Hungary’s MFA doesn't confirm rumors on severing ties with Baku

September 5, 2012 - 17:23 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Hungary’s Foreign Ministry refused to confirm a report suggesting the official Budapest considers suspending diplomatic ties with any country, the Ministry press service told PanARMENIAN.Net

As Mediamax agency reported earlier, citing a source at OSCE Secretariat in Vienna, Budapest saw suspending relations with Azerbaijan as an option to overcome the difficult situation that has aroused after Hungary’s decision to transfer the murderer of Armenian officer to Baku where he was immediately pardoned and glorified.

As a Hungarian diplomat told his U.S. colleague over a working lunch, such a decision could become a symbolic message for recovering relations with Armenia.

Ramil Safarov, the Azerbaijani army officer who was serving a life sentence in Hungary for axing to death Armenian Lt. Gurgen Margaryan, was extradited to Azerbaijan and pardoned by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

Official Yerevan reacted by suspending diplomatic ties with Hungary.

Hungary, however, states that it had sent Safarov back to Azerbaijan after receiving assurances from the Azerbaijani Justice Ministry that Safarov's sentence, which included the possibility of parole after 25 years, would be enforced.

Gurgen Margaryan

On February 19, 2004, Lieutenant of the Armenian Armed Forces Gurgen Margaryan, 26, 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 Partnership for Peace NATO-sponsored program. In accordance with Budapest District Court sentence dated April 13, 2006, Ramil Safarov was life imprisoned for murdering the Armenian officer.

On February 22, 2007, Budapest Court rejected the Azerbaijani military officer's appeal against a life sentence. The appeal court ruled that the decision brought by Budapest District Court against 30-year-old Lieutenant Ramil Safarov, should stand.

On August 31, 2012, Hungary extradited Safarov back to Azerbaijan, where he was promptly pardoned by President Ilham Aliyev.