YEREVAN. – On August 20—that is, eleven days before Hungary extradited Ramil Safarov to Azerbaijan—Vice Chairman Nikoghos Hakobyan of the “Armenian National Autonomy of Hungary” had personally informed Armenia’s MFA, Diaspora Ministry, and Armenia’s Embassy in Austria about this news being awaited, and asked Armenia to launch immediate measures to prevent Hungary from announcing its final decision, Chorrord Inknishkhanutyun daily reports.      

‘“It is considered necessary to find out the reason why no measure was taken and no assistance was provided to us, Hungarian Armenians, learning of this news eleven days prior. After struggling for eight years, the Armenian National Autonomy of Hungary came to understand that the Azerbaijani lobby is so powerful in Hungary that Armenia’s diplomatic intervention is necessary to prevent this matter.    

The Armenian community of Hungary expects no assistance from Armenia’s Embassy in Austria. We ourselves will take steps to express our dissatisfaction to the government of Hungary,’ Nikoghos Hakobyan’s statement reads,” Chorrord Inknishkhanutyun writes.      

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.