Tweet
ARMENIA CUTS LINKS WITH HUNGARY AFTER AXE-KILLER PARDON
Focus News
Aug 31 2012
ulgaria
Yerevan. Armenia severed diplomatic links with Hungary on Friday
after Budapest extradited an Azerbaijani soldier who axed to death
an Armenian serviceman to Baku, where he was immediately pardoned,
AFP reported.
"With their joint actions, Azerbaijan and Hungary opened the door to
the recurrence of such crimes," Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian
said in comments release by his press service.
"I cannot put up with this. The republic of Armenia cannot put up
with this," he said.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev issued an order that killer Ramil
Safarov "should be freed from the term of his punishment" directly
after he arrived on a plane from Budapest on Friday where he had been
serving a life sentence for the murder in 2004.
Sarkisian said he had put his troops on "high alert" after the incident
which has inflamed tensions between the enemies who fought a war over
the disputed region of Nagorny Karabakh in the 1990s.
Sarkisian told an emergency meeting of his national security council
that Hungary had made a "grave mistake" in extraditing the prisoner.
"This is not a simple murder. It is murder on ethnic grounds," he said.
Safarov hacked Armenian officer Gurgen Margarian to death with an
axe in 2004 at a military academy in Budapest where the servicemen
from the ex-Soviet neighbour states were attending English-language
courses organised by NATO.
His lawyers claimed in court that he was traumatised because some
of his relatives were killed during the war with Armenian forces and
alleged that Margarian had insulted his country.
"I want to express my appreciation and gratitude to the president
and commander-in-chief Ilham Aliyev for this humane move," Safarov
was reported as saying by Azerbaijani media after being greeted as
a hero when he arrived in Baku on a special flight.
Safarov then visited a memorial to those killed in the war accompanied
by a crowd of supporters who chanted slogans such as "We'll liberate
Karabakh".
Angry Armenian protesters meanwhile threw tomatoes at the Hungarian
embassy in Yerevan.
Armenia-backed separatists seized Nagorny Karabakh from Azerbaijan
in the war that left some 30,000 people dead, and despite years of
negotiations since a 1994 ceasefire, the two sides have not signed
a final peace deal.
Azerbaijan has threatened to take back the region by force if peace
talks do not yield results, while Armenia has vowed massive retaliation
against any military action.
Focus News
Aug 31 2012
ulgaria
Yerevan. Armenia severed diplomatic links with Hungary on Friday
after Budapest extradited an Azerbaijani soldier who axed to death
an Armenian serviceman to Baku, where he was immediately pardoned,
AFP reported.
"With their joint actions, Azerbaijan and Hungary opened the door to
the recurrence of such crimes," Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian
said in comments release by his press service.
"I cannot put up with this. The republic of Armenia cannot put up
with this," he said.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev issued an order that killer Ramil
Safarov "should be freed from the term of his punishment" directly
after he arrived on a plane from Budapest on Friday where he had been
serving a life sentence for the murder in 2004.
Sarkisian said he had put his troops on "high alert" after the incident
which has inflamed tensions between the enemies who fought a war over
the disputed region of Nagorny Karabakh in the 1990s.
Sarkisian told an emergency meeting of his national security council
that Hungary had made a "grave mistake" in extraditing the prisoner.
"This is not a simple murder. It is murder on ethnic grounds," he said.
Safarov hacked Armenian officer Gurgen Margarian to death with an
axe in 2004 at a military academy in Budapest where the servicemen
from the ex-Soviet neighbour states were attending English-language
courses organised by NATO.
His lawyers claimed in court that he was traumatised because some
of his relatives were killed during the war with Armenian forces and
alleged that Margarian had insulted his country.
"I want to express my appreciation and gratitude to the president
and commander-in-chief Ilham Aliyev for this humane move," Safarov
was reported as saying by Azerbaijani media after being greeted as
a hero when he arrived in Baku on a special flight.
Safarov then visited a memorial to those killed in the war accompanied
by a crowd of supporters who chanted slogans such as "We'll liberate
Karabakh".
Angry Armenian protesters meanwhile threw tomatoes at the Hungarian
embassy in Yerevan.
Armenia-backed separatists seized Nagorny Karabakh from Azerbaijan
in the war that left some 30,000 people dead, and despite years of
negotiations since a 1994 ceasefire, the two sides have not signed
a final peace deal.
Azerbaijan has threatened to take back the region by force if peace
talks do not yield results, while Armenia has vowed massive retaliation
against any military action.