The funeral of the lieutenant of the Armenian armed forces, Gurgen
Markaryan, who was hacked to death while asleep by Azerbaijani officer
Ramil Safarov, was held in the Yerablur pantheon on 28 February. The
killing was committed on 19 February in Hungary where the two officers
were on a visit within the framework of NATO’s Partnership for Peace
programme.
Hundreds of people paid their last respects to Markaryan: relatives,
senior officials of the Armenian Defence Ministry, colleagues, members
of parliament and government, many NGOs that unite the relatives of
killed azatamartiks [freedom fighters] and simply people who were
shocked by the incident.
“We came to tell the Azeris that we are not cowards and do not kill
anyone while they are asleep, but if necessary, we will all stand
united to defend our motherland,” the chairwoman of the Call of Pang
organization, Anaid Sarkisyan, said on behalf of the mothers of killed
azatamartiks. Flora Zakaryan, mother of Agasi Shaginyan who was killed
in the war, said in tears: “It is as though I am burying my own son
for the second time. The whole world must know about this crime.”
“When I heard about this crime, I wanted to take up arms. If
necessary, I will go to war. I won’t chop off anyone’s heads, but I’ll
shoot as much as I can,” said Garib Melkonyan, father of the deceased
Lyudvig Melkonyan.
Armenian Defence Minister Serzh Sarkisyan said in his address to a
rally of mourning that this murder, which is unprecedented for its
brutality, is a consequence of intensifying anti-Armenian propaganda
in Azerbaijan. He pointed out that public organizations, which are
creating an atmosphere of intolerance, are supported and assisted by
the Azerbaijani authorities and that military programmes for training
officers contain elements of hatred and fan the flames of bellicose
moods.
Sarkisyan said that anti-Armenian propaganda has moved to
international programmes. Azerbaijan first banned Armenian officers
from visiting Baku within the framework of a NATO programme, and now
murder has been committed within the framework of the same NATO
programme. According to Sarkisyan, the international community will
give an appropriate assessment of the incident, otherwise the
political settlement of the Karabakh issue will suffer a setback.
All speakers emphasized the moral side of what is going on in
Azerbaijan, where a cowardly murderer who hacked his counterpart to
death while asleep has been declared a hero. “This crime demonstrated
to the whole world that an officer of the Azerbaijani army has no
honour. Armenian officers had not committed such a base crime –
killing someone while they are asleep, even during the war,” Lt-Col
Nazaryan said.
Yorumlar kapatıldı.