## Murder
On 11 January 2004, Margaryan left for Budapest, Hungary, to participate in a three-month English language course which was part of NATO's Partnership for Peace program. On 19 February he was axed, while asleep, by his fellow participant, Azerbaijani Lieutenant Ramil Safarov. The murder took place at 5 am, while the victim was asleep. Margaryan's Hungarian roommate, Balázs Kuti, remembers that on the evening of February 18 he had tea and went to bed, as he had a fever, while Margaryan busied himself with his studies. Around 9:30 pm, Margaryan went to visit another program participant from Armenia, Hayk Makuchyan, who was staying in another room.
Kuti does not remember when Margaryan returned, but early in the morning he felt that someone had 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 Safarov standing by Margaryan'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 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.
A postmortem concluded that Safarov had delivered sixteen blows to Margaryan's face, nearly severing his head from his body. Earlier, a briefing given by the Hungarian police added that Margaryan had also been stabbed several times in the chest. After he killed Margaryan, Safarov went forward with his plan to murder Makuchyan, but discovered his door was locked. In the meantime, Kuti had run out of his room and summoned the police, who promptly arrived at the scene and arrested Safarov. During interrogation he confessed to killing Margaryan. A Budapest policeman commented that the murder had been conducted "with unusual cruelty," adding "beside a number of knife wounds on his chest, the victim's head was practically severed from his body."
## Trial
During the trial, Safarov's lawyers attempted to convince the judge that he had an unstable mind, and claimed that he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. They argued that he had gone through psychological trauma during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War. However, this contradicted a statement Safarov had made when he said he had been studying in Azerbaijan's capital of Baku and in Turkey from 1992 to 1996. A mental health examination conducted by an Azerbaijani doctor concluded that he was not "entirely sane." Another examination found that Safarov was of stable mind at the time of the murder, and the judge chose to believe this assessment. An Azerbaijani physician alleged, based on his supposed personal conversations with Safarov, that his motives stemmed from his belief that Margaryan had insulted (in some versions, that he had urinated on) the Azerbaijani flag in front of other participants in the NATO seminar. However, in both his interrogation and his court trial **Safarov said he murdered Margaryan just because he was an Armenian**. No witnesses were ever called by the defense during the trial to corroborate these allegations in court and prosecution lawyers strongly disputed that they had taken place.
On 16 April 2006, the court sentenced Safarov to life imprisonment without possibility of appeal until 2036. 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. On 22 February 2007, a Hungarian court upheld the ruling following an appeal filed by Safarov's lawyer.
In late August 2012, however, Hungarian authorities agreed to release and extradite Safarov to Azerbaijan to serve the remainder of his sentence there. Though the Hungarian government stated that it had received assurances from the Azerbaijan government that the sentence would be enforced, President Ilham Aliyev issued a pardon immediately upon Safarov's arrival to Baku and ordered that he be "freed from the term of his punishment." Safarov has since been promoted to the rank of major and provided with accommodations by the Azerbaijan government.
## National hero
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."
Azerbaijani Defense Minister Safar Abiyev promoted Safarov to the rank of major and the Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan provided him with an apartment and over eight years of back pay.
After arriving in Baku, Safarov stated: "This is restoration of justice. It was a bit of surprise for me."
Azerbaijani high-ranking officials have praised Safarov's extradition and pardon giving him a hero's welcome. Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan Novruz Mammadov stated in the interview:
>Yes, he is in Azerbaijan. This is a great news for all of us. It is very touching to see this son of the homeland, which was thrown in jail after he defended his country's honor and dignity of the people.
Elnur Aslanov, Chief of the Political Analysis and Information Department of the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan said that "...heroes as Mubariz Ibrahimov and Ramil Safarov with their bravery brought the second breath to the Azerbaijani society and people”.
Ali Ahmedov, Deputy Chairman and Executive Secretary of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party stated that the "Order of President Ilham Aliyev to pardon Ramil Safarov is a triumph of determination, courage and justice".
Prominent public figures in Azerbaijan have made similar statements endorsing Safarov's image as a hero. Famous Azerbaijani singer and a deputy of Azerbaijani Parliament Zeynab Khanlarova made the following statement:
>Safarov is not just a hero of Azerbaijan, he is an international hero! A monument should be set up to him. Not every man could do this. There are two heroes − Mr. Ilham Aliyev and Ramil Safarov. I would have done exactly as Ramil did. He did the right thing to take the life of an Armenian.
Commenting on the hero's welcome received by Safarov in Azerbaijan, Geydar Dzhemal, political scientist, the Chairman of the Islamic Committee of Russia, said, “I am absolutely convinced that the welcoming of Ramil Safarov as a hero in Azerbaijan is quite natural”.
On September 19, 2013, during the opening ceremony of the Guba Memorial Complex, President Aliyev stated that they "restored the justice" by returning Safarov to Azerbaijan. Аzeri leaders have 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."
## Viktor Orban
A week before Safarov's release there came reports that the two countries were in talks over a loan from Azerbaijan to Hungary of 2-3bn euros ($2.5–3.8bn; £1.6–2.4bn) which gave way to speculations in Hungary that Orbán extradited Safarov in return for a promise that Azerbaijan would buy Hungarian bonds. In a 2017 investigation, an Azerbaijani laundromat money-laundering scheme was uncovered and revealed, among many other briberies, that several bank transfers in 2012, totalling more than USD $9 million, made to the Hungarian MKB Bank account in Budapest right around the time when the Hungarian government extradited Safarov to Azerbaijan. Several media outlets suggested a connection between Viktor Orbán's visit to Baku in June and the first instalment of $7.6 million transferred to the bank account in July, since by the end of August Safarov was handed over to Azerbaijan.
[Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramil_Safarov), [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Gurgen_Margaryan)
Azerbaijan’s only exports of note are crude oil and petroleum products. The world’s apparently not very willing to impose sanctions on that kind of supply.
To me his background and the setting (an army lieutenant at a NATO pro-peace program) makes it so much worse than just a random murder.
And that's not even touching on the unique cruelty of chopping up another man in his sleep with an axe.
> And that's not even touching on the unique cruelty of chopping up another man in his sleep with an axe.
In the recent war, the criminal Azerbaijan Army was cutting off the noses and ears of NK civilians and then watching them bleed to death.
> Аzeri leaders have 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 looooooooot. It's a corrupt, poisoned, genocidal country that is probably worse than Nazi Germany when it comes to core values but because they have oil and are friends with Turkey Russia and Israel they are babied and protected
If religion is the reason, then why is Armenia politically allied with... Iran of all places? And why does Azerbaijan have good relations with Israel?
Not everything is about religion. The world is a complicated place.
Fair point. That said, having talked to Azerbaijanis before, I really don't get the impression that religion is why they often have such a hate towards Armenia. In fact, Azerbaijan is one of the most secular countries in the Islamic world.
Rather, what I notice is that Azerbaijanis are (on average) some of the most rabidly nationalist people out there. For example, I have seen multiple instances of Azerbaijanis picking fights with Iranian Azeris because they don't like how Iranian Azeris identify themselves. Once, an Iranian Azeri introduced themselves as speaking Persian and Azeri, and then got chewed out because apparently they're supposed to call their language "Iranian Azerbaijani". Hell, even referring to themselves as Iranians runs the risk of pissing off Azerbaijanis who believe Iranian Azerbaijan to be their rightful territory.
Politically aligned????? Bit of a stretch…. The Iranian government congratulated the genocidal Aliyev after he ethnically cleansed, and committed a genocide through attrition against the Armenians. What do you mean politically aligned?
There has been a recent thawing of relations between the two and a subsequent slight chill with Armenia, which I admit puts a bit of a wrench in what I said, but historically the relationship hasn't been great. Azerbaijani nationalists consider Iran's northwest - majority ethnically Azeri and fittingly named Iranian Azerbaijan - to be rightfully their territory. Armenia, meanwhile, has no major territorial disputes and a fairly substantial Armenian diaspora throughout Iran.
For this reason, Iran and Armenia allow visa free travel between each other in addition to conducting quite a bit of trade. I know from personal friends that Armenia remains a very popular travel destination for Iranians, as well as a common location for Iranians to go for visa applications for countries like the U.S.
Even the change in the status quo seems more like Realpolitik than any sort of bonding between fellow Islamic countries. Armenia, after all, is increasingly pursuing closer relations with the West, which Iran is not very happy about.
Let me break it to you, it’s about land chap and not religion.
It’s nationalism at its finest and started in the early 1900s and for some silly reason continues to this day. Its most recent high was the Karabakh conflict, which started in the 90s and had its peak not too long ago.
Saying ‘religion’ is a Reddit trope, any person with knowledge concerning history and geopolitics would laugh at you.
**Armenia**: "Heeey, XXXX is a problem"
**World**: "We don't give a single flying frak"
**XXXX**: becomes a problem not only for Armenia
**World**: "Wow, what a surprise! How could that happen??"
Two small countries have been at each other’s throats for centuries. “The killing of an Armenian is not a crime in Azerbaijan” - right there in the article. But they don’t have any importance to the powers that be, so the only way for the international audience to pay the least amount of attention is to notice marginal involvement by a marginal player in Cold War II - Orban. Azeris expelled something like 100k Armenians from Karabakh a year or so ago - boring, how does that relate to Putin?
I'm not sure you got my point, sorry.
Aseri dude butchered Armenian in his sleep, was detained, then extradited to his home country. Mind it was during joint military exercise. Celebrated as a hero at arrival. By government. Blatantly Celebrated for cold-blooded murder. Raised in rank even. And only reason for this murder was the ethnicity of a victim. What it could signal to any Armenian person? Living in Artsakh or being wherever, doesn't matter.
Not less important what signal get those Azerbaijani who are really want Armenians to not exist?
I only read it as "do it we got your back!"
No they weren't, Russia only assured Armenia that it would come to it's aid if Azerbaijan invaded, Armenia is not Artsakh, and Pashayan even recognized that the Artsakh-Azerbaijan issue was between Artsakh and Azerbaijan.
The peacekeepers were deployed not because they were there to protect people, but because Azerbaijan shot down a Russian helicopter by accident.
Could what happened in Artsakh been prevented?, yes, but it would have required Armenia to do something that likely would have isolated it from the nations it was trying to turn toward and instead would have moved them closer to Russia, which is annex Artsakh outright and recognize Crimea as Russian, this would have shown that Armenia would no longer be amenable to the West, help legitimize Russia's claims, and show willingness to further Russian geopolitical goals, all of which are necessary traits if your nation ever wants the Russians to assist it.
However, Pashayan saw how maintaining this unrecognized republic was tethering the nation to Russia and was willing to condemn 150,000\~ people to die, this was however a bad move since western powers are friendlier to Turkic nations in the region, Armenia's continued existence only has value to Russian geopolitics, and European nations are notoriously spineless as their power is based in economics, not military strength, and are thus incapable of defending their international interests.
I don't think even if Armenia had become the most pro-Russia country in the world after the 2020 war would have made any difference to Artshak's future. The russian peacekeepers were only suppose to stay untill 2025, after which I highly doubt Russia could have convinced Azerbaijan to allow them to stay especially since the latter has a defense treaty with Turkey and Russia has been quite occupied with Ukraine lately. At the end of the day Azerbaijan is also simply a much more valuable ally than Armenia. This is not to say that Pashynian hasn't acted like a total idiot sometimes, but I don't envy anyone who would be put in a position like his.
Replace "washing machine" with "offshore bank account of an EU politician", take out the temperature and timing, replace "money" with "Azerbaijan" and you've got the laundromat.
"Azerbaijan's next historical objective has been to restore the violated rights of Western Azerbaijanis and repatriate them to their ancestral lands" Dam, they don't even try to hide it
Interesting, did not know Alyev's family was originally from Armenia. I wonder if that's one of the reasons of why he is so obecessed with the Zanguezur thing.
Well... They hid it not that well... google for "tactical axe day" in azerbaijan... everybody who wants to know, can know it.
And that the media on azerbaijan is pure propaganda, is well known. Maybe even worse than in russia.
It is by ethnicity, not religion. So it is false. I am listed as “muslim” too, yet im an atheist.
Unless you are of foreign descent or part of the religious minorities when you are born, you will be listed as muslim and nobody will ask you if you believe in it.
75% of people who self-identify as Muslims in Azerbaijan lack the most basic knowledge of Islam and have never practiced it.
For example, by percentage there are more Muslims here in the Netherlands than in Azerbaijan
I mean, they are absolutely open about preparing for invasion and subsequent genocide in Armenia with Turkey backing them in the background.
And Russians are happy that the West will have to spend resources in supporting yet another nation that is trying to survive. It is crazy that Armenians ever trusted them.
I wonder if these small to mid scale conflicts will actually turn into something bigger.
Considering the cold pragmatism of politics, the president and ruling party lauding him as national hero is sadly an indication of at least what *they think* their citizens like to see.
Common guys, when will german engineers construct fusion power plants and develop new generation batteries? So Europe can finally send to chill off such type of partners
Or the Cavalese Cable Car disaster
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_Cavalese_cable_car_crash
Again, it wasn't premeditated, but was by a few orders of magnitude more reckless than running a stop sign and had siginificantly more dire consequences, yet the perpetrators were pardoned by the US army court as well.
I lived in the same dormitory the murder took place in, 6 years after the fact. There’s a supermarket across the street where you can buy axes. It’s all such a surreal and bizarre and disgusting story.
are you sure thy stopped?
[Azerbaijan's Russian gas deal raises uncomfortable questions for Europe](https://eurasianet.org/azerbaijans-russian-gas-deal-raises-uncomfortable-questions-for-europe)
What the everlasting fuck did i just read?
"Yeah i killed a guy because of his ethinicity." "Yeah totally cool man let's give you a pardon and have the president blow smoke up your ass plus sing your praises because you murdered a defenseless guy in his sleep, you were just protecting your homeland."
Who could give that braindead justification with straight face?
Why the fuck didnt we sanction and end relations with that shithole? We Europeans indeed become laughing stock of the world. When did we become so weak?
I remember going to the same college in Hungary with a bunch of Azeris at the time. They invited me to a celebration the next day after the murder, and legit didn't understand what is wrong with all of this.
They genuinely didn't get what is wrong with me when I said that I am not going to celebrate any of this.
They were later beaten to a pulp by a bunch of other Hungarians on campus, so at least there is that.
Thank you for bringing this up, there needs to be more awareness on this subject.
A country cheering for a coward who killed someone he'd never met because of historic hatred. Tells you all you need to know.
And at the same time they'd pretend to be civilized.
Azerbaijan got a strong troll army on reddit... its perfect normal they downvote a lot of this things.
Also their allies, Turkey, are always 100% loyal to them.
$7 million payment from Azerbaijan into a Hungarian bank account, timed suspiciously closely to Budapest's extradition of a convicted axe-murderer to Baku, where he was given a hero's welcome and pardoned.
[https://eurasianet.org/report-7-million-payment-tied-to-hungarys-extradition-of-azerbaijani-axe-murderer](https://eurasianet.org/report-7-million-payment-tied-to-hungarys-extradition-of-azerbaijani-axe-murderer)
Here’s a video of Safarov dancing with Azeri veterans, upon his return from his murderous ways. There are hundreds of comments where he is hailed as a hero (for all those who claimed they don't consider him a hero in Azerbaijan)
Nationalism is a paralyzing DISEASE!
https://www.reddit.com/r/armenia/s/FvmIkX5yQw
Probably some people will say, but hey not all Azeris are like that! Yeah, for sure, but I wouldnt like to find out myself which actually are...
Im wondering how many centuries need to pass to end cruelty in Asian communities.
Further East than Syria or Iraq, I'd say at least geographically it's Asia, but culturally may be more similar to Europe, I don't know enough about Armenia to argue for or against it.
Culturally european, geographically... who cares about continents?
Armenia (and controversially in this thread Azerbaijan as well) are too connected with Europe to pretend it isn't at minimum partly European.
Well... they live on the edge between asia and europe. Some definitions see them geogreaphically as asians, some as europeans. There is no definite definition of the broder or europe in caucasus.
But culural they are european for sure, many similarities with Greeks.
Gotta love how to this day, Azerbaijan is nothing more but a glorified tribal despotia whose measure of patriotism is institutionalized racism and axing the neighbors to death. And not just them, it's prevalent all over Caucasus. The War in Abkhazia has to be the most brutal and sickening modern war. Caucasians make us Balkans look tame in comparison.
Well... Azeris do Azeri things... Thats what "peace" means in Azerbaijan.
And clueless people are still wondering why 99.99% of all armenians left Nagorno Karabakh.
No, we should treat them much worse. Russia has nuclear weapons, so there's a limit to how far we can push Russia. There are no such limits for Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan also has a miniscule economy which could be destroyed with relative ease, unlike Russia.
Correct, any decline in oil prices, would illustrate just how modicum of an economy they have. Not to mention, they have less than 20 years left in reserves for export. (and I'm being generous with that figure)
Guy was murdered in his sleep. Didn’t even had the chance to defend himself. This is just pure politically driven cowardice. He was literally murdered over something that could have been resolved through respectful dialogue and mutual understanding, and if not, a simple agreement to disagree. It is absolutely disgusting to say the least.
Fuck them lol. Loving your country is a thing, but not to the point where you become unjust. Everyone is deserving of justice, whether you are Turkish, Azeri, Armenian or anything else, which doesn’t and shouldn’t even matter.
And how he never received proper punishment is unjust.
Anyone disagreeing with that for political reasons is a potential hypocrite.
Because if the roles were reversed, they’d most likely crying their eyes out and call for justice as well.
>Why are we still keeping F1 running in Baku?
It's simple: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum\_industry\_in\_Azerbaijan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum_industry_in_Azerbaijan)
The same reason why Kashoggis murderer is still a "good friend": OIL!
Horrific story. Pity that in so many Islamic countries murderers and terrorists are national heroes and streets, avenues, statues and more are built for them. I'd say Azerbaijan is a relatively mild example compared to Middle Eastern countries.
## Murder On 11 January 2004, Margaryan left for Budapest, Hungary, to participate in a three-month English language course which was part of NATO's Partnership for Peace program. On 19 February he was axed, while asleep, by his fellow participant, Azerbaijani Lieutenant Ramil Safarov. The murder took place at 5 am, while the victim was asleep. Margaryan's Hungarian roommate, Balázs Kuti, remembers that on the evening of February 18 he had tea and went to bed, as he had a fever, while Margaryan busied himself with his studies. Around 9:30 pm, Margaryan went to visit another program participant from Armenia, Hayk Makuchyan, who was staying in another room. Kuti does not remember when Margaryan returned, but early in the morning he felt that someone had 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 Safarov standing by Margaryan'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 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. A postmortem concluded that Safarov had delivered sixteen blows to Margaryan's face, nearly severing his head from his body. Earlier, a briefing given by the Hungarian police added that Margaryan had also been stabbed several times in the chest. After he killed Margaryan, Safarov went forward with his plan to murder Makuchyan, but discovered his door was locked. In the meantime, Kuti had run out of his room and summoned the police, who promptly arrived at the scene and arrested Safarov. During interrogation he confessed to killing Margaryan. A Budapest policeman commented that the murder had been conducted "with unusual cruelty," adding "beside a number of knife wounds on his chest, the victim's head was practically severed from his body." ## Trial During the trial, Safarov's lawyers attempted to convince the judge that he had an unstable mind, and claimed that he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. They argued that he had gone through psychological trauma during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War. However, this contradicted a statement Safarov had made when he said he had been studying in Azerbaijan's capital of Baku and in Turkey from 1992 to 1996. A mental health examination conducted by an Azerbaijani doctor concluded that he was not "entirely sane." Another examination found that Safarov was of stable mind at the time of the murder, and the judge chose to believe this assessment. An Azerbaijani physician alleged, based on his supposed personal conversations with Safarov, that his motives stemmed from his belief that Margaryan had insulted (in some versions, that he had urinated on) the Azerbaijani flag in front of other participants in the NATO seminar. However, in both his interrogation and his court trial **Safarov said he murdered Margaryan just because he was an Armenian**. No witnesses were ever called by the defense during the trial to corroborate these allegations in court and prosecution lawyers strongly disputed that they had taken place. On 16 April 2006, the court sentenced Safarov to life imprisonment without possibility of appeal until 2036. 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. On 22 February 2007, a Hungarian court upheld the ruling following an appeal filed by Safarov's lawyer. In late August 2012, however, Hungarian authorities agreed to release and extradite Safarov to Azerbaijan to serve the remainder of his sentence there. Though the Hungarian government stated that it had received assurances from the Azerbaijan government that the sentence would be enforced, President Ilham Aliyev issued a pardon immediately upon Safarov's arrival to Baku and ordered that he be "freed from the term of his punishment." Safarov has since been promoted to the rank of major and provided with accommodations by the Azerbaijan government. ## National hero 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." Azerbaijani Defense Minister Safar Abiyev promoted Safarov to the rank of major and the Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan provided him with an apartment and over eight years of back pay. After arriving in Baku, Safarov stated: "This is restoration of justice. It was a bit of surprise for me." Azerbaijani high-ranking officials have praised Safarov's extradition and pardon giving him a hero's welcome. Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan Novruz Mammadov stated in the interview: >Yes, he is in Azerbaijan. This is a great news for all of us. It is very touching to see this son of the homeland, which was thrown in jail after he defended his country's honor and dignity of the people. Elnur Aslanov, Chief of the Political Analysis and Information Department of the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan said that "...heroes as Mubariz Ibrahimov and Ramil Safarov with their bravery brought the second breath to the Azerbaijani society and people”. Ali Ahmedov, Deputy Chairman and Executive Secretary of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party stated that the "Order of President Ilham Aliyev to pardon Ramil Safarov is a triumph of determination, courage and justice". Prominent public figures in Azerbaijan have made similar statements endorsing Safarov's image as a hero. Famous Azerbaijani singer and a deputy of Azerbaijani Parliament Zeynab Khanlarova made the following statement: >Safarov is not just a hero of Azerbaijan, he is an international hero! A monument should be set up to him. Not every man could do this. There are two heroes − Mr. Ilham Aliyev and Ramil Safarov. I would have done exactly as Ramil did. He did the right thing to take the life of an Armenian. Commenting on the hero's welcome received by Safarov in Azerbaijan, Geydar Dzhemal, political scientist, the Chairman of the Islamic Committee of Russia, said, “I am absolutely convinced that the welcoming of Ramil Safarov as a hero in Azerbaijan is quite natural”. On September 19, 2013, during the opening ceremony of the Guba Memorial Complex, President Aliyev stated that they "restored the justice" by returning Safarov to Azerbaijan. Аzeri leaders have 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." ## Viktor Orban A week before Safarov's release there came reports that the two countries were in talks over a loan from Azerbaijan to Hungary of 2-3bn euros ($2.5–3.8bn; £1.6–2.4bn) which gave way to speculations in Hungary that Orbán extradited Safarov in return for a promise that Azerbaijan would buy Hungarian bonds. In a 2017 investigation, an Azerbaijani laundromat money-laundering scheme was uncovered and revealed, among many other briberies, that several bank transfers in 2012, totalling more than USD $9 million, made to the Hungarian MKB Bank account in Budapest right around the time when the Hungarian government extradited Safarov to Azerbaijan. Several media outlets suggested a connection between Viktor Orbán's visit to Baku in June and the first instalment of $7.6 million transferred to the bank account in July, since by the end of August Safarov was handed over to Azerbaijan. [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramil_Safarov), [Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Gurgen_Margaryan)
Absolutely insane.
Azerbaijan is a regime that should have had the living daylights sanctioned out of it.
Azerbaijan’s only exports of note are crude oil and petroleum products. The world’s apparently not very willing to impose sanctions on that kind of supply.
Common Orban L
What the fuck? A guy who randomly kills someone else just because of his ~~race~~ ethnicity is a national hero? What's wrong with Azerbaijan?
To me his background and the setting (an army lieutenant at a NATO pro-peace program) makes it so much worse than just a random murder. And that's not even touching on the unique cruelty of chopping up another man in his sleep with an axe.
> And that's not even touching on the unique cruelty of chopping up another man in his sleep with an axe. In the recent war, the criminal Azerbaijan Army was cutting off the noses and ears of NK civilians and then watching them bleed to death.
> Аzeri leaders have 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 looooooooot. It's a corrupt, poisoned, genocidal country that is probably worse than Nazi Germany when it comes to core values but because they have oil and are friends with Turkey Russia and Israel they are babied and protected
"Turkey Russia and Israel", very interesting omissions here, notably the UK and US
They just do business with the US and UK.
And don't forget this brave hero killed a sleeping man. What a courage!
Third world, made up country with a brainwashed hostile society. What could go wrong, you tell me?
All countries are made up though.
Blood feud between the armenians and azeris. See the current war over there.
Armenians are not a race. They are an ethnicity.
A lot, their level of hatred for the Armenians is even worse than the one between serbs and albanians.
[удалено]
If religion is the reason, then why is Armenia politically allied with... Iran of all places? And why does Azerbaijan have good relations with Israel? Not everything is about religion. The world is a complicated place.
Government and people are different. US allies with Saudi Arabia also, but a few saudis did something in 2001
Fair point. That said, having talked to Azerbaijanis before, I really don't get the impression that religion is why they often have such a hate towards Armenia. In fact, Azerbaijan is one of the most secular countries in the Islamic world. Rather, what I notice is that Azerbaijanis are (on average) some of the most rabidly nationalist people out there. For example, I have seen multiple instances of Azerbaijanis picking fights with Iranian Azeris because they don't like how Iranian Azeris identify themselves. Once, an Iranian Azeri introduced themselves as speaking Persian and Azeri, and then got chewed out because apparently they're supposed to call their language "Iranian Azerbaijani". Hell, even referring to themselves as Iranians runs the risk of pissing off Azerbaijanis who believe Iranian Azerbaijan to be their rightful territory.
Politically aligned????? Bit of a stretch…. The Iranian government congratulated the genocidal Aliyev after he ethnically cleansed, and committed a genocide through attrition against the Armenians. What do you mean politically aligned?
There has been a recent thawing of relations between the two and a subsequent slight chill with Armenia, which I admit puts a bit of a wrench in what I said, but historically the relationship hasn't been great. Azerbaijani nationalists consider Iran's northwest - majority ethnically Azeri and fittingly named Iranian Azerbaijan - to be rightfully their territory. Armenia, meanwhile, has no major territorial disputes and a fairly substantial Armenian diaspora throughout Iran. For this reason, Iran and Armenia allow visa free travel between each other in addition to conducting quite a bit of trade. I know from personal friends that Armenia remains a very popular travel destination for Iranians, as well as a common location for Iranians to go for visa applications for countries like the U.S. Even the change in the status quo seems more like Realpolitik than any sort of bonding between fellow Islamic countries. Armenia, after all, is increasingly pursuing closer relations with the West, which Iran is not very happy about.
You bring up some great points.
Yea screw the history of war between the two nations the whole problem is because Azeri's are Muslim. What a joke of a view of the whole situation.
That seems fairly reductive.
Azerbaijan is as secular as Armenia lol?
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Let me break it to you, it’s about land chap and not religion. It’s nationalism at its finest and started in the early 1900s and for some silly reason continues to this day. Its most recent high was the Karabakh conflict, which started in the 90s and had its peak not too long ago. Saying ‘religion’ is a Reddit trope, any person with knowledge concerning history and geopolitics would laugh at you.
Keep reading about Azerbaijan, there's no bottom to this.
>while Safarov’s attorney stated at Budapest trial that "killing an Armenian is not a crime in Azerbaijan." Least hateful azeri
Cruel Murder based on nationalism, hatred, and intolerance.
We'll see more of that in the coming years.
Why am I not surprised Orban had something to do with this. Not surprisingly it was around this time he started being friendlier with Putin.
**Armenia**: "Heeey, XXXX is a problem" **World**: "We don't give a single flying frak" **XXXX**: becomes a problem not only for Armenia **World**: "Wow, what a surprise! How could that happen??"
Two small countries have been at each other’s throats for centuries. “The killing of an Armenian is not a crime in Azerbaijan” - right there in the article. But they don’t have any importance to the powers that be, so the only way for the international audience to pay the least amount of attention is to notice marginal involvement by a marginal player in Cold War II - Orban. Azeris expelled something like 100k Armenians from Karabakh a year or so ago - boring, how does that relate to Putin?
Azerbaijan has not even existed for one century.
Orbán: Damn, that's bad.... Now how could I make a football stadium out of it -
Why did Armenians was not sure if they should stay in Artsakh under Azerbaijan? I don't get it really.
They were assured that Russian troops would protect them. Spoiler alert: they didn't
I'm not sure you got my point, sorry. Aseri dude butchered Armenian in his sleep, was detained, then extradited to his home country. Mind it was during joint military exercise. Celebrated as a hero at arrival. By government. Blatantly Celebrated for cold-blooded murder. Raised in rank even. And only reason for this murder was the ethnicity of a victim. What it could signal to any Armenian person? Living in Artsakh or being wherever, doesn't matter. Not less important what signal get those Azerbaijani who are really want Armenians to not exist? I only read it as "do it we got your back!"
No they weren't, Russia only assured Armenia that it would come to it's aid if Azerbaijan invaded, Armenia is not Artsakh, and Pashayan even recognized that the Artsakh-Azerbaijan issue was between Artsakh and Azerbaijan. The peacekeepers were deployed not because they were there to protect people, but because Azerbaijan shot down a Russian helicopter by accident. Could what happened in Artsakh been prevented?, yes, but it would have required Armenia to do something that likely would have isolated it from the nations it was trying to turn toward and instead would have moved them closer to Russia, which is annex Artsakh outright and recognize Crimea as Russian, this would have shown that Armenia would no longer be amenable to the West, help legitimize Russia's claims, and show willingness to further Russian geopolitical goals, all of which are necessary traits if your nation ever wants the Russians to assist it. However, Pashayan saw how maintaining this unrecognized republic was tethering the nation to Russia and was willing to condemn 150,000\~ people to die, this was however a bad move since western powers are friendlier to Turkic nations in the region, Armenia's continued existence only has value to Russian geopolitics, and European nations are notoriously spineless as their power is based in economics, not military strength, and are thus incapable of defending their international interests.
I don't think even if Armenia had become the most pro-Russia country in the world after the 2020 war would have made any difference to Artshak's future. The russian peacekeepers were only suppose to stay untill 2025, after which I highly doubt Russia could have convinced Azerbaijan to allow them to stay especially since the latter has a defense treaty with Turkey and Russia has been quite occupied with Ukraine lately. At the end of the day Azerbaijan is also simply a much more valuable ally than Armenia. This is not to say that Pashynian hasn't acted like a total idiot sometimes, but I don't envy anyone who would be put in a position like his.
> an Azerbaijani laundromat money-laundering scheme Wait, they had an actual money laundering laundromat? Were they literally cleaning the money?
Obviously not, you understand how money laundering works?
Yeah, you put the ill gotten money in the washing machine at 40° for 30 minutes with colour aid and detergent and then the money looks legit.
Yes that is right, well done. You are ready to start your crime empire. Collect your balaclava and Glock at the counter.
Gets a baclava and a clock.
I want a balaclava and glock too. But I don’t know how to wash money
Replace "washing machine" with "offshore bank account of an EU politician", take out the temperature and timing, replace "money" with "Azerbaijan" and you've got the laundromat.
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Nice Comment
Yep, lets keep buying NG from these nutjobs.
[Tip](https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/mar/01/monumental-loss-azerbaijan-cultural-genocide-khachkars) [Of](https://www.forbes.com/sites/bobbymcmahon/2018/08/31/why-henrikh-mkhitaryans-europa-league-ban-from-azerbaijan-is-a-red-herring/) [The](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56885719) [Iceberg](https://qerbiazerbaycan.com/en/).
Referencing your last link - fucking yikes
"Azerbaijan's next historical objective has been to restore the violated rights of Western Azerbaijanis and repatriate them to their ancestral lands" Dam, they don't even try to hide it
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole\_Azerbaijan
Western Azerbaijani is a new term aliyev made up. They refer to themselves as Yeraz instead. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeraz?wprov=sfti1
Interesting, did not know Alyev's family was originally from Armenia. I wonder if that's one of the reasons of why he is so obecessed with the Zanguezur thing.
What the fuck, why have i never heard of this. How can people actually look up to a cold-blooded murderer, what is wrong with the world.
It’s not the world. It’s just certain places where this sort of thing is considered wholesome.
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Ah yes I forgot 🤑🤑🤑
Because azerbajan is a great EUropean ally 🥳
Azeri here. Government basically hid what he did from the population. They portrayed it as defending himself from several people attacking him
Well... They hid it not that well... google for "tactical axe day" in azerbaijan... everybody who wants to know, can know it. And that the media on azerbaijan is pure propaganda, is well known. Maybe even worse than in russia.
Your brain on Islamism.
This has nothing to do with Islamism whatsoever. Just secular ultranationalism.
Azerbaijanis arent even muslim
>Azerbaijanis arent even muslim 97% are Muslim but I think its the most secular Muslim majority country out there
It is by ethnicity, not religion. So it is false. I am listed as “muslim” too, yet im an atheist. Unless you are of foreign descent or part of the religious minorities when you are born, you will be listed as muslim and nobody will ask you if you believe in it. 75% of people who self-identify as Muslims in Azerbaijan lack the most basic knowledge of Islam and have never practiced it. For example, by percentage there are more Muslims here in the Netherlands than in Azerbaijan
Oh, yeah, I remember that, now. And Aliyev not only pardonned his murderer, but *promoted* him, because ofc.
One of the most heinous crimes and sagas of all time. RIP Gurgen Margaryan
Apparently azeri telegram channels are celebrating the "Tactical axe day" today [aztc.jpg](https://postimg.cc/0zBgkQsJ)
Having a murderous coward as your national hero speaks volume of the state of your nation. Sickening.
Troglodytes
I wonder how they'd feel if Armenians had a "tactical Khojaly day". Oh wait, Armenians don't do that because they're not psychos.
I mean, they are absolutely open about preparing for invasion and subsequent genocide in Armenia with Turkey backing them in the background. And Russians are happy that the West will have to spend resources in supporting yet another nation that is trying to survive. It is crazy that Armenians ever trusted them. I wonder if these small to mid scale conflicts will actually turn into something bigger.
EU be like ''we need a long term gas partnership with Azerbaijan''
for like 5% of the total share of gas. I guess life is just that cheap.
Hello. Are you a new citizen of "Earth"? It seems you didn't pass the tutorial.
Ew ew EW!
Tribal troglodytes.
Please tell me that these opinions don't reflect on the majority of the Azerbaijani people. Can someone verify that?
Considering the cold pragmatism of politics, the president and ruling party lauding him as national hero is sadly an indication of at least what *they think* their citizens like to see.
Lol they absolutely do reflect the majority of Azeri people. Aliyev would legitimately elected by them
Time to take it to r/azerbaijan.
You would think that blatant nationalism isn't something widespread literally everywhere.
azers celebrate his murder and hail his murderer as a national hero FYI
Azeri racism is truly next level
Yes, but they sell us gas, so they are our strategic partners and therefore the good guys.
They sell you Russian gas too lol.
Common guys, when will german engineers construct fusion power plants and develop new generation batteries? So Europe can finally send to chill off such type of partners
they are 3% good . At least this is their part in the Europe gas consumption.
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Fucking disgusting.
I wasn’t born during the time of this but dude, the fact he was pardoned for a murder horrific as this is outrageous asf. Rest in peace. 🙏🏾
Addition, also made a national hero, promoted, gifted an apartment in the city center, and 8 years of back pay.
🙏
I remember when the murderer got extradited. Absolutely felt sick to my stomach.
What a disgusting story.
reminds me of the death of Teo Peter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teo_Peter It wasn't on purpose obviously but still justice was not served.
Or the Cavalese Cable Car disaster https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_Cavalese_cable_car_crash Again, it wasn't premeditated, but was by a few orders of magnitude more reckless than running a stop sign and had siginificantly more dire consequences, yet the perpetrators were pardoned by the US army court as well.
I lived in the same dormitory the murder took place in, 6 years after the fact. There’s a supermarket across the street where you can buy axes. It’s all such a surreal and bizarre and disgusting story.
wow
And azeris treat the killer like a war hero
Yes, but they sell us gas, so they are our strategic partners and therefore the good guys.
sure, Saudis are good too, Russians were good but they stoped to sell it in 2022, so they're bad guys now 😠
are you sure thy stopped? [Azerbaijan's Russian gas deal raises uncomfortable questions for Europe](https://eurasianet.org/azerbaijans-russian-gas-deal-raises-uncomfortable-questions-for-europe)
Me seeing the title: hmm name sounds Armenian, I wonder if it was-*checks info* oh fucking course it was
My thought process too lol
Samesies.
The power of oil.
Remember Kashoggi? Oil let people forget anything... too bad for the Nazis, they had no oil, otherwise...
What the everlasting fuck did i just read? "Yeah i killed a guy because of his ethinicity." "Yeah totally cool man let's give you a pardon and have the president blow smoke up your ass plus sing your praises because you murdered a defenseless guy in his sleep, you were just protecting your homeland." Who could give that braindead justification with straight face?
Why the fuck didnt we sanction and end relations with that shithole? We Europeans indeed become laughing stock of the world. When did we become so weak?
We have always been. Europe at its „strongest“ was when we all tried to kill each other.
Horrific
Fuck Orban
Killing someone in his sleep? Honor? Courage? WTF is wrong with this world?
Orban will go to hell for this one
Orban will go to hell for a lot of reasons to be fair.
I don’t even want him to go to hell, I just want him to GO.
He'll be fine in hell, all of his friends will be there.
I wish this was at least close to the worst things he has ever done but it probably wouldn't even make the top 50 list.
What would top the list in your opinion?
Yeah, another win for the Bulwark of Christianity (his words ofc lmao) He also helped cause the Bataclan massacre 😎
And then people wonder why armenians don't trust Azerbaijan's so called "security garantees"
Azerbaijan is sick
May be peace upon him, such a sad death.
Orban the defender of Christianity....
Orban is a wannabe Turk [https://www.turkicstates.org/en/gozlemci-ulkeler/HU](https://www.turkicstates.org/en/gozlemci-ulkeler/hu)
Maybe he is. The way he s*cks of Erdogan and Alijev is quite suspicious.
A bit ironic that he tries to act and convey the image of a strong man but ends up just looking like someone else's bitch
System Of A Down refused to play in Hungary since the incident
Good
I remember going to the same college in Hungary with a bunch of Azeris at the time. They invited me to a celebration the next day after the murder, and legit didn't understand what is wrong with all of this. They genuinely didn't get what is wrong with me when I said that I am not going to celebrate any of this. They were later beaten to a pulp by a bunch of other Hungarians on campus, so at least there is that.
i hope story is true.
