AZERBAIJANI OFFICER PLEADS GUILTY FOR KILLING ARMENIAN CLASSMATE

Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
November 23, 2004

Budapest, November 23 (MTI) – The Azerbaijani officer who killed
an Armenian classmate during a NATO Partnership for Peace course in
Budapest last February has pleaded guilty in court.

Ramil Safarov, 27, used an ax to hack to death his sleeping colleague
Gurgen Makarian of Armenia, a year his junior, in the dormitory of
Miklos Zrinyi National Defence University.

Safarov said that his act was motivated by the long-standing conflict
between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Safarov who showed no repentance in court said the murder was a revenge
for a 1992 Armenian assault of Azerbaijanis in the Nagorno-Karabakh
region, which he witnessed as a child.

Safarov is charged with premeditated murder carried out with unusual
cruelty and vile motives.

The Azerbaijani officer said the Armenians he had met in the dormitory
and in excursions “were smiling mockingly and were behaving the way
members of a victorious army usually behave towards the defeated.”

The killer and the Armenian victim were attending a three-month
English language course in Budapest.

The trial was attended by both Azerbaijani and Armenian diplomats.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress