YEREVAN. – Suspending ties with Hungary was correct, but the subsequent developments were a mistake, former Deputy FM, Ambassador Arman Navasardian said during a press conference on Monday.  

“A special emotional behavior is incorrect and cannot help the case,” he stated stressing that Armenia made a diplomatic error, which, as per the Ambassador, is that Armenia’s diplomats did not comprehend how the Azerbaijani murderer was released.   

In his words, Armenia ought to have closer ties with Hungary so as to go out against Azerbaijan. In Arman Navasardian’s conviction, “the Hungarian people should not be mistaken for the Hungarian government, Hungary is not today’s government, and we have had a great past with Hungary.”      

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.    

Ramil Safarov’s pardoning is condemned by virtually all international organizations.   

Photo by Sona Barseghyan