YEREVAN. – “The entire civilized world and the European community are shocked by the shameful Azerbaijani-Hungarian arrangement, when, in return for concrete interests, EU- and NATO-member Hungary sold to authoritarian Azerbaijan the monster who axed the Armenian officer to death,” Armenian National Assembly’s European Integration Standing Committee Chairwoman and member of Armenia’s delegations to PACE and Euronest, Naira Zohrabyan wrote in her letter addressed to European Parliament President Martin Schulz, PACE President Jean-Claude Mignon, and Euronest Parliamentary Assembly Co-President Kristian Vigenin.

“Presidents and leaders of a variety of countries and international organizations made [respective] statements these days. Certainly, these statements were not always sufficient. But I would like to invite your attention to the shameful fact that the monster, Safarov, was formally welcomed at the airport by members of the Azerbaijani delegations to PACE and Euronest. The message of this was but one and very clear: International public opinion is null and void for Azerbaijan,” Zohrabyan stated, and concluded:

“And if we do not give a more precise assessment to what transpired and do not take concrete steps, any member country of our family will not be insured from one day becoming the target of such shameful arrangement.”         

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.