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March 29
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Armenian Australians have joined international condemnation of extradition and pardon of Azerbaijani lieutenant Ramil Safarov holding a protest action in front of Hungary’s Embassy in Canberra, Armenia Online reports.

SBS Television and several radio stations covered the demonstration of the 250 members of the community.

During the two hour demonstration, Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC Australia) Executive Director Vache Kahramanian and Father Avedis Hambardzumyan of the Armenian Apostolic Church met with the Hungarian Ambassador to Australia, Anna Siko. During the meeting, which occurred to a backdrop of strong chants from the crowd outside, Siko was presented with a letter on behalf of the community calling upon the following:

  1. The condemnation by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban of his Azeri counterpart Ilham Aliyev for pardoning a convicted murderer despite assurances provided by Azerbaijan;
  2. The condemnation of Azerbaijan’s continued aggression and threats of war against the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh; and
  3. Recognition of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent state to ensure the safety and security of its people.

“Our issue is not with the peaceful people of Hungary but with those officials in Budapest who allowed the extradition of a convicted cold-blooded murderer,” said Kahramanian.

”We will continue to pursue the Hungarian authorities through the Embassy in Canberra until we receive a response which is not a response that the Hungarian government wants to hear, but a response which is just and correct.”

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.

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

 

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