertaking of the Azerbaijani side in this matter, confirmed by the Deputy Minister of Justice of the Republic of Azerbaijan in his letter <...> of 15 August 2012." The Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the action of Azerbaijan in a diplomatic note. The press release also states that "Hungary regards the decision of Azerbaijan inconsistent with the spirit of cooperation based on mutual trust that has been achieved during the past years between our respective countries."

In October 2012 four Hungarian intellectuals - historian, political analyst Zoltán Bíró, rector of the John Wesley Theological College Gábor Iványi, journalist/publicist Gábor Deák and writer Rudolf Ungváry, arrived in Armenia to apologize for the extradition of Ramil Safarov. During the press conference in Yerevan they stated: “We organized the journey to inform of most of Hungarian people’s disagreement, and our discontent with the authorities’ decision to transfer a sleeping officer’s assassin back to his homeland." Mr. Iványi said, “We have come to express our regret and shame. Hungary didn’t even officially recognize the Armenian Genocide as the country was in need of Turkish support then. As for the prime minister having allowed for the extradition, he would have resigned his post”.

On September 4, 2012, a demonstration took place in front of the Hungarian Parliament Building in Kossuth Square. It was reported that about two thousand Hungarians protested against their government's actions.

Representatives of MSZP, the then largest opposition party, called for various subcommittees of the parliament to examine who exactly made the decision and why the procedure was kept secret. MSZP had been in power until 2010, and had refused to release Safarov. The Socialists have also called on Orbán to resign over the decision.

On April 13, 2006, a Hungarian court sentenced Safarov to life imprisonment without right of appeal for 30 years. The judge, Andras Vaskuti, cited the premeditated nature and brutality of the crime and the fact that Safarov showed no remorse for his deeds as the reasons for the sentence. Handing down a life sentence, the judge particularly emphasised that “the murder of a sleeping man in peace time is always a crime and cannot be an act of heroism”. On February 22, 2007, a Hungarian appeal court upheld the ruling following an appeal filed by Safarov's lawyer. While serving his sentence, Safarov translated several novels by Hungarian authors into Azeri, including Magda Szabó's The Door (Hungarian: Az ajtó) and The Paul Street Boys (Hungarian: A Pál utcai fiúk) (youth novel by the Hungarian writer Ferenc Molnár).

Many officials in Azerbaijan publicly praised Safarov's actions, while there were also those who condemned them. Elmira Süleymanova, the human rights commissioner (ombudsman) of Azerbaijan, declared that Safarov's punishment was far too harsh and that "Safarov must become an example of patriotism for the Azerbaijani youth". The banned radical Azerbaijan National Democrat Party awarded Safarov with the title of "Man of the Year 2005" for killing an Armenian.

In January 2004, the 26-year-old Ramil Safarov, along with another officer from Azerbaijan, went to Budapest (Hungary), to participate in the three-month English language courses, organized by NATO's Partnership for Peace program for military personnel from different countries. Two Armenian officers, a 25-year-old Gurgen Margaryan and Hayk Makuchyan, also participated in this program.

The United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs condemned Azerbaijan's reaction to the brutal murder of the Armenian officer in a hearing. A report which was published by the Committee on Foreign Affairs contained a statement by Bryan Ardouny, Executive Director of the Armenian Assembly of America, who stated that "The Azerbaijani government has also consistently failed to condemn Safarov, an Azeri military officer who in 2003 [sic] brutally murdered an Armenian participant at a NATO Partnership for Peace military training exercise in Budapest, Hungary. Instead, it has encouraged domestic media and various organizations to treat the murderer as a celebrity. That individual has since been awarded the title of 'Man of the Year' by Azerbaijan’s National-Democratic Party."

Former deputy of the Azerbaijan National Assembly and writer Akram Aylisli refused to comment on the "campaign," but did note that he had his "own ideas of and approach to heroism." Azerbaijani media have criticized the United States' concern for Safarov's pardon and added that it should have reacted the same way when Varoujan Garabedian, a member of ASALA who was imprisoned in France, was expelled to Armenia after his pardon by France in 2001. Meanwhile, the organization Azerbaijani Americans for Democracy sent an open letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, urging the United States to devote more of its attention to the human rights abuses of President Aliyev, instead of Safarov's pardon.

Ramil Sahib oglu Safarov (Azerbaijani: Ramil Sahib oğlu Səfərov, [ɾɑˈmil sɑˈhip oɣˈlu sæˈfæɾof] ), born August 25, 1977, is an officer of the Azerbaijani Army who was convicted of the 2004 murder of Armenian Army Lieutenant Gurgen Margaryan. During a NATO-sponsored training seminar in Budapest, Safarov broke into Margaryan's dormitory room at night and axed Margaryan to death while he was asleep.

Ramil Safarov was born on August 25, 1977 in the town of Jabrayil, former Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic of Soviet Union (now Azerbaijan) where he finished middle school. He is one of four brothers. Jabrayil was occupied by Armenian forces on August 26, 1993, and remains under control of Nagorno-Karabakh army as part of the unresolved Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Safarov's family fled to Baku in 1991. During a court hearing, Safarov recounted memories from the years of war, during which he had lost family members. This, however, contradicted another version he told the court, where he stated that he was studying in Azerbaijan's capital of Baku and in Turkey from 1992 to 1996. He continued his studies at Maltepe Military High School in İzmir and then at the Turkish Military Academy, graduating in 2000, after which he returned to Azerbaijan.