Breaking the wall of silence: call for action

Armenian citizen Gurgen Margaryan, 26 years old, was hacked to death while asleep by Ramil Safarov, a Lieutenant of the Azerbaijani Army. Both were participants of an English language training course within the framework of the NATO-sponsored “Partnership for Peace” program held in Budapest, Hungary.

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During almost a year since the brutal murder of Gurgen Margaryan in Budapest American and European media has consistently stayed silent about the murder of the Armenian officer in Budapest as if nothing ever happened. We were able to track only a 51-word piece from The Guardian (In brief: Murdered at peace seminar. Feb 20, 2004 p.15), a news report from nytimes.com and one more from The Moscow Times (Brutal murder stokes Karabakh war passions, by Chloe Arnold. March 2, 2004).

The crime committed by the Azerbaijani officer Ramil Safarov shook the very basics of NATO's Partnership for Peace program, yet went on almost unnoticed by major news outlets. Probably it was the reluctance to loudly condemn the crime that became the reason why many Azerbaijani officials and public figures felt safe to strongly support the murderer and even worse—to make statements containing threats to Armenians worldwide. It was no wonder the murderer soon became something like a national hero in Azerbaijan.

Now with the trial of Ramil Safarov still going on it is important to break the wall of silence around the Budapest case.

Please spread the word about the Budapest case and http://budapest.sumgait.info/ on appropriate mailing lists, internet discussion boards, web sites, etc.

If you are a webmaster please feel free to place the following button and add a link to http://budapest.sumgait.info/
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