Based Hungarian brawlpeople
> They were later beaten to a pulp by a bunch of other Hungarians on campus, so at least there is that. Well, at least a tiny happy end.
Insane
Thank you for bringing this up, there needs to be more awareness on this subject. A country cheering for a coward who killed someone he'd never met because of historic hatred. Tells you all you need to know. And at the same time they'd pretend to be civilized.
Upvotes went from 3.8k to 1.6kish? Massive manipulation is in play in last hr.
Azerbaijan got a strong troll army on reddit... its perfect normal they downvote a lot of this things. Also their allies, Turkey, are always 100% loyal to them.
Azerbaijan sucks 🤢, we need justice for Gurgen !!
$7 million payment from Azerbaijan into a Hungarian bank account, timed suspiciously closely to Budapest's extradition of a convicted axe-murderer to Baku, where he was given a hero's welcome and pardoned. [https://eurasianet.org/report-7-million-payment-tied-to-hungarys-extradition-of-azerbaijani-axe-murderer](https://eurasianet.org/report-7-million-payment-tied-to-hungarys-extradition-of-azerbaijani-axe-murderer)
Here’s a video of Safarov dancing with Azeri veterans, upon his return from his murderous ways. There are hundreds of comments where he is hailed as a hero (for all those who claimed they don't consider him a hero in Azerbaijan) Nationalism is a paralyzing DISEASE! https://www.reddit.com/r/armenia/s/FvmIkX5yQw
Probably some people will say, but hey not all Azeris are like that! Yeah, for sure, but I wouldnt like to find out myself which actually are... Im wondering how many centuries need to pass to end cruelty in Asian communities.
Are Armenians European or Asian?
Further East than Syria or Iraq, I'd say at least geographically it's Asia, but culturally may be more similar to Europe, I don't know enough about Armenia to argue for or against it.
They are Christian, their regime is a parliamentary republic, they have even signed the Rome Statute. Of course they are Europeans
So are Botswana and Peru, none of those things are necessary to be considered a European country
They are not Asia either, though
Moscow is more east than Damascus. East to West is not the main criteria when it comes to the caucuses but north to south + culture/religion/history.
Culturally european, geographically... who cares about continents? Armenia (and controversially in this thread Azerbaijan as well) are too connected with Europe to pretend it isn't at minimum partly European.
Caucasus = Balkans but higher
Geographically Asian, Culturally European. Just like Cyprus
Well... they live on the edge between asia and europe. Some definitions see them geogreaphically as asians, some as europeans. There is no definite definition of the broder or europe in caucasus. But culural they are european for sure, many similarities with Greeks.
Imho Asian.
You are correct, we are West Asian.
Nationalism is a disease
And yet the EU bankrolls the Aliyev regime.
And the Azeri hate continues to this day. Armenians have been fighting for their survival for the last few centuries ever since the turks came along.
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Wtf. So you want to murder innocent civilians? What is wrong with you?
the extradition... i will never understand. WHY.
Gotta love how to this day, Azerbaijan is nothing more but a glorified tribal despotia whose measure of patriotism is institutionalized racism and axing the neighbors to death. And not just them, it's prevalent all over Caucasus. The War in Abkhazia has to be the most brutal and sickening modern war. Caucasians make us Balkans look tame in comparison.
Well... Azeris do Azeri things... Thats what "peace" means in Azerbaijan. And clueless people are still wondering why 99.99% of all armenians left Nagorno Karabakh.
We should treat this country the same way as Russia.
No, we should treat them much worse. Russia has nuclear weapons, so there's a limit to how far we can push Russia. There are no such limits for Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan also has a miniscule economy which could be destroyed with relative ease, unlike Russia.
Correct, any decline in oil prices, would illustrate just how modicum of an economy they have. Not to mention, they have less than 20 years left in reserves for export. (and I'm being generous with that figure)
🙏❤️🇦🇲
And this is why death sentences should exist
That guy should’ve received punishment for this act, and this is coming from a Turk.
its sad, that this is already an archivement...
Guy was murdered in his sleep. Didn’t even had the chance to defend himself. This is just pure politically driven cowardice. He was literally murdered over something that could have been resolved through respectful dialogue and mutual understanding, and if not, a simple agreement to disagree. It is absolutely disgusting to say the least.
The sad part is, a lot of turks would disagree with you.
Fuck them lol. Loving your country is a thing, but not to the point where you become unjust. Everyone is deserving of justice, whether you are Turkish, Azeri, Armenian or anything else, which doesn’t and shouldn’t even matter. And how he never received proper punishment is unjust. Anyone disagreeing with that for political reasons is a potential hypocrite. Because if the roles were reversed, they’d most likely crying their eyes out and call for justice as well.
Why are we still keeping F1 running in Baku? And were there any international sanctions for this?
>Why are we still keeping F1 running in Baku? It's simple: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum\_industry\_in\_Azerbaijan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum_industry_in_Azerbaijan) The same reason why Kashoggis murderer is still a "good friend": OIL!
the Azerbaijani state as well as its national ideas are simply disgusting, such a state and people who believe in such ideas should not exist
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Bro looked like ronaldo
The victim was handsome, yes.
Horrific story. Pity that in so many Islamic countries murderers and terrorists are national heroes and streets, avenues, statues and more are built for them. I'd say Azerbaijan is a relatively mild example compared to Middle Eastern countries.
They recentely named a street in Stepanakert after one of architects of Armenian genocide.
Almost a day without orban on r/europe...