Armenia stops diplomatic relations with Hungary

Armenia has decided to stop diplomatic relations with Hungary, after Budapest had given out to Baku the Azerbaijani prisoner, convicted for killing an Armenian soldier. This decision was announced at the sitting of the National Security Council of Armenia, as Mary Arutyunyan, the head of Public Relations and Media of the President's Administration, told reporters.

In April 2006, the Budapest City Court sentenced Ramil Safarov to life imprisonment for killing an Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan on February 19, 2004, in Budapest. Both officers were in the Hungarian capital at training courses of English within the framework of the NATO's programme "Partnership for Peace". As stated by the defence at the trial, Safarov committed the murder as Margaryan had repeatedly publicly insulted the people of Azerbaijan and the memory of those who perished in the Karabakh War.

Today, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliev has signed a decree to pardon the Azerbaijani officer Ramil Safarov, who is serving his life sentence in Hungary.

'' I declare officially that today Armenia breaks off diplomatic relations and all official ties with Hungary. We expect from our business partners clear and unambiguous actions in the context of extradition of Ramil Safarov to Azerbaijan. Those who turn their blind eye to this issue will tomorrow have to answer to the history," said the President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan.