BEIRUT. – Catholicos Aram I of the Great House of Cilicia of the Armenian Apostolic Church addressed a letter of protest to the President of Hungary, and in connection with Ramil Safarov’s extradition by Hungary to Azerbaijan and his being granted pardon there.

In his letter, the Catholicos assessed this arrangement between the Hungarian and Azerbaijani governments as “a violation of the principles of international law and justice,” and noted that this unlawful move “has raised   a terrible wave of outbursts and protests in Armenia and the [Armenian] Diaspora,” the Great House of Cilicia’s official website informs.  

“Political interests shall not trample justice and human dignity,” Aram I noted, and added that he fully shares the Armenian people’s just outburst.   

Armenian News-NEWS.am reported earlier that Ramil Safarov, a lieutenant in the Azerbaijani military, was extradited on August 31 from Hungary, where he was serving a life sentence—and with no expression of either regret or remorse—for the premeditated axe murder of Armenian lieutenant Gurgen Margaryan, in his sleep, during a NATO Partnership for Peace program in Budapest back in 2004.

As expected, Ramil Safarov’s return to Baku was welcomed, as was his act of murder, by the officials of president Ilham Aliyev’s government and much of Azerbaijani society, and the Azerbaijani president immediately granted him a pardon.

And Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan announced on August 31 that Armenia is suspending its diplomatic ties with Hungary.