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Pakistan Observer
Sept 1 2012
Armenia suspends diplomatic ties with Hungary
Baku - Armenia said it was suspending diplomatic relations with Hungary
because it had allowed an Azeri soldier who killed an Armenian officer
in 2004 to return home, where he was immediately pardoned and freed.
`Hungarian authorities should understand that they have made a grave
mistake,' President Serzh Sarksyan told his Security Council in a
statement posted on his website.
`They de-facto made a deal with the Azeri authorities.' The row
erupted after Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev pardoned Ramil
Safarov, who had been sentenced to life in prison for the 2004 killing
of Armenian officer Gurgen Markaryan during NATO training in Hungary.
Hungary agreed to return Safarov to Azerbaijan, where he arrived on
Friday, after it had received assurances he would serve out his
sentence. Within hours of the announcement of Safarov's release,
Sarksyan called an emergency meeting of his Security Council. `I
officially announce that as of today we cease all diplomatic relations
and all ties with Hungary,' Sarksyan said in a press release
distributed by his administration.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been at odds since the war between ethnic
Azeris and Armenians which erupted in 1991 over Nagorno-Karabakh
enclave. A ceasefire was signed in 1994 but relations remain tense.
Cross-border clashes this year have prompted worries of a resumption
of fighting in a region crisscrossed by energy pipelines to Europe.
Nagorno-Karabakh has run its own affairs with the heavy military and
financial backing of Armenia since the war, when Armenian-backed
forces seized control of the enclave and seven surrounding Azeri
districts. Russia, France and the United States have led years of
mediation efforts under the auspices of the OSCE. Baku and Yerevan
failed to agree at talks in June last year and the angry rhetoric
between them has worsened since then.
Hungary has been developing economic ties with energy-rich Azerbaijan
and gave backing to the Nabucco pipeline project seen as the main
route for Azeri gas exports to Europe. - AFP
http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=172004
Sept 1 2012
Armenia suspends diplomatic ties with Hungary
Baku - Armenia said it was suspending diplomatic relations with Hungary
because it had allowed an Azeri soldier who killed an Armenian officer
in 2004 to return home, where he was immediately pardoned and freed.
`Hungarian authorities should understand that they have made a grave
mistake,' President Serzh Sarksyan told his Security Council in a
statement posted on his website.
`They de-facto made a deal with the Azeri authorities.' The row
erupted after Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev pardoned Ramil
Safarov, who had been sentenced to life in prison for the 2004 killing
of Armenian officer Gurgen Markaryan during NATO training in Hungary.
Hungary agreed to return Safarov to Azerbaijan, where he arrived on
Friday, after it had received assurances he would serve out his
sentence. Within hours of the announcement of Safarov's release,
Sarksyan called an emergency meeting of his Security Council. `I
officially announce that as of today we cease all diplomatic relations
and all ties with Hungary,' Sarksyan said in a press release
distributed by his administration.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been at odds since the war between ethnic
Azeris and Armenians which erupted in 1991 over Nagorno-Karabakh
enclave. A ceasefire was signed in 1994 but relations remain tense.
Cross-border clashes this year have prompted worries of a resumption
of fighting in a region crisscrossed by energy pipelines to Europe.
Nagorno-Karabakh has run its own affairs with the heavy military and
financial backing of Armenia since the war, when Armenian-backed
forces seized control of the enclave and seven surrounding Azeri
districts. Russia, France and the United States have led years of
mediation efforts under the auspices of the OSCE. Baku and Yerevan
failed to agree at talks in June last year and the angry rhetoric
between them has worsened since then.
Hungary has been developing economic ties with energy-rich Azerbaijan
and gave backing to the Nabucco pipeline project seen as the main
route for Azeri gas exports to Europe. - AFP
http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=172004