BUDAPEST. – The Armenian community of Hungary is going to take new steps in connection with the extradition and granting a pardon to Ramil Safarov, Vice Chairman of the “Armenian National Autonomy of Hungary” Nikoghos Hakobyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am. The steps to take will be decided in the upcoming session of the organization.

In response to the remark whether Hungarian authorities are sorry, Hakobyan said they do but they are sorry not for allowing the extradition but for the Azerbaijani authorities of breaking promise.

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.

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.