On March 9, 2004 four public organizations of Armenia – Yerevan Press Club,
Helsinki Committee of Armenia, Civil Society Institute and Caucasian Center
of Peace Initiatives – disseminated a joint statement on the assassination of
Armenian officer Gurgen Margarian by his Azerbaijani colleague in Budapest.
“We, similarly to all our compatriots, were greatly shattered by the barbarous
murder of Armenia officer Gurgen Margarian by Azerbaijani peer Ramil Safarov.
The tragic incident in Budapest provoke numerous thoughts: about the hate incitement
towards Armenian in Azerbaijan that forms the moral and psychological ground
for such crimes as well as about the connivance of certain international structures
to the destructive policy in Baku, narrowing down the prospects of dialogue
with Armenia.
At the same time the irresponsible statements by several Armenian political
and public figures, the publications in media during the recent days cannot
but cause our serious concern. In particular, the Chairman of the Standing Committee
of Foreign Affairs of the RA National Assembly Armen Rustamian, during the commemoration
action for victims of Sumgait pogroms and the head of the Parliament faction
of Republican Party Galust Sahakian during a briefing at NA on March 4, speaking
about the assassin of Gurgen Margarian, indulged into unacceptable generalizations
to the address of Azerbaijan nation as such.
These statements by politicians of such a high rank, representing a governing
political coalition, are all the more unacceptable since they can be qualified
as an official position of ours state, can create new obstacles for the negotiations
on the peaceful resolution of Karabagh conflict and the normalization of relations
between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The artificial intensification of anti-Armenian sentiment in Azerbaijan and
its consequences are to be most strongly criticized, but they can in no way
become a justification for dissemination of racist and chauvinist ideas, alien
to our society.
However hard our experiences related to Budapest tragedy are, we call to display
political reticence and hope that common sense and democratic values will remain
guiding for our country”, the statement of the Armenian NGOs says.
