YEREVAN. – The Hungarian authorities could not have been unaware that the murderer was to be made a hero in Azerbaijan, Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan said Thursday during his joint briefing with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.   

The President recalled that the Armenian side had cautioned its partners, on numerous occasions, that making statements that are biased, and which do not express the true meaning of the conflict, are perilous, and, first and foremost, they strengthen Azerbaijan’s deconstructive position.  

“I’m confident that the ‘political decency’ became the basis for Azerbaijan’s such actions and position,” Sargsyan noted.  

In his words, this murder should not cast a shadow upon relations between Armenia and NATO.

“We witnessed how the criminal was immediately pardoned by Azerbaijan’s president. Here I use the word ‘pardon’ with some reservations because the real objective of this decision was to justify Safarov; this is the problem,” the President remarked.  

As per Sargsyan, Azerbaijan made itself become a backer of criminals.

“This is unacceptable and deserves criticism; this is a blow to the Partnership for Peace program [of NATO] and it undermines the security of South Caucasus,” he said.    

Also, the President considered Hungary’s decision to extradite Safarov to be impermissible.

“The Hungarian authorities confirmed this suspicion. [But] Today I express gratitude to all those Hungarians who supported the Armenian people in these difficult times,” Armenia’s President stated.