YEREVAN. – The decision to extradite Ramil Safarov was wrong and immoral, Hungarian historian and political analyst Zoltan Biro—who, along with a group of other Hungarian intellectuals, visited Armenia’s capital city Yerevan to apologize for the Hungarian government’s actions—told Armenian News-NEWS.am.
“We believe what transpired at the end of August is impermissible for most Hungarians. First and foremost, this is a deep insult, a big mistake. And we decided to express this in some way,” Biro noted, and added: “We came not solely to express our own feelings. Many in Hungary share our view. I believe they are a majority. And we believe the life yet to come would have been difficult without us coming here and expressing our sentiments. We don’t want to interfere in the conflict. It’s a terrible problem. We would like to help, but we can’t do that. But it is unequivocal that if a country such as Hungary can’t help, it should not obstruct at the [very] least.”
Zoltan Biro reiterated that Hungary ought to have thought before making its decision. “We believe this decision was deeply wrong and immoral. And we simply wished to express that the great majority of the Hungarians think this way,” he noted.
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.
