“This alone is enough for you to imagine who’s who” – Speaker mentions infamous Azeri glorification of murderer Safarov

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 28, ARMENPRESS. Speaker of Parliament Alen Simonyan exposed the lies of the Azerbaijani narrative on Nagorno Karabakh during the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly session.

In response to Azeri Speaker of Parliament Sahiba Gafarova’s false statements that there is “no Nagorno Karabakh region, rather only Karabakh”, Alen Simonyan simply reminded everyone at the session that the Azeri president himself signed the November 9 statement which clearly mentions Nagorno Karabakh.

“If there’s no Nagorno Karabakh, then what did Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev sign on 9th November [2020]. The 9th November document very clearly mentions Nagorno Karabakh,” Simonyan said.

Moreover, in response to Gafarova’s accusations that the Armenian side is not investigating alleged war crimes committed by the Armenian forces - something that has been numerously denied as fake accusations – Simonyan said he will not respond to his Azeri counterpart’s statements one by one and will instead mention the infamous Ramil Safarov – the officer who axed to death a sleeping Armenian serviceman at a NATO training course.

“I am sure that everyone present here knows this. I will only say the following for you to understand and imagine the level of cynicism and actions of a country, for example during a similar international meeting a sleeping person could get axed in his hotel room. This was done by the brave soldier Safarov, who is now considered a hero in Azerbaijan. Only this is enough for you to imagine who is who,” Simonyan said.

Simonyan also proposed to Russian Federation Council Chair Valentina Matviyenko to organize under the CIS auspices the repatriation of Armenian PoWs held in Azerbaijan.

“My Azerbaijani colleague can call them pirates of Nagorno Karabakh, criminals, but they are simply people who got lost and accidentally crossed into the areas under Azerbaijani control after the signing of the trilateral ceasefire agreement. Let us offer our Azerbaijani partners to bring all captives during the next session because their families are demanding from us every day to deal with this issue,” Simonyan said.

Azerbaijani military officer Ramil Safarov murdered Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan in 2004 during a NATO training course in Hungary.

Margaryan was asleep in his room when Safarov attacked him with an axe.

Safarov admitted in court to having killed Margaryan because of his hatred towards Armenia and Armenians. He was sentenced to life in prison by the Hungarian court. However, in 2012 Hungary extradited him to Azerbaijan. He was released upon arrival, glorified on the state-level and pardoned by President Aliyev.