Armenian Community in Hungary Plans to Install Memorial Plaque Honoring Gurgen Margaryan

BUDAPEST — The Armenian community of Hungary plans to install a memorial plaque on the building where Lieutenant of the Armenian Armed Forces Gurgen Margaryan was killed 11 years ago, deputy chairman of the Armenian organization of Hungary Nikoghos Hakobian told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

There is a khachkar in Budapest, and the Armenians and representatives of Hungarian NGOs honor memory of Gurgen Margaryan by bringing flowers to the khachkar, he said.

The organization has already addressed Hungary’s Defense Ministry with a request to install a memorial plaque on the building where Armenian soldier had been killed, and they are expecting the formal reply from the Ministry.

On February 19, 2004 Lieutenant Margaryan was hacked to death, while asleep, by a fellow Azerbaijani participant, Lieutenant Ramil Safarov, in Budapest during a three-month English language course in the framework of NATO-sponsored Partnership for Peace program.

In 2006, Safarov was sentenced to life imprisonment in Hungary with a minimum incarceration period of 30 years. He was extradited on August 31, 2012 to Azerbaijan where he was greeted as a hero, pardoned by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev despite contrary assurances made to Hungary, promoted to the rank of major and given an apartment and over eight years of back pay.

Following Safarov’s pardon, Armenia severed diplomatic relations with Hungary.