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National Council of
Churches USA joins ecumenical leaders
to protest pardon of officer convicted of killing an Armenian officer
New York, September 4, 2012 – The National Council of Churches president and
a former NCC president have joined international ecumenical leaders to
protest Hungary’s release of an Azerbaijani army officer
convicted in 2006 of killing an Armenian officer.
 Archbishop
Vicken Aykazian, a former National Council of Churches president and a
member of the World Council of Churches Central Committee, said Hungary “has
fallen victim to the continued anti-Armenian policies and actions of
Azerbaijan.”
The release of an officer convicted of killing an Armenian on Hungarian soil
“does nothing to further our quest for peace and stability for all people in
the region,” said Aykazian, legate of the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian
Church in America.
According to press reports, Armenia severed diplomatic ties with Hungary
after Azerbaijani Lt. Ramil Safarov, serving a life sentence for the murder
of an Armenian officer, was released and returned to Azerbaijan, where he
was pardoned and freed.
Safarov confessed to murdering Armenian Lt. Gurgen Markarian in 2004 when
the two were in Hungary on a NATO assignment.
National Council of Churches President Kathryn M. Lohre, also a member of
the WCC Central Committee, said the amnesty “threatens to undermine justice
and peace in the region through the cessation of diplomatic ties, and the
strain on human relationships. We commit ourselves to pray for and stand in
solidarity with all those who strive for human rights, peace, and
understanding.”
The Rev. Dr. Olav Fykse Tveit, in a letter to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of
Hungary, said the release of Safarov “appears as an action that was not
properly considered on the part of the Hungarian government. Safarov’s
release by the Azerbaijan government, despite his life sentence, runs
counter to normative practices of justice.”
Tveit condemned “actions that severely undermine justice and reconciliation
for the peoples of Armenia and Azerbaijan and the region, who have a right
to live side by side with dignity, respect for human rights and in freedom.”
In a letter to His Holiness Karekin II, Catholicos of all Armenians,
Hungarian church leaders expressed their dismay over their government's
action.
Bishop Péter Gáncs, Presiding Bishop of the Lutheran Church in Hungary, and
Bishop Gusztáv Bölcskei,
Ministerial President of the Synod of the Reformed Church
in Hungary, wrote: "On behalf of the Protestant communities in Hungary,
please accept our sincere sympathy on the unacceptable amnesty given to the
Azeri criminal who was extradited from Hungary to his homeland Azerbaijan.
While we cannot question that the Hungarian authorities acted in accordance
with the applicable international law, we regret that the extradition
resulted in the intolerable amnesty granted to the convict by the President
of Azerbaijan."
Since its founding in 1950, the National Council of
the Churches of Christ in the USA has been the leading force for
shared ecumenical witness among Christians in the United States. The NCC's
37 member communions -- from a wide spectrum of Protestant, Anglican,
Orthodox, Evangelical, historic African American and Living Peace
churches -- include 40 million persons in more than 100,000 local
congregations in communities across the nation.
NCC News contact:
Philip E. Jenks, 646-853-4212 (cell),
pjenks@ncccusa.org
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