John Alexander (Bennelong, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Bennelong has the highest number of Armenians of any electorate in the country. This diaspora is very active in our community, and it has a lot of concerns about the issues facing their homeland and region. One thing at the forefront of these concerns is the ongoing animosity between them and their neighbour Azerbaijan.

Seven years ago, on 31 August, Armenian Army Lieutenant Gurgen Margaryan was murdered with an axe by Captain Ramil Sahib Safarov of the Azerbaijan army. A second officer narrowly missed meeting the same fate. The murder was so heinous it sent shock waves around the world. During a NATO Partnership for Peace program in Hungary, Safarov committed the barbaric act of hacking the sleeping Lieutenant Margaryan with an axe 16 times. He was subsequently charged and convicted on 13 April 2006, when a Hungarian court sentenced Safarov to life imprisonment, with 30 years without parole—the sentence for a cold, calculated murderer. But, in Azerbaijan, Safarov was a national hero. There, President Aliyev believed that not only was Safarov worthy of freedom; he was a patriot worthy of glory rather than of condemnation.

A recent investigation led by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project revealed that several bank transfers in excess of $7 million were made to a Budapest bank account around the time the Hungarian government extradited Safarov to Azerbaijan. This was part of nearly $3 billion in a slush fund tied to Azerbaijan's ruling elite and used to buy influence around the world as revealed by Hungarian investigative journalism NGO Atlatszo. They noted that this Budapest bank account belonged to an offshore company owned by the son of an influential Azerbaijani politician.

Consequently, Safarov was released to Azerbaijan on August 31 after serving only eight years of his sentence. Upon arrival home, he was granted an official pardon by President Aliyev and was gifted a full military parade with a promotion to major as well as a new apartment and eight years of back pay. This is an example of what has become known as 'Armeniaphobia' in Azerbaijan—government-sanctioned racism against Armenians that fosters the kind of hate that leads to axe murders of sleeping innocent soldiers during NATO peace missions.

We must join the nations of the world in condemning a pardon, a murderer and a president by remembering this act and reminding Azerbaijan that it will not be forgotten now or ever. It is only by recognising the Republic of Artsakh that the people of Artsakh will earn their human rights to self-determination, the right to live in peace and security on their— (Time expired)