Hungary jails Azerbaijani killer

BBC ^ | Thursday, 13 April 2006

[Grzegorz 246]

An Azerbaijani army officer has been jailed for life for murdering an Armenian while the two were taking a Nato course in English in Hungary.

Lt Ramil Safarov confessed to hacking Lt Gurgen Markarian to death with an axe in February 2004 in a dormitory used by Partnership for Peace trainees.

The Budapest court sentenced Safarov to life in prison, with a 30-year minimum term before any parole hearings.

Azerbaijan and Armenia have been bitter rivals since a war in the 1980s-90s.

Verdict welcomed

Safarov, 29, showed little emotion as Judge Andras Vaskuti read out the sentence.

He had claimed that he had been driven to his act by the plight of fellow Azerbaijanis, including close family relatives, in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

He also said he had been provoked by what he called the insulting behaviour of Lt Markarian towards the Azerbaijani flag.

But the judge ruled that the murder was pre-meditated and had been carried out with extreme cruelty.

Had his fellow officers not restrained him, the judge added, Safarov would have killed a second Armenian officer as well.

A lawyer representing the victim's family welcomed the sentence as a "good decision for the Hungarian court and for [Armenian] society".

Safarov's lawyer said he planned to appeal against the verdict.

[Grzegorz 246]

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[SaltyJoe]

Can you provide a link or give a simple history on why Azerbaijanis and Armenians don't like each other. Just curious since I'm a very very far outsider and want to know more.

[Grzegorz 246]

Looks like once again uncle Joseph screw things. Stalin gave Nagorno-Karabakh (a mountain region populated mostly by Armenians) to Azer. When Soviet Union was falling down Armenians, supported by Russians, took It back. Thousands died in fights, a few hundred thousand became refugees. I think this is the reason, but maybe there's something more like "In 15th century blah blah blah". Besides Armenians are mostly Orthodox Christians, Azers are mostly Muslims.

[SaltyJoe]

Seems like the age old divide, conquer, and oppress (using the subordinates to attack each other rather than always having to rely on a secret police). The religious difference doesn't help either.

[Admin Moderator]

I'm removing #3 because of a copyright complaint from Getty.

Reference.

[Lukasz]

Let me add, that Nagorna-Karabah is an enclave in Azerbaijan (yellow on the map). Both countries aren’t democratic and their leaders use the conflict to gain some popularity. Currently Kremlin play on both sides and as usual try to do everything to NOT resolve the conflict. But both countries are under strong pressure of NATO and looks like the conflict should be resolved soon. This incredible incident is perhaps just another provocation to broke the negotiations.

Polish soccer team played Azerbaijan recently in Baku and there was many European dressed woman on the stadium so this is not Arab kind of Islam. What is funny both nations will be in the same group in the qualifications to the European championships, be prepared for two hot matches of two very weak teams :-)

[Grzegorz 246]

"Seems like the age old divide, conquer, and oppress"

Stalin was a master of such dirty games.

[Grzegorz 246]

Once I was talking with a guy, who was in Azer and he said that there are no problems with religion, even some Jews live there.

"What is funny both nations will be in the same group in the qualifications to the European championships, be prepared for two hot matches of two very weak teams :-)"

They will have to play on neutral ground. I remember when last our team crushed Azer 8:0 and their Brasilian couch was making a clown out of himself.

[Lukasz]

Brasilian couch was making a clown out of himself.

Perpahs Pogon should sign him! Hahaha Btw what you think about Pogon’s “Brasiliana”? :-)

Once I was talking with a guy, who was in Azer and he said that there are no problems with religion, even some Jews live there.

Sovietized Muslims…

[Grzegorz 246]

It wouldn't be so bad If wasn't done at once and not in the middle of the season. I am rather worried that Ptak will soon get offended and destroy the club like he already had done with LKS and few others.

[Lukasz]

It wouldn't be so bad If wasn't done at once and not in the middle of the season.

Typical Ptak’s thinking, he is not a sponsor but bandit. Everything he touch leaves in ruin… Look for the list of clubs in which he was involved in:
LKS – just recovering after many years in shadow
Piotrkovia – never recovered
Polonia Gdansk – never recovered
Lechia - just recovering, we played in the LAST league!
This may be a future of Pogon as well:

http://www.pogon.v.pl/news.phtml?id=5460

As far as we talking about teams without Poles, I’m totally against, since Prokom-Trefl became “foreign”, I stopped support them at all. Beside those Brazilians are so cheap because they are so weak. Ptak wants to keep first league with the lowest cost because he is only interested in Pogon’s land like this Turk before. Being a sponsor is just an excuse. He has no idea how make money from football itself and NOT ruin the clubs.

[Grzegorz 246]

"Beside those Brazilians are so cheap because they are so weak."

Few of them theoretically should be really good players, but you can't expect anything more from people, who were brought from Brazil in the middle of winter to a completely new team. Completely foreign is not a good idea, but a better half of these Brazilians + a better half of Poles, who used to play there would probably make a really good team.

"he is only interested in Pogon’s land like this Turk before. Being a sponsor is just an excuse. He has no idea how make money from football itself and NOT ruin the clubs."

True, however in case of Ptak there must be something more. Sport clubs have to pay taxes ? I think not. Maybe he just somehow transfer profits from his other companies through clubs.

[ketelone]

Oh, whoops, sorry!

Didnt know that linking to gettys images wasnt ok.