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Time in Yerevan: 11:07,   29 March 2024

Yerevan’s Gurgen Margaryan school and Budapest Máriaremete-Hidegkút Ecumenical school sign Memorandum of Cooperation

Yerevan’s Gurgen Margaryan school and Budapest Máriaremete-Hidegkút Ecumenical school 
sign Memorandum of Cooperation

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 22, ARMENPRESS. Yerevan’s Gurgen Margaryan #94 Primary School and the Máriaremete-Hidegkút Ecumenical Primary School of the Archabbey of Pannonhalma of Budapest, Hungary signed a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC).

The document was inked at the Gurgen Margaryan #94 Primary School.

The partnership between the Armenian and Hungarian schools will contribute to raising awareness among Hungarian students about the details of the ethnically-motivated murder of Gurgen Margaryan committed by an Azerbaijani military officer during a NATO training course in Hungary.

The partnership will also contribute to the prevention and condemnation of such crimes.

The Hungarian side specially chose to cooperate with the Gurgen Margaryan school to prevent such crimes in the future.

A Hungarian delegation had arrived in Armenia to deepen ties between the Armenian and Hungarian peoples.

Máriaremete-Hidegkút Ecumenical Primary School of the Archabbey of Pannonhalma Director István Csere and General Director of Education and School of the Archabbay of Pannonhalma Hardi Titusz OSB, signed the MoC with the Gurgen Margaryan school administration.

The Hungarian Prime Minister’s Office’s Head of the Department for Strategic Analysis and External Relations Bertalan Kiss and the Head of the Department of Armenian Studies at the Catholic University of Budapest Balint Kovacs also arrived in Yerevan as part of the Hungarian delegation and participated in the event.

Armenian government officials from the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport, the Armenian Foreign Minister’s Special Advisor Ashot Smbatyan and the Director of the External Relations and Protocol Department of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin Archbishop Nathan Hovhannisyan were present at the event.

Máriaremete-Hidegkút Ecumenical Primary School Director István Csere said in his remarks that the gruesome murder of Gurgen Margaryan continues to be a very painful, difficult and unacceptable event for the Hungarian society.

“In order to keep Gurgen Margaryan’s memory alive in Hungary and to prevent such crimes in the future we specifically chose to cooperate with the school named after him, and in this sense the signing of the memorandum between our very old, nearly 1000-year-old school and the young school after Gurgen Margaryan is very meaningful,” István Csere said.

The Hungarian side hopes that this school cooperation will enable to create solid grounds for the future relations between the two states and peoples, based on the existing historical rich ties between the Armenian and Hungarian peoples, and that the partnership will be beneficial for strengthening and enhancing the Armenian-Hungarian relations.

Archbishop Nathan Hovhannisyan said that in a sense this is a reconciliation step.

“Reconciliation is most important. I am saying this as a Christian clergyman, because the Lord has given us power to bring reconciliation between man and God. When the faithful come to us for confession, in the end of the prayer they say ‘Father, I have you as a mediator for reconciliation’. That’s the feeling I have now, and I am happy and I don’t want to somehow hide this, because today is a day of reconciliation for us,” the Archbishop said.

Mutual-visits of teachers and students, joint cultural and educational events and other programs are also envisaged.

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

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

During the trial in Hungary, 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. On the same day, then-President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan severed diplomatic relations with Hungary.

The pardon and glorification of Safarov in Azerbaijan received widespread condemnation around the world.

 

 

 

 








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