Sarkisian: Armenian Nation Will not Forgive Budapest for Extradition

Sarkisian addresses foreign diplomats.

Upon receiving news of Ramil Safarov’s extradition and pardon, Armenian President Serge Sarkisian announced the suspension of diplomatic relations with Hungary following a National Security Council meeting. The president also called for a meeting with foreign diplomats and international organizations in Armenia.

In his address to them, Sarkisian condemned Hungary’s action, and said that neither he nor his government would tolerate Hungary’s decision. He added that the Armenian nation will never forgive them. “With their joint actions, the authorities of Hungary and Azerbaijan have opened the door for the recurrence of such crimes. With this decision they convey a clear message to the butchers. The slaughterers hereafter are well aware of impunity they can enjoy for the murder driven by ethnic or religious hatred,” said Sarkisian.

Below is the full text of Sarkisian’s remarks to the diplomats:

Distinguished Ambassadors:

Unfortunately today we invited you to the President’s Office on an extraordinary occasion. As you should know, an officer of the Azeri military who had killed Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan was transferred to Azerbaijan. The president of Azerbaijan–and we have been warning about it–has immediately granted pardon to him.

This has happened because the government of Hungary, a member State of the European Union and NATO, has made a deal with the authorities of Azerbaijan.

I do not want to revisit the circumstances of the murder of Gurgen Margaryan; you are very well aware of them. As the trial had demonstrated, the horrendous manslaughter took place only because Gurgen Margaryan was an Armenian.

Immediately after this crime had been perpetrated the Hungarian authorities, as well as our partners–EU and NATO member-states–were continually urging us to refrain from politicizing that process. We were continually urged to trust the judiciary of Hungary, a member-state to those important alliances.

We have been closely following all the developments around that criminal. This issue has been discussed during each and every meeting with the president, speaker of the parliament, foreign minister, and ambassador of Hungary, and we have been assured on numerous occasions that such a transfer or a return of a criminal to Azerbaijan was excluded. We have received that same response to our requests during our contacts just a few days ago with the representatives of the Hungarian Foreign Ministry and Parliament. But as a result of perfidious developments, the murderer has turned up in Baku and got released.

I have nothing to say about Azerbaijan–just plainly nothing. That country speaks for itself with the actions it takes, and I am not the one to explain those steps.

Ambassadors, Ladies and Gentlemen:

With their joint actions the authorities of Hungary and Azerbaijan have opened the door for the recurrence of such crimes. With this decision they convey a clear message to the butchers. The slaughterers hereafter are well aware of impunity they can enjoy for the murder driven by ethnic or religious hatred.

I can not tolerate that. The Republic of Armenia can not tolerate that. The Armenian nation will never forgive that.

I officially announce that as of today we suspend diplomatic relations and all official contact with Hungary.

We expect a precise and unambiguous response by all our partners with regard to this incident.

Anyone who tolerates this, will tomorrow be held responsible to history.

Half-measures and circumlocution are not acceptable.

We will judge the attitude of our partners towards the security of the Armenian nation by their response to this incident.

I request you urgently to convey this as my personal message to the heads of your states and governments.

That is all I wanted to say. I do not know if Q&A will make sense or not? I think it won’t since what happened can hardly be accommodated by a reasonable mind. A country that considers itself developed and civilized does not have the right to behave this way and it well deserves proper assessment by its partners.

37 Comments

  1. Here is proof that Hungary does not belong in the EU, and Azerbaijan does not belong anywhere. Aliyev has proven he is a criminal and terrorist supporter, and Azerbaijan a land where terrorists and murdering criminals roam free, and the integrity of law is nonexistent.

    There is, however, a flip side: I suspect ‘never’ is too strong a word if our history is any indication.

    We are in a continuous state of forgiveness of all the nations that have stopped us from getting justice for the theft and murder of all our lands and people. We have thus far forgiven the US, Russia and the EU for not allowing us justice for the murder of 1.5 million of our people, and letting Turkey and Azerbaijan get away with it.

  2. Hungary was just hungry for money, that is all.

    http://www.lse.co.uk/macroeconomicNews.asp?ArticleCode=yj58o68bx381y9h&ArticleHeadline=Hungary_in_talks_with_Azerbaijan_about_sovereign_issuepaper

    I have no ill-will towards the common Hungarian folk, but their leadership shall regret this decision, this we must ensure. Let this be the day when the world learns of what happens to those who dare cross us. No more defeatist attitude. No more appeasement of others. No more weakness and playing by their rules. To hell with international norms and conventions, it’s obvious we’re the only ones who take them seriously. You can only tease the tiger so much until you unleash its fury.

  3. Dear Armenians,

    Safarov is clearly a murderer, who shold have been left to rot in jail. Most Hungarians find his extradiction sickening.
    I’m sorry our government is full of idiots and crooks. Many of us didn’t vote for them.

    • Thank you, Just a Hungarian, for taking the time to express your apology for the immoral act of some of your leaders.

      Clearly ‘the love of money’ and the power it brings is the root of all evil. Makes me very sad.

  4. Hey hey! Do not blame the Hungarians instead of the government’s fault!!! Hungarians and the hungarian governenment are TWO things… Please , accept my deepest condolence about the tragic death of the Armenian boy. We’ve got a dirty, disgusting government, all of the hungarian know this.

    • Dear Hungarian,

      We have nothing against Hungarian people. I appreciate your beeing able to sort things out.

      Murat and other Turks who post here could easily learn a thing or two from you. Unfortunately, they are too immature to be able to view the actions of their governments with a critical mind and distance themselves from it when necessary.

    • Dear Hungarian, 2 things? If so, than at least interrelated.
      MOST of hungarians voted for this government (I think 60%?), very strong mandate and no coincidence.

      I am aware, as everywhere, partly the biggest scum goes to politics, also in my countries. But even this scum didn’t do this in other EU countries so far i guess. I noticed also many other underbelt actions of your country in recent years, so I was not that surprised. I hope you will take more responsibility for your government than just washing hands with words it’s 2 things, as
      I know also Hungarians (in Slovakia) which are ok and honest.

  5. Only if the killer were Armenian and the victim an innocent Turk or Azeri, then it would have been divine justice I suppose.

    • The original killers were your Seljuk Turk ancestors who invaded – INVADED – the Armenian Highlands. Nobody invited them. Not a ‘myth’, not a ‘fabrication’ – a historical fact.

      Your Turkic ancestors left their homeland in East and Central Asia, traveled about 3000 kilometers due West, and invaded the homeland of Armenians and other Christian civilizations.

      All the violence and bloodshed has its origins in the undeniable historical fact of Turkic tribes having invaded the lands of others.

  6. murat…Adana massacres ,30000 innocent Armenians, Genocide, 1500000 innocent Armenians, Shushi massacres, 20000 innocent Armenians are killed by your genocidal barbaric tirkish tribe.Let me also remind the assasination of Hrant Dink and Gurgen Margaryan…Does this show a clear picture of turks?

  7. This was shamefuk, disgraceful and dishonorable.
    It is merely the result of ” dirty politics”. The inevitable truth will eventually come out, that a very shady deal was made between the Azeri and Hungarian Government.
    The reaction of The Armenian government and the Diaspora , and righlty so, was vehement and decisive.
    It is a sad and disheartening day, to see justice ignored and trampled. This is neither the first nor the last time that it has happened.
    What is heartening is the fact the Govn’t in Armenia and Armenians in the Diaspora did not take it lying down. We made our voice heard.
    But let’s be rational.We should not blame the Hungarians. It is the Government that stinks.
    Vart Adjemian

  8. You know what, I am going to condemn what Mr. Safarov did. But if he feels angry about the fact that Armenia expelled 1.000.000 people from Nagorno Karabagh, and massacring 1.000 people via the Khojaly massacre via a sneak attack, he has a right to be angry, but I don’t think he should have shot a guy though. If anyone is going to claim Khojaly was an inside job by Azerbaijan to blame it on Armenia, that is false. Go look up the testimonials of Arzu Mammadova on YouTube.

    I think in order to settle this NKR conflict, the NKR government needs to let the non-Armenian inhabitants of NKR who were expelled. Azerbaijan has to stop it’s Warmongering and Armenia needs to apologize for expelling 1.000.000 non-Armenian inhabitants and let them return to NKR.

    This is my two cents. I am not Turkish, Azeri, or any nearby race though.

    • Serglo De Jesus,

      You kindly forgot to mention that 500.000 Armenians have been expelled from Azerbaijan and over 2000 civilians were killed by Azeri bombardment on civilians in the city of Stepanakert alone.

      FYI, the number of Azeris that were expelled from NKR is not 1 million but 700.000 and even this could be exaggerated (Azeri government does not have any integrity so I cannot believe any single word that they say).

      Aliev should settle these 700.000 Azeris in the houses and apartments that belonged to Armenians in Baku, Sumgait and elsewhere in Azerbaijan.

  9. Nothing new for Hungary. During the 2nd world war they handed over many of their Jewish population without any fight to the Nazi’s who eagerly and quickly liquidated them. They are good that way.

  10. Why Sarkissian negotiates with the Azeris is beyond me? Declare all lands independent and call it a day. Let them stew or resume the war which obviously no one wants..

    What worries me is that Aliev seems to be preparing his nation for war. The hardware and the mental fortitude to hate the Armenians so much that his nation will tolerate the sacrifice that war brings. That’s why the Armenians need to be prepared and on high alert all the time.

  11. Instead of gathering members of diplomatic corps and blowing hot air, Serj should have given instructions to his intelligence service to abduct the Azeri murderer and hold a just court in Armenia, just like the Jews did with Adolf Eichmann.

  12. I’m not surprised that Hungarians handed over the murderer to the Azeri Turks. After all, Magyars (a tribe that arrived to Eastern Europe after the Hungarians) are believed to be the descendants of the Khazars, a Turkic people who moved to Eastern Europe in the 12-13th centuries from the Volga-Caspian region. The exonym “Hungarian” is derived from the Turkic On-Ogur (meaning Ten Ogurs), which was the name of a tribal confederacy that ruled the eastern parts of Hungary prior to the arrival of Magyars (Turkic Khazars). Blood calls…

  13. I don’t believe Obama being genuine in his words as his track record shows that he is a liar.

    As far as the Hungarians people are concerned nothing against them as 3 Hungarian Armenian generals fought for Hungary with distinguished war record for the independence and freedom of Hungary from the Seljuk Turks,so much so that every years their names are remembered in Hungary along with them fought over 1500 Armenian Hungarians.
    Sadly the present Hungarian government is a bunch of crooks and stinks with corruption.

    As far as the Azeris are concerned after this its plain obvious that there cant be any negotiations Armenia must:

    1. Recognise Artsakh as an independent country.

    2. OSCE has become a redundant.

    3. Armenia must have a military treaty with Artsakh.

    4. Protocols thrown in the dustbin of history.

    5. Armenia must be ready to give a knockout blow to the Azeris including destroying all their oil facilities.

  14. hungary must admit that it made a huge legal,moral and international mistake, they allowed a murderer to go free, and he is welcomed as a hero in his country, this is absolute revulsion. hungray must be forced by the eu and the civilized world to admit that it made a horrific mistake, ARMENIA AND ARMENIANS WAKE UP THE TURKS WANT US ALL TO DISAPPEAR!!!! THEY KNOW EXACTLY WHAT THEY DID IN 1915 AND THEY WANT TO REPEAT IT!!!! IT IS UNBELIEVABLE THAT AN INNOCENT ARMENIAN MAN IS MURDERED ,HACKED TO DEATH AND THE KILLER IS A HERO!!! TO HIS GOVERNMENT, TOTALLY SICK!!!!!!

    • Excuse me? Does Turkey lay territorial claims against Armenia? No. Does Armenia lay territorial claims against Turkey, Azerbaijan and to some degree Georgia? Yes. Who is the warmongerers here? Armenia.

    • Shao Ming Chen… A Chinese pen name that I bet a petty Turkish Denialist has chosen to post crap on these pages.

      OK, one by one.

      “Does Turkey lay territorial claims against Armenia? No.” –Why Turkey should lay territorial claims against Armenia if ancestral Armenian lands in Eastern Asia Minor (Eastern Anatolia) were stolen and incorporated into the Republic of Turkey as a result of mass physical annihilation and forced deportations of Armenians in 1915?

      “Does Armenia lay territorial claims against Turkey, Azerbaijan and to some degree Georgia? Yes.” –Never heard about Armenia laying territorial claims against Georgia. As for Turkey and Azerbaijan, Armenia proper never officially laid territorial claims against them. Nagorno-Karabakh case falls under self-determination of nations category not land claims. But Armenians all over the world, and especially those in the Diaspora, rightfully lay territorial claims against both Turkic states because their ancestors were driven out and mass exterminated on their own lands in the Ottoman empire or subjected to ethnic cleansing in the Armenian-populated regions of Nagorno-Karabakh and Nakhichevan that were placed under Azerbaijan’s jurisdiction under the Bolsheviks.

      Now think: claiming their own (note: historically, demographically, and culturally THEIR OWN, not someone else’s) lands back is warmongering or correction of historical wrongs? Let’s fool ourselves for a second and pretend you’re a Chinese. Would you let Hong Kong go because it was taken and ruled for a long time by the British or you’d want a piece of Chinese land back? And if you’d wish a piece of Chinese land back, would it be correct if I call you a warmongerer?

  15. Correct action and speech by Armenian President Serge Sarkisian.

    Hungarian government has to face world’s indignation!

    • Hairenakitz,

      I don’t know if a speech by the president was at all needed for a matter like this. To me, prosecutor-general’s statement would do. But let’s admit that Sargsyan chose to elevate the matter to the level of utmost national importance. Fine. But I’d prefer a tacit action instead of verbiage, such as mobilization of Armenia’s foreign intelligence aimed at capturing and bringing that Azeri bustard to Armenia for a court trial. Jews never made pompous speeches about one of the major organizers of the Holocaust, Nazi SS-Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann. They just traced that SoB, abducted him, brought him to trial, and sent him to hell by execution. Besides, what kind of a “correct action” by our president is to suspend diplomatic ties? Suspension doesn’t mean full rupture of the ties. It’s a half-measure. Some time will pass and the same “correct” president will tacitly restore ties. If this happens, would it be a manly behavior on his part or a behavior of a political conformist?

  16. Dear Armenians,

    The Outrage of the Armenian population about Sarafov is righful, I want to express my apologies in the name of myself and hundreds of thousends of other Hungarians.

    However, i see some of the posters are not quiet familiar with the real history of Hungary. Do not forget that Hungary had been under the reign of communism for 40 years, they tried to falsify our History.

    Serko: If you are so well-educated about our History, you are also aware that the turkish Invaded Us in the middle age, and we fought against them for 150 years before forced them back to Turky without any help from the west?

    • Hungarian 2,

      You are correct. Everybody is very emotional right now. It is emerging that this foolish decision was made by a small cadre of government officials led by the Prime Minister and most Hungarians are outraged. Yes, Hungarians courageously held the line for centuries against the Ottoman expansion. The outpouring of Hungarian indignation towards their current leadership and Azerbaijan is heartening and I hope it results in closer relations between Armenians and Hungarians. I also believe Armenians are starting to focus their energies on the actual culprits and not those who had nothing to do with recent events.

    • Hungarian 2
      I know you fought loathed Ottoman Turks, as did many Eastern and Central European nations. I just brought up to the readers’ attention the fact that ethnically and historically there is a large segment of Turkic origin in the modern Hungarian blood and I’m (personally! not surprised that when your government struck a deal with the Azeri Turks, it might also be because of this bloodline connection.

      Honestly, I don’t imagine the Serbian government handing over an Azeri criminal who committed a crime against ethnic Russian, so strong is the Slavic bloodline between the Serbs and the Russians. But Hungarians did.

      Three prominent Hungarian Armenian generals: General Ernő Kiss, General Vilmos Lázár, and General János Czetz, as well as more than 1500 Hungarian Armenian soldiers fought for your country’s independence at the times when no such “nation” as Azerbaijan ever existed on the worldmaps. How soon we forget and sell our souls for oil money! SHAME!

  17. No mention of ASALA terrorism which killed diplomats & bystanders & were released with a slap on the wrist? Armenian leaders are draging their people from one destrcution to another & poor Armenians are paying the price while diaspora are living the life…

    • Turk-oglu ‘troy’:

      When we discuss the Armenian Genocide, you may bring up ASALA and discuss its assassinations of agents of the Turkish State and its murder of innocent bystanders at that time. At the same time we will also discuss the vicious, savage murder of 2 million Armenian civilians, including pregnant women, children and babies – both born and unborn – by the Turkish terrorist State organizations. Deal ?

      and the juvenile attempts of Turks and Turkish agents to drive some kind of an imaginary wedge between Diaspora Armenians and our heart and soul – the Republics of Armenia and NKR – are so laughably primitive that no retort is warranted.

    • It is funny when a Turk like troy comes on board to preach “Armenian terrorism” conveniently ignoring the state terrorism that Turkey has been implementing on Kurds for decades. I guess we should remind you the assassination of Hrant Dink, the ruthless killing of a Turkish Armenian soldier Sevag Sahin Balikci on April 24, and of course the biggest state sanctioned terror in the history of human kind, the Armenian Genocide.
      Previously on these pages, we have discussed more than once the state sponsored terrorism that your government was part of during Iraq war. Do we have go through that again? Do we need to remind you the heroic activities of your cousins “Turkish Al Qaida operatives”, killing and blowing up innocent people in Iraq?
      Maybe we should remind you of something more recent, like how Turkey is arming and pushing mujahedin terrorists to the neighboring country. Here are some citations for you:
      -“It was enough for Abu Omar al-Chechen. His ragtag band of foreign fighters, known as “muhajiroun brothers”, was huddled in the doorway of a burned-out apartment building in the university district of Aleppo. One of the brothers – a Turk – lay dead in the road around the corner and a second brother lay next to him, badly wounded and unable to move. They had been unable to rescue him because of the sniper.”
      -“The terrorists have slaughter men and women in Zamalka in Damascus area to incite the army to respond and “inciting the public opinion” against Syria on the eve of a meeting of the UN Security Council…the terrorists collected the bodies of victims and put it in the mosque of Sheikh Askar. They booby-trapped the mosque and they were planning to launch mortar shells on the Syrian army from there to make the Syrian army respond”.
      -“Around this time, Mohamed said, he was introduced to a Salafist called “Al-Hajer” who asked him to help in his movement’s “medical and logistic support – to hide men wanted by the authorities and to find safe houses”. Al-Hajer began frequenting Mohamed’s home, “and he offered me a kind of allegiance, where you shake hands with this man and tell him that you acknowledge him as a leader whom you will obey, and will follow jihad and will not question him”. Al-Hajer brought strangers to Mohamed’s home.
      They took me into their circle. I left my mind ‘outside’ at this period and then I recognized that this group was al-Qa’ida. On 10 April this year, one of these people asked me to go with him in a car. I went to a place where I saw cylinders 2.5m high, with cases to fill them up with explosives. There were about 10 people there. I don’t know why they asked me there – maybe to drag me into involvement. There was a Palestinian and a Jordanian who were to be suicide bombers and three Iraqi citizens. We left in a car in front of the two bombers. I don’t know where they were going to bomb, but 15 minutes after I arrived back home, I heard the explosion and two minutes later there was a much stronger explosion. The catastrophe came for me when I watched the television and saw the bomb had gone off in a crowded street in the Bazzaz district; there were houses crushed in the bombings and all the inhabitants [targeted] were middle class and poor people. I was so sorry.”
      -“Turkish NGO Running Weapons to Syria”
      Same organization linked to Free Gaza Flotilla Operation in 2010
      Evidence is mounting that the IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation, the Islamic Turkish NGO that owned and operated three of the flotilla ships determined to breach Israel’s blockade of Gaza in 2010, may be involved with running weapons to Syria on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood.
      Commanders with the Free Syrian Army (FSA) have stated that vessels containing weapons docked in Syria were also registered to members of the IHH, who are connected to the Muslim Brotherhood.
      A FSA militant Samar Srewel, who worked to organize the shipment explained: “It was clear from that second what was happening. The Muslim Brotherhood, through its ties in Turkey, was seizing control of this ship and the cargo. This is what they do. They buy influence with their money and guns.”

      Dear troy, I hope this was a short introductory to the world of recent Turkish sponsored terrorism.

  18. Dear Hayortis,
    I have a very important message /communication to reveal here Nowq!
    I also ask Mr. Harut Sassounian to take the necessary action ,or at the very least cooperate with me and others to do the following.-
    We,meaning self, brother and sister arelegally heris and inheritors of 3 buildings in Budapest,Hungary. 2 of them Landmark buildings that have the external aspect decorated with Statues on MAIN THOROGHUFARE,plaza.
    We have tried hard to claim these through their consulate -who directed us to attorneys in Budapest.We did.After lengthy correspondence two trips by us over,all they had achieved was:-
    A. that the Govt. would compensate the costs(since these are all occupied by ¨squatters¨,no not in the sense of latter but doctors, lawyers, professionals etc.but non the less illegally occupying them through falsified DEEDS.We have proof to that. I have tried to recruit help of prominent Armenian lawyers in the U.S. who have declined to take up the case.
    We, the heirs agree that in case we enter into a Class Action -like Lawsuir(i.e. through the Armenian establishments in Diaspora-if the RA does not interfere-then one of these Buildings which untill recently(probably now as well) was occupied by a certain political party headquarters BE HANDED OVER TO RA TO SERVE AS E M B A S S Y OF ARMENIA IN BUDAPEST.
    Go through google and find out-see for yourself- the two builidngs near corner of H O S O K T E R R A….
    I shall be awaiting to receive response from mr. Sassounian our ex-officio Representative this side of the ocean.I have also been informed that there is certain Armenian Attorney in Berlin -if he still resides and excercises there-that he can pull up ropes from there or going over and in other words is capable of acting.
    No need to say we(self and siblings9 are not in a position to spend any monies on tryuing to recuperate these Real Estates(we tried our best some 20 or yrs ago).
    To add if, some of our very able Attorneys were able to claim and win the case versus the NY Life insurance and AXA Insurance companies(cases that go back to the Genocide,viz 97 yrs old, why can´t they do so for a Case that is 65 yrs or so old…
    Oh near forgot, when my family had just settled down in the U.S. I also applied to the AGBU´s lawyer(now its pres:) who replied that we were not U.S. citizens(then) hence our case could not be handled etc.,
    Many know that my cousin Rebeca Palandjian also tried hard through U.N. and her appeals can be traced on the google,with no avail….
    it is upt to us all jointly to begin a Class action lawsuit(my personal view) so as it can be timely,now that the Tribunals in Budapest are more ¨soft¨¨ shall we say towards us Armenians…

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