Armenia breaks with Hungary after killer released

Armenia severed all diplomatic ties with Hungary after Azeri soldier Ramil Sahib Safarov, who was serving a life sentence in Hungary for killing an Armenian soldier in Budapest in 2004, was extradited to his home country where he was pardoned by the President.

Safarov’s release outraged Armenians who blamed Budapest for ‘selling’ the killer to Azerbaijan, knowing he would not be imprisoned there. Hungary flatly refuses allegations that it had made any such deal, claiming it had done everything according to international law.

Days before the release, Armenian civil rights activists warned the Hungarian government against extraditing Safarov. Armenia and Azerbaijan, once both member states of the Soviet Union, have long been enemies. The United States and the European Union both expressed their concerns about the release of Safarov to Azerbaijan.

The extradition came some two months after the talks in Azerbaijan between Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán and Azeri President Ilham Aliyev where topics included the possibility of Azerbaijan buying Hungarian government bonds to the tune of EUR billions, that most analysts view as a move that would help the Orbán government delay the need to sign a deal (of strict conditions) with the International Monetary Fund.