ETCHMIADZIN. – The Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II chaired a special meeting of the Supreme Spiritual Council, on Saturday at the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin.

The Council reflected on the Hungarian authorities’ extradition of Ramil Safarov to Azerbaijan and his being pardoned by the country’s president, and issued a respective statement, Information System of the Mother See reported.    

“The Armenian Apostolic Church strongly condemns this fact. What transpired is yet another manifestation of the Armenian-hating policy adopted by Azerbaijan’s authorities. Regrettably, EU-member Hungary supported the plan of releasing the murderer who was declared a hero in Azerbaijan. Human life is God-given, and the crime of premeditated murder is a crime against humanity and God.     

We call upon all servants of the Armenian Church, [and] the faithful children of our people worldwide to sound their united voice of protest before the local authorities, [and] in the name of protecting our national rights. We also call upon our sister churches and all religious organizations to denounce this reality and to raise their voices in the name of justice and truth,” the Supreme Spiritual Council’s statement reads in particular.    

Armenian News-NEWS.am reported earlier that Ramil Safarov, a lieutenant in the Azerbaijani military, was extradited on Friday 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 Friday that Armenia is suspending its diplomatic ties with Hungary